Cell Phones Blog

Sony Ericsson today introduced the W960i, a Walkman phone with finger-touch navigation to access playlists on the large screen.

Photo: Sony Ericsson W960i with Finger-Touch Navigation Introduced Photo 1 Consumers can navigate the W960i and browse media files with the touch of a finger (or stylus). Just press the touch controls to find the way to whatever type of entertainment that’s needed. If video is the choice, the phone supports video playback at 30 frames per second, which is the same as TV quality. The 2.6-inch touch-sensitive display is ideal for Web browsing. Users can hook up to the Web using the 3G network or a Wi-Fi access point and visit their favorite pages, buy music online, and download new programs.

Up to 700 albums - or 8,000 songs - can be stored on the W960i’s 8 GB of internal memory. Managing tracks is easy as well with the W960i transfering up to 1 GB of data, including music tracks, from a PC to the phone in less than three minutes. With two stylish headsets supplied in the box (one of these the new Stereo Bluetooth Headset HBH-DS220) and a music listening time of up to 27 hours, users are free to dance much more than the night away.

To catch the fun, the W960i Walkman phone boasts a 3.2-megapixel camera within its 16 mm frame. Auto focus makes photos sharper, and with picture messaging or email users can share them instantly. Another way to spread the word - or photos - is to post them on a blog site.

Consumers can organize all of their content for the W960i using Media Manager PRO, a PC program for optimizing music, photos and videos to be used on a phone.

The W960i also incorporates TrackID music recognition software, letting users record a clip of a song on the phone and find out instantly the name of the artist, track and album. Handy for those moments when a song is heard, but users don’t know who sings it, they can now receive detailed information about the song identified - the background of the artists and the album. New ways to search have been added in, other than just by capturing an audio clip. If users know a bands name and not much else, for example, they can text search to find out more. Search by artist, title, album or lyrics.

The Sony Ericsson W960i is UMTS 2100-GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 and will be available in Vinyl Black from Q4 2007.

- Sony Ericsson W960i with Finger-Touch Navigation Introduced Photo 1