Along with the long-awaited W880, Sony Ericsson today released the lower-end W610 Walkman phone. No slouch itself, the W610 features a 2-megapixel auto-focus camera and will come bundled with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) expansion card. TrackID software will allow the W610 to listen to tracks on the included FM radio and identify the artist and title. A bit thicker than the W880 at nearly 0.6 inches, the W610 also loses the QVGA screen and the 3G capabilities. Instead, the quad-band phone will use EDGE for Web surfing and data transmission.
The W610 will be available in select markets in the second quarter of 2007. No word on U.S. availability yet, but without the front-facing camera and unusable UMTS bands, it seems more likely that we'll see this phone that it's more refined sibling, the W880. Sony Ericsson claims 25 hours of battery life for playing music, if you don't make any calls, of course, or seven hours of talk time, which is impressive, if it holds true. A2DP support means you can use stereo Bluetooth headphones.
The W610 is a nice mid-range phone, and in many ways redefines the middle, with A2DP support and the 2-megapixel camera. Of course, its still three months or so from release, but we think A2DP is going to become a standard for music phones to come, and the megapixel wars are far from over in the camera-phone market. EDGE networking is somewhat disappointing, but EDGE is holding onto its popularity as UMTS and especially HSDPA have been slow to rollout and replace the aging 2.5G standard.
Related phones: Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones
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Sony Ericsson W850i
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When: October 2006 Worth: $500
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Supplied with 1 GB of memory and next-gen Walkman software with song recognition, the W850i incorporates a raft of features including 3G, stereo Bluetooth audio, an RDS radio and a 2 Megapixel camera.
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