The affordable Walkman - W550

Sony Ericsson today announced its new Walkman phone offer - the affordable W550. The Sony Ericsson W550 is basically a non-EDGE international tri-band version of the previously announced W600a for the Americas. The new W550 Walkman offers quality stereo music player, 1.3 megapixel camera, Internet browser and games console capabilities. The new phone has no memory card slot and depends on the internal 256 MB memory to store the MP3/AAC files for the music player. The W550 will be available in two variants - W550i international version and W550c for mainland China; shipping will start early Q4 2005.

In addition the W600a Walkman phone for the Americas that was announced on June 13 as a tri-band/EDGE product will now become the W600i for global distribution as a quad-band/EDGE phone (850/900/1800/1900). The product will start shipping from early Q4.

Sony Ericsson press release

Sony Ericsson announces another in a series of Walkman™ phones offering top quality music with great game play ~ the stylish W550

Sony Ericsson today announced a new addition to its Walkman™ phone family - the W550 - an affordable phone that offers great quality stereo music and integrates a 1.3 megapixel camera, full Internet browsing capability and a credible games console, all in a compact and stylish swivel phone design. This new Walkman phone will appeal principally to expressive fun seekers who enjoy life to the full and want to take their music with them everywhere they go.

The W550 has an advanced digital music player with excellent sound quality delivered through two external high quality stereo speakers or through quality stereo headphones provided with the phone. Loading music onto the handset is simple thanks to intuitive Disc2Phone® PC software and the phone’s 256MB internal memory, enough for storing between 60 and 120 standard MP3 or AAC music tracks (depending on the bit rate). The W550 is the ideal new addition to the Sony Ericsson Walkman family with its stylish design and easy to use functionality. The phone is durable and offers great battery life, allowing users to listen to up to 30 hours of music.

Listening to music on the W550 over headphones means you never miss a call as the music cuts off automatically when a call is received, permitting the listener to take the call before resuming listening to the paused track. A direct music button gives instant access to the Walkman music player, which can be used independently of the phone, allowing the phone to be used in flight mode so your personal music can be enjoyed even on an airplane.

The W550 also offers an authentic games console experience. Games can be played with the screen positioned horizontally and buttons on the left and right of the screen being used for two-handed control. Gamers can enjoy this experience through the pre-installed 3D versions of Worms™Forts: Under Siege 3D developed by THQ Wireless, Extreme Air Snowboarding™ developed by Digital Chocolate and a new multiplayer version of Midway’s Gauntlet™, developed under license by TKO Software. If users prefer, horizontal-mode games can also be played in portrait mode or an L-Shaped mode using the keyboard. The W550 also supports multi-player peer-2-peer gaming over Bluetooth™.

Equipped with a 1.3 MegaPixel camera, the W550 captures stills and video-clips – with 4x digital zoom for close-ups – that can then be stored or shared using MMS or Bluetooth, or even transferred to a PC via USB cable.

Gigs, movie schedules, search engines and webmail can all be easily checked with the full Internet browser from a choice of viewing modes: full scale mode enables users to scroll round the complete page, or information can be presented in a single column. Either way, the bright 1.8 inch 262K TFT display provides razor sharp pictures.

There are plenty of ways to personalise the W550. The user can choose from a range of additional Style-Up™ covers that can be matched with wallpapers, themes and start-up/close-down animations which can be downloaded from Fun & Downloads. There’s no reason to ever get bored with this stylish, fun phone.

The W550 is a Tri-band / GPRS phone and will be available during early Q4 in two different variants:
W550i - Triple Band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz version for European, African, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Hong Kong markets
W550c - Triple Band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz version for mainland China

In addition the W600a Walkman phone for the Americas that was announced on June 13 in New York as a Tri-Band/Edge product will now become the W600i for global distribution as a Quad-Band/Edge phone (850/900/1800/1900). The product will start shipping in the Americas from early Q4.