Sony Ericsson roundup: W380, Z555, W350, T280 preview

We got our hands on several unreleased Sony Ericsson mobiles and we wasted no time in showing you the ins and outs of those babies. Writing full reviews of the devices seems pointless at this time as they are all not final versions, however they are good enough for a quick-and-dirty hands-on article.

Today's big band consist of Sony Ericsson W380, Sony Ericsson Z555, Sony Ericsson W350 and finally, Sony Ericsson T280 (mentioned in the order of appearance).

The Sony Ericsson roundup

We are not going to do a feature comparison since they all are positioned in different market segments. Instead we will be focusing on the new features they are bringing to the Sony Ericsson portfolio and how well they are implemented. All the devices we received for reviewing are working prototypes - we saw some bugs and unexpected freezes, but that's normal at this stage. Nevertheless, they give us a pretty good idea of what the final product will be.

Announced on 6th November 2007, the Sony Ericsson W380 is a modest Walkman phone that comes in the clamshell form factor. It sports tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and has a 1.3 megapixel camera. It surely has a display to match those specs (read lower midrange) in the face of the 1.9" 262K color TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and a hidden external OLED one with a resolution of 36 x 128 pixels. The stereo Bluetooth and the FM radio complement the bunch.

The most exciting about a run-of-the-mill handset like the W380 is the brand new gesture control. It allows you to mute calls or silence the wake-up alarm with a wave of your hand. The external touch-sensitive music controls also deserve attention - they use the hidden external display to display information and they have haptic feedback, producing light vibrations when pressed.

Sony Ericsson W380

Announced on 07th January 2008, the Sony Ericsson Z555 again flaunts the clamshell form factor. It features a 1.9" 262K display with 176 x 220 pixels resolution and an external OLED monochrome screen supporting resolution of 128 x 36 pixels. Hardware-wise the Z555 seems to be identical to the Sony Ericsson W380, so they basically have the same features - stereo Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support - they are all there. The internal memory is only 12MB, but it is expandable through the built-in M2 card slot.

Sony Ericsson Z555

The Sony Ericsson W350 was announced along with the Z555 - it's a Walkman phone that has the unusual flip-down form factor we all remember from back in the day when Ericsson was still not married to Sony.

The Sony Ericsson W350 is again a modest model feature wise. It is equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera and has 14 MB of internal memory. As with any Walkman phone, there is a M2 card slot for expanding it. The only 10.5 mm thick Sony Ericsson W350 weighs the modest 80g and has a 1.9" display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels, capable of showing up to 262K colors. An interesting thing about the handset is that when closed, the flip allows access to dedicated music keys.

Sony Ericsson W350

The Sony Ericsson T280 is the last of the bunch - it's the bigger brother of Sony Ericsson T270 and both are successors of the Sony Ericsson T250. The Sony Ericsson T280 expands the functionality of T270 by adding a 1.3 megapixel camera. Otherwise the phone is completely identical to its younger sibling. It's compact, weigh the mere 82 grams.

Sony Ericson T280

If all that info is enough to get you started, hit the jump for a more detailed account of our hands-on experience with all these Sony Ericsson devices.