Sony Ericsson makes K850, W910, W960, others official

Yeah, the new batch of watches is pretty cool, but let's be honest -- at the end of the day, the handsets themselves are the real deal, and Sony Ericsson didn't disappoint with today's reveals. The Gracenote slip-up outed the three hottest of the bunch, the K850, W910, and W960. The K850 is the follow-on to the lauded K790 / K800 with a 5 megapixel cam, NetFront browser, and tri-band HSDPA (North American bands mercifully included) and quadband GSM plus EDGE. The W910 and W960 are beasts of Walkman phones, offering 3G data, 2 megapixel and 3.2 megapixel cams respectively, and -- in the case of the W960 -- UIQ 3.1 and a full 8GB of onboard storage. Also-rans in today's lineup include the not-for-US-consumption K530, a 14mm 3G candybar, and the low-end Z250 and Z320 flips. Look for 'em all in the second half of the year. Check Engadget Mobile for a plethora of eye candy!

Read - Z320 and K850
Read - W910 and W960
Read - K530
Read - Z250

[Daniel D @ Jun 14th 2007 2:13PM]

I love SE and every year around this time I look forward to them announcing the successor in their "K" series and once again they do not disappoint, can't wait!

[Ismael @ Jun 14th 2007 2:42PM]

You're soo damn right, i still have my almost 2 yr old W900i Phone and i still love it, my sister has the w880i, thats a good phone too. Sadly i wasnt so happy with the w990i.

[Dan @ Jun 14th 2007 2:49PM]

K850 is tri-band according to the SE site. no GSM850. but yes UMTS850.

[Iscariote @ Jun 14th 2007 3:04PM]

Awww that would blow if the K850 isn't quad-band GSM/EDGE.

[Dan @ Jun 14th 2007 3:23PM]

There's some conflict on the official website. The phone link shows tr-band, whereas the announcement shows quad-band. My guess is if they thought it fit to include tri-band 3g, then it will have quad-band GSM.

[Schizoman @ Jun 14th 2007 2:57PM]

I had my hopes up for the K850 but....

No inbuilt GPS?
Still on ancient QVGA screen?
Only 264k colours not 16million colours?
And of course the Sony memory slot only for overpriced Sony compatible memory which is extortionate compared to micro/miniSD

Oh dear :(

[bessie31 @ Jun 14th 2007 4:58PM]

hahahaha ancient qvga screen? i'd like to politely ask what phone do *you* currently have that makes a qvga screen ancient? this isn't japan... we do not have the capability to squeeze that many pixels into a 2.2" screen. do you realize what kind of pixels/sq. inch that would require?

on another note... yeah M2 cards are pathetic and I will likely never buy one out of principle.

[Anonymous @ Jun 14th 2007 11:08PM]

Read GSM Arena. K850 supports both M2 and microSD.

Not to mention that you can purchase the stereo headset that includes a built-in GPS receiver.

[David Kaspar @ Jun 15th 2007 10:58AM]

Ditto about built in GPS. If N82 turns out to be real I might be switching to Nokia after 5 years of SE love.

[Jake @ Jun 14th 2007 3:16PM]

NO WIFI to sync up with my Ps3 like a Psp? Terrible news.

[Iscariote @ Jun 14th 2007 3:25PM]

It has Bluetooth.

[Jake @ Jun 14th 2007 9:18PM]

Why isn't any good if your accessing your Ps3 at work or on vacation.

[ccutlip @ Jun 14th 2007 3:56PM]

You guys missed the most imporant part--motion sensitivity for music playback functions! CNET Asia states the following:
"By holding down the Walkman key, the user can shake the W580i and it will randomly select a track from the playlist. This shake feature is taken a step further on the W910i where it enables the user to skip forward or backward tracks simply by flicking the handset. Rocking the phone back and forth will shuffle the playlist."
Sweet!

[King @ Jun 14th 2007 4:06PM]

I have to say, the w960 is looking like one hot little music/cameraphone. I love everything about the form factor EXCEPT for the lack of a dedicated directional pad…I’m still wary of touchscreen control to that extent, especially for games. Realistically, though, the only game I ever play on my current phone is Solitaire, so a touchscreen would actually be better suited for that. :]

Can anyone give me a good reason not to be stupidly excited about this phone?

[MobMan @ Jun 14th 2007 4:16PM]

The lack of a directional pad is irrelavent, as like all UIQ phones, the w960 will have a directional scroll wheel on the top left hand side (on the physical left hand side of the phone, so not visible via front on shots). This allows the user to scroll up and down a list, select (via pushing in), go back (via pushing backwards) and to bring up options (by pushing inwards, towards the user). That is why, the w960 phone is miles better than the iphone. It has a hard keyboard, extremely good 3rd party apps available (which will not be available for the iphone via "web apps" im sure (they will also cost a great deal to load, unless one has unlimited data, and also take ages to load), and also, the iphone has no 3g. To top it off, the w960 also has a 3.2mp camera. Its an iphone killer, but apple fanboys wont see that and will still buy the iphone because its "cool". Also, I have used the w950, and I can tell you, that the music player is amazing; it is extremely aesthetically pleasing and functional.

The side scroll wheel on the w950 and music player can be viewed here:

http://m3nghua.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/w950_1.jpg

The w960 will have the same (or improved) music player, and a scroll wheel also.

[h3 @ Jun 14th 2007 5:48PM]

>Can anyone give me a good reason not to be stupidly excited about this phone?

The touch screen for me too. I've been really annoyed with SE for switching to the M2 format on their latest music phones, limiting them to 1GB storage, but the W960 made that issue go *poof*.

Then I saw the touchscreen "feature". Gaaarrgh! I can already see it: accidental "presses" constantly in my pocket. Or, if there is a keylock, then I now have to pull it out and look at it to use it.

Compared to my current W810i, which I can navigate blind in my pocket, I say "no thanks".

[daniel @ Jun 14th 2007 7:46PM]

m2 goes up to 2gb now ive got one in my k610i

[k0a10 @ Jun 14th 2007 4:24PM]

Good point, when is Sony going to get into the GPS game?

[King @ Jun 14th 2007 4:30PM]

Thanks...although you're kind of preaching to the choir about the iphone, I can't afford the damn thing anyway. Here's hoping the w960 isn't $600 too.

Mostly I just wanted to know how hard it would be to play tetris without a d-pad :X

I've been hoping for a nice, straightforward, capable combination of camera, music player and phone for a long while now, and this finally seems to fit all my criteria. The form factor is sleek and functional, the camera has decent quality and FLASH, and the music side seems to actually care about people with bluetooth stereo headphones for once. As long as it comes to Cingular, I'll be set.

[NH @ Jun 14th 2007 4:51PM]

I'm gettin the K850 ... the iPhone will be nice and all but it's not for me since 1) I don't want to pay for a data plan on top of a phone bill and 2) What is the point of surfing the net if you can't go to sites with Flash (i.e.- YouTube) ... 3) It seems like EVERY phone can play music now and 4) I prefer cameras over pretty much everything

[autumnrvocals @ Jun 14th 2007 5:34PM]

does anyone know any release dates yet?

[autumnrvocals @ Jun 14th 2007 5:37PM]

does anyone know the release dates?

[Brandon @ Jun 14th 2007 5:45PM]

Damn you SE and your tri-bandness...

[Brandon @ Jun 14th 2007 5:53PM]

Damn you SE and your tri-bandness...

[shagghie @ Jun 14th 2007 6:55PM]

This is going to be funny. I'm going to be watching a youtube video next year of some guy trying to FF his .mp3 by shaking his phone only to have it fly out of his hand and hit his wife upside the head. Of course, I'll be watching this video from my iPhone...

[MobMan @ Jun 15th 2007 3:17PM]

You'll be watching it form your iphone? Good joke! Itl take you around 10 mins to laod a youtuibe video on your sub dial up speeds, and you'll then sind that youtube videos aren't supported, as apple will say "the only way to access videos on the iphone, is to use the itunes service in order to buy videos".

[daniel @ Jun 14th 2007 7:47PM]

the k850 looks good whats the green outline around the 2 and 5 keys?

[Nova @ Jun 18th 2007 12:21AM]

navigation pads. that is the new ideal in order to fit a bigger screen without increasing the phone size.

[p4 @ Jun 19th 2007 1:22PM]

Anyone knows the price of the w910i yet?

Damn I love that thing :)

[shortcut @ Jul 2nd 2007 3:31PM]

how to add songs from intrnet to your phone ericson

[DeeJay @ Oct 6th 2007 8:31AM]

Sony Ericsoon every day is better and better.
That K850 will be my next phone. Great design and great features.
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