Sony Ericsson today announced a new Walkman phone for the U.S. market, the W380a. Besides being a Walkman phone, the W380a features a unique motion control system that Sony Ericsson is calling "Gesture Control." We imagine this is similar to the "Shake Control" found on the Sony Ericsson W580i we reviewed recently. The company says that Gesture Control will be used to perform such functions as answering or muting a phone call, or for snoozing the alarm clock on the phone. On the W580i, Shake Control was used to skip a song on the Walkman player, so presumably this will work for the W380a as well.
The W380a is a tri-band GSM phone with EDGE networking. A clamshell phone, the device features a slick purple shell with a translucent external display that gives you control over the Walkman player without having to open the phone. For music fans, the phone works with A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets and speaker systems, and comes bundled with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card, which is small, but respectable. For shutterbugs, a 1.3-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom has also been incorporated.
The Sony Ericsson W380a (3.6 by 1.9 by 0.6 inches, 3.5 oz) will be coming the U.S. market at the beginning of next year, but no carrier details have been announced. If history is a guide, we'd guess AT&T, but even an unlocked phone should work on any U.S. GSM network. Pricing has yet to be determined.
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