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Sony Ericsson's entry level J110, J120, K200, and K220
It seems Sony Ericsson prefers to use the more pleasant-sounding term "accessible" to describe the most lowly four of the handset barrage it's whipped out ahead of 3GSM, but let's just be straight up and tell it like it is -- these things are cheap. Hey, that's not a bad thing; Europe's number two manufacturer is holding its own on the high end, and we're all about covering every segment of the market. Going in order from left to right, the J110 is the... ahem, most accessible of the four with little more than an anemic 96 x 64 color display to its name. Next up the J120 takes the J110's formula and throws in an FM radio to add an ultra-affordable musicphone (if we dare use the term) to the stable. The K200 ups the display to 128 x 128 and tacks on a VGA cam, while the K220 gets the same FM radio as its cheaper J120 cousin. The J110 and K200 will come in 900 / 1800 and 850 / 1900 flavors for various parts of the globe, while the more expensive models will initially hold to 900 / 1800. Look for all four to hit in the second quarter of the year.
Sony Ericsson shows W200 on the low end
Sony Ericsson may only be teasing us right now on the high end, but the low end's looking a lot clearer today with the introduction of the W200 Walkman phone. The small-but-pudgy candybar just barely qualifies for musicphone status with a meager 27MB of internal storage, though the Memory Stick Micro slot comes in handy for remedying the situation. Other features include a VGA cam, 160 x 128 display, FM radio, and a 900 / 1800 / 1900 or 850 / 1800 / 1900 GSM radio topping out with GPRS data (no EDGE -- now that's low end!). Availability should kick off in the second quarter at an undisclosed price, though we're not too worried about this bad boy pricing itself out of the market. Follow the break for hands-on pics!
"Eclipse" concept phone keeps it simple
Never mind the MOTOFONE -- this is how you do simplicity in style. "Eclipse," a concept for an ultra-basic handset shown on Product Design Forums, would stand 9 centimeters tall when open and collapse down to an eminently pocketable 5.5 centimeters. Besides SMS support and a phone book, the trick display -- which relies on a pair of side buttons to triggers its pop-up action -- is the only "feature" to speak of. Package these suckers for prepaid accounts at $10 a pop (aw, what the heck... $15, even) and we think they've got some takers.[Via textually.org]
Samsung abandoning low-end market in India?
In a move that has to have the MOTOFONE's product manager grinning from ear to ear, it seems Samsung has decided that the fight for India's low- and ultra-low-end market isn't worth fighting anymore. If Telecom Korea's unnamed sources are to be trusted, the increasing introduction of smartphones to the country (combined with ever-increasing demand for them) is apparently pushing prices on basic handsets down to the point where the Korean company is ready to take its ball and go home. Don't worry, though, India; Samsung's not leaving you -- not by a long shot. Besides the recent introduction of the SGH-P310 credit card phone there, the company apparently intends to continue launching "color and camera phones" to satisfy Indians' rising demand for upscale products.[Via Mobile Magazine]
Nokia 6030 hits T-Mobile
It took a good while, but Nokia's bottom-of-the-barrel 6030 candybar has finally found its way onto T-Mobile. We don't have much to say about the simple handset; T-Mobile's offering it on contract for a big, round goose egg, but by modern standards, we almost feel like "free" is too much to pay for a phone whose banner feature is its speakerphone. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to go back to staring in awe at the N95's spec sheet.[Thanks, Steve T.]
RCA's H116 6GB DAP reviewed
Considering that exactly zero people were interested enough in the new hard drive-based RCA MP3 players we brought you last week to actually leave a comment, we doubt that even a glowing review from Cnet would convince you to pick up one of these models -- but that's a moot point, because Cnet really doesn't have many positive things to say about the 6GB H116 they put through its paces. As you'll recall, RCA is clearly targeting the low-end of the market with its new DAPs, as evidenced by their black-and-white screens, rather generic-looking designs, and most tellingly, their complete lack of extra features that might sway folks away from the iTatorship. In fact, the only real compliment Cnet is able to muster about their unit is the fact that it does what it advertises: play music -- but not very well it seems. Combined with the buggy controls and poor quality of the FM transmitter, the sub-par audio would seem to indicate that even for the low-low price of $170, you're still not getting what you pay for.[Thanks, Jen B.]
Motorola shows variety of entry-level phones
With the exception of the Q, it's been a while since we've had the good fortune of being able to talk about some genuinely new Moto handsets in the pipeline -- not counting the endless array of RAZR, SLVR, and PEBL variants, of course. That looks to have changed thanks to this week's CommunicAsia expo in Singapore, where Motorola's dropped a handful of clever-looking handsets for emerging markets (Nokia, pay attention here). First up is the W170, a roundish ultra low-end candybar sporting a 128 x 128 black and white display with blue backlight, 32 tone polyphony, speakerphone, and FM radio. Next up in the pecking order is the W208, which trades the black and white display for color at the same resolution and a slightly different case design. Finally, arguably the most interesting of the bunch, the W375 clamshell borrows design cues from its pricier cousins in the V3 line but eliminates the external display in favor of a series of status icons. Look for all of these to drop in Q3 and Q4, and if you ask politely, Moto might even drop some of 'em in the States thanks to GSM 850/1900 support.[Via Phone Scoop and Mobilewhack]
