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Telstra rolling out seven Next G phones this month
Australian carrier Telstra's taking the "go big or go home" approach with its latest announcement, dropping no fewer than seven phones this month compatible with its Next G HSPA network -- table scraps for a Japanese carrier, granted, but a bounty by any other standard. Among the phones in the new lineup are the Xenon, Viewty Smart, and the Windows Mobile-powered GM730f from LG (the first version of the GM730 to launch anywhere, interestingly), the Touch Pro2 from HTC, and Sony Ericsson's W508 and W995. All will be available before the month of July draws to a close for prices ranging from AUD $30 (about $24) on contract for the W508 up to a mind-numbing AUD $1,499 (about $1,190) contract-free for the Touch Pro2.
Sony Ericsson W995a hands-on!
We've been toying with the North American version of Sony Ericsson's W995 slider recently, and we don't want to spoil anything for you, but here's a teaser: this could definitely be the best Walkman phone to date. Curiosity sufficiently piqued? Head on over to Engadget Mobile for the full story!
Sony Ericsson W995a hits US stores July 6 for around $600
It's not every day that Sony Ericsson custom crafts a model just for North American store shelves, so it's pretty exciting to see that the W995a -- a phone mentioned in passing back in February alongside the announcement of its W995 brother -- is very, very real and imminently destined for SonyStyle shops across the colonies. Following the company's typical naming conventions (well, "typical" prior to the Satio / Aino / Yari, anyway), the W995a is simply a W995 that's had its 900 / 2100MHz HSDPA radio gutted and replaced with an 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz version, making it ripe for 3.5G use both in the States and abroad. Features include a 2.6-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, Memory Stick Micro slot, 3.5mm audio jack, WiFi, FM radio, AGPS, and an 8.1 megapixel camera with face detection, image stabilization, and autofocus -- in other words, it's packed to the gills with pretty much every feature this side of a smartphone operating system. Sony Ericsson says that it's a perfect match for "unlocked purists and phone junkies" -- language we like to hear -- and will be available to all comers from SonyStyle on starting July 6 for "about $600."
Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena movie download service ready for June launch
Everybody's getting into the mobile movie sideload business -- just ask Samsung -- and following an MWC unveiling earlier this year, Sony Ericsson is gearing up to launch movie content starting next month as part of its existing PlayNow Arena service. Direct on-phone downloads over WiFi or 3G would be awesome, but as most of these services tend to operate, PlayNow Arena will require that users select and download movies on their PCs, cable up their phones, and transfer the media the old-fashioned way, at which point they'll be playable on the device for 90 days. You'll be able to select from about 15 movies at any given time with content being cycled monthly -- ridiculously meager, yes, but when you consider that the service is bundled with certain phones (up to 60 movies a year), it's hard to pitch a fit. Look for it to launch on the W995 slider in Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK in June; support for Sony Ericsson's newly-announced Satio and Aino (among others) is expected later in the year.
Sony Ericsson W995a joins W995, passes FCC labs
Last time it was the international version that got the FCC's coveted gold seal, but now we're seeing something a little close to home. Meet the W995a, which -- like most Sony Ericssons that end in "a" -- features radios custom-tuned to North America's annoying unique needs. In the final analysis, what you're getting here is nothing more than a standard-issue W995 retooled to support quadband EDGE plus WCDMA bands II and V, which are the coveted 850 and 1900MHz frequencies used in the US and Canada. Interestingly, we have absolutely no idea what carriers might be looking at picking this thing up -- but if both AT&T and Rogers pass, this might end up being little more than a pricey, unlocked, unbranded souvenir ordered out of the SonyStyle catalog after you've put down a few too many cold ones and your better judgment starts to go south. Way south.
Move over, CS8: Sony Ericsson W995 gets FCC approval, too
With the CS8 and an AT&T-bound version of the C905 seemingly around the corner, we're not sure why you'd get too amped for this thing -- but alas, the Walkman-branded, 8.1 megapixel Sony Ericsson W995 has passed the FCC with flying marks. Interestingly, the version seen here isn't the HSPA 850 / 1800 / 1900 W995a that'll presumably see North American action; we know this because WCDMA wasn't even tested in the labs here. Instead, we're just seeing EDGE 850 / 1900 like we'd expect of any quadband set -- though there's mention in the report that the device is HSDPA / HSUPA capable, so we imagine it's rocking exclusively European bands. Talk about a buzzkill, eh, yankees?
Sony Ericsson W995 video hands-on
So it's not totally clear to us why you'd wait for this thing over a C905 that you could buy today, but once again, that's the confusion behind Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot / Walkman branding that they're claiming they hope to clear up going forward -- it's just that the W995 isn't really a step in that direction, and we weren't huge fans of the chicklet-sized nav keys up front. That being said, it seems like a fine phone overall -- the display looks crisp and vivid, the interface was relatively snappy, and there's little to complain about having an 8.1 megapixel autofocus cam at your disposal. Click on for a quick shot at the UI in action!
Sony Ericsson's W995 Walkman slips out ahead of schedule
Clearly, the flood gates have opened well before Sony Ericsson intended over in Barcelona, as the countdown is still on while we're watching handset after handset leak out. Next up is the W995 Walkman (can someone say Hikaru?), a multimedia-centric slider which boasts an 8.1 megapixel camera, A-GPS, Google Maps, WiFi, DLNA certification, 118MB of built-in memory, an 8GB M2 card and a 2.6-inch QVGA scratch-resistant display. The mobile should ship in a trio of colors -- Progressive Black, Cosmic Silver and Energetic Red -- and the inbuilt kickstand should make airplane-based movie watching a touch easier on the neck. No word on a price or release, but SE should be remedying that at any moment.Update: As you may have caught in our liveblog, the W995 is now very much official, and just as described in its not-quite-official form. SE did have a few small surprises up its sleeve, however, in the form Sony's MediaGo software, which will let you share media with your PS3 over WiFi, and take advantage of Sony's PlayNow services, including downloaded movies purchased on your PC. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look. %Gallery-44773%
