Sony Ericsson gets official with "Idou" 12 megapixel mobile

We didn't doubt it for a second (okay, maybe one second), but Sony's so-called Idou is for real. Though, we wouldn't go memorizing that name or anything, 'cause SE has plans to change it to something more commercial before summer. At any rate, the touchscreen-heavy handset -- which will run Symbian Foundation at launch -- does indeed sport a 12.1 megapixel shooter (which was hinted at last November), which sort of makes the also-just-official Samsung Memoir seem a bit dated already. It's funny too, as the only dozen megapixeler we were actually expecting at this show was from Samsung. We're still waiting on the minutiae, but we do know that it will pack a 3.5-inch panel (640 x 320 resolution; no word on capacitive or resistive) and "full media consumption," a phrase we're still struggling to digest. More as we get it!

Sony Ericsson gets official with "Idou" 12 megapixel mobile

[nighttime Posted Feb 15th 2009 8:20PM]

nice comment!

My old k800i took better photos (night especially!) than my current n95 8gb.

it wasn't just the xenon flash, i could turn it off and take really good photos in low light (with the k800i) the n95s camera is horrible in low light and its flash is nothing special compared to the k800i :)

I was thinking of getting the c905 but now i would an Idou!

[thetinguy Posted Feb 15th 2009 11:15PM]

And this guy is the exact type of customer they are trying to go after

"12 megapixels! OMFG IT MUST BE LIEK 6x BETTER THAN THE IPHONES CAMERA OLOLOL"

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:10PM]

It kinda looks like my LG Viewty.... both the body and buttons. The same with the screenshot in cameramode.

[CheesusCrust Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:11PM]

This looks awesome, if only I had the money..

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:14PM]

When can idou? :->

[hellodeibu Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:20PM]

Is it me, or do the 'real' phone companies like Sony Ericsson, Nokia, etc. just not get what people really want? Or am I the only one who doesn't get the hots for a device that physically looks pretty much identical to any other touchscreen-based phone they've released in the past 2-3 years, coupled with a camera that screams high megapixel count but will never ever get the same results as an actual camera with decent hardware?

I mean, Palm at least figured out a way to get some new things going.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 4:28PM]

Judging by Nokia's, and to a lesser extent Sony Ericsson's, marketshare - yes, they do know what people want.

I'd speculate that people DON'T know what they want though. :)

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:23PM]

12.1 megapixel with tiny sensor, FAIL! Symbian, FAIL! Whack name, FAIL! Idou, FAIL!

[NightBlade Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:35PM]

Your comment, FAIL!

[superhobo Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:32PM]

Hurrr huurrrr 12 megapixel durrr bad quality derp durr small sensor DURRR

[Adam Miarka Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:38PM]

And yet...I don't see a 3.5mm headphone jack... What is your damn problem Sony with your proprietary jack?!

[SoundGuy4Film Posted Feb 15th 2009 2:40PM]

12 mp in a phone?! how completely worthless, the number of megapixels does not matter its the color and lenses that matter, that said a professional photographer with a dslr or film camera and a good eye a nice flash and maybe some lights is the only one who needs 12 mega pixels. Idiots with cell phones taking 12 mega pixel cameras are just wasting my bandwidth and hard drive space, images of this size need more than just a nice ccd!

[NightBlade Posted Feb 15th 2009 3:27PM]

And how do you know it's just the MP they've bettered? Have you even used one of the 8MP phones? They fare quite well, actually.

[SepticalSceptic Posted Feb 15th 2009 3:52PM]

Even the best aps-c dslrs max out at 10 or 11 megapixels, and that's cameras intended for $1000 lenses, with a sensor 45262634563546345x bigger. They don't go beyond that because it harms image quality.

Just too, too stupid. Optimum for this sensor size is around 3 megapixels, maybe 4 at most.

[v4npro Posted Feb 15th 2009 4:20PM]

What will be your guess on how much this will cost? $900?

[Billy Gun Posted Feb 15th 2009 4:41PM]

Is that 1seg Tv?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 6:03PM]

These are great if you want a camera then a cell phone but if you want to upload the pictures a lot of sites won't be happy with the size obviously. Nonetheless I'd be interested to see if how our product Midprofile for eBay works on this phone. It will have to use 640X480 photos to meet eBay guidelines for new listings (thats what the application does, new eBay listings from a mobile) but you could also include a Youtube video with the listing taken right on this phone and that would be pretty cool to see..

http://www.midprofile.com

[dstafford72 Posted Feb 15th 2009 6:49PM]

What's up with all the camera nerd buzz kills??? I thought this was pretty exciting.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 9:27PM]

I never thought i'd say this, but its gonna take more than 12.1 megapixels to kill the iphones 2 . That is a very true statement. Ill prove it.,still waiting.,still waiting. No zero to 1 million in 72 hours record being broken here. You see i proved it already. Seriously who gonna drop $600 on this ????
,especially here in the usa. Exactly no one.,Another failed attempt to dethrone iphone.,NEXT

[bystrika Posted Feb 15th 2009 11:28PM]

Oh!! Finally a real Iphone Killer!!

I'll take 2....

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2009 11:33PM]

Wow a 12 mp cam with a needle size lens what a waste of time....

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 3:53AM]

I think I want it...so nice...Maybe I'll post it on my blog
http://www.ur-techie.com/

[Tohe Posted Feb 16th 2009 4:49AM]

Well thank you, I guess I'll-do-u too.

[tino Posted Feb 16th 2009 7:54AM]

One gazillion megapixel in a sensor smaller than my pinky finger nail is going to produce some truely disgesting images.

I want to throw just by imagining the noise pattern.

[tino Posted Feb 16th 2009 7:57AM]

*throw up*

[theshade89 Posted Feb 16th 2009 2:52PM]

Wow, in the midst of a million WinMo phones being pumped out, it's great to see that we may have an alternative. The fact that it runs a variant of Symbian is already a score one in my book (Android would be preferred, but it isn't doing so well thus far), and a nice high res (capacitive, god help me if they give us yet another piece of crap resistive) screen just seals the deal.

As for the camera, whatever. Three mpx or 25, it doesn't matter much to me; as people have mentioned, it is almost impossible to take advantage of 12 mpx with such a small sensor. My N95's 5-mpx cam doesn't even produce images that are too great...this whole megapixel race is just for novelty purposes imo, and possibly used as an excuse to jack up the price a bit.