Sony Ericsson bares 3 new Walkmans

Sony Ericsson launched last week three new Walkman phones that are set to raise the bar in the high-profile mobile music phone scene. With about 20 million Walkman phones sold all over the world, Sony Ericsson is easily one of the big players in this competitive category.

And with the introduction of its first super-slim Walkman phone, an updated candy bar-style music and camera phone, and a new model dubbed as the Walkman phone for all, Sony Ericsson sets to further consolidate this position.

The Sony Ericsson W880i Walkman phone is the company’s first super-thin UMTS phone model at only 9.4-mm thick — about as thick as a regular CD case but holds as many as 900 full-length music tracks or almost 70 CD albums. This high capacity comes from the bundled 1GB Memory Stick Micro (M2). Disc2Phone software lets one easily convert CD music files to Walkman-supported and industry-standard formats.

A 3G-enabled phone, the W880i also lets users make video calls, view Web pages faster and in full-color glory, and optimizes the e-mail, Web browsing, downloading, RSS feeds and blogging experience. Instant Messaging and Picture Blogging are also supported.

Powered with Bluetooth audio streaming, music can be enjoyed wirelessly on a stereo Bluetooth headset such as the HBH-DS970, or by streaming music directly to a home or car stereo via the new music Bluetooth receiver MBR-100. Users can listen to as much as 18 hours of music playback.

In another segment of the market spectrum, Sony Ericsson has the W610i. This EDGE-supported music/camera phone sports a familiar form factor inherited from its predecessors but packs several extras in the imaging department.

The phone can store about 470 music tracks on its provided 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2). Listening pleasure is extendable to up to 25 hours of playback.

The phone also has an RDS FM radio, Bluetooth audio streaming, push e-mail capability, and a two-megapixel camera with auto focus and advanced LED light. Video recording and playback are also supported.

Like the W880i, the W610i also comes with the TrackID music recognition application. Developed in collaboration with Gracenote Mobile Music ID and available in certain Walkman phones, the feature lets the user record a clip of an unknown music track onto their phone and immediately receive a notification of the track name, artist and album.

Both the W880i and W610i are also PictBridge-capable. Plugged into PictBridge-compatible printers, images from the phones can be printed directly without the need for a computer.

For those new to Walkman phones, Sony Ericsson has the mass market-aimed W200i. The phone is affordable but retains the full functionality of a Walkman mobile phone. A dedicated Walkman player button takes users instantly to the music menu for enjoyment of 37 full-length tracks supported by its 128MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. Its FM radio can also be used as an alarm clock, with the built-in speakerphone rather than the stereo headphones.

The phone, which comes in Rhythm Black and Pulse White, boasts a color-matched stereo headset HPM-64, which is the first accessory to feature Bass Reflex, an innovation that preserves audio quality when the bass is turned up.

The W200i also has a VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, an integrated photo album, a full HTML Web browser, push e-mail, PC synchronization, infrared connectivity and video messaging.