Sony Ericsson Rolls Out New Multimedia Phones

Sony Ericsson has been facing some tough times, seeing a sharp decline in sales with the global economic downturn and the departure of the head of its North American operations. But the company is hoping to recapture some momentum with a trio of new multimedia phone, including the newly-rechristened Satio, which features a 12 megapixel camera and a 3.5-inch display.

Sony Ericsson originally showed the Satio back in February under the codename Idou. The impressive specs are unchanged: the Satio sports a 16:9 640 by 360-pixel 3.5-inch display an integrated 12 megapixel camera with touch focus and a xenon flash. The Satio also sports assisted GPS, TV output, an FM receiver, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking, a touchscreen interface that puts albums and mobile entertainment at users’ fingertips. The Satio runs Symbian S60 5th Edition, which means it can run thousands of applications and games, and comes with a full-features Web browser and bundle of utility applications. Users can message using an onscreen QWERTY keyboard, and use the phone as a USB mass storage device (it’ll ship with an 8 GB microSD card). The phone supports GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100; Sony Ericsson hasn’t said how much the Satio will cost, but it plans to release it in selected markets in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Next up, Sony Ericsson’s Yari multimedia phone aims at gamers, with acellerometers for gesture and motion gaming, along with a 5 megapixel camera and a 2.4-inch 240 by 320-pixel display. The Tari also packs assisted GPS, an FM receiver, Bluetooth, and—lest people think it’s all for fun and games—the capability to sync with Microsoft Exchange servers. The company hasn’t released any pricing information, but expects the Tari to land in the fourth quarter.

Fially, the new Aino slider handset caters to the mobile video crowd with a 3-inch 240 by 432-pixel display and the capability to tap into a PlayStation 3 and access its media content from anywhere, whether over mobile networks or Wi-Fi—a feature that may be particularly attractive to users in Europe, where Sony’s PlayTV service for the PS3 is up and running: via PlayTV, users will be able to watch and record live TV via the Aino. the Aino supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100, comes with an 8.1 megapixel camera, supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless networking, and includes assisted GPS, an FM receiver, USB mass storage capability, microSD expansion, Web browsing, and social networking features. Sony Ericsson expects the Aino will land early in the fourth quarter of 2009.

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