CommunicAsia – New Xperias, Feature Phone and Smart Extras

Just now over in Singapore some of my colleagues are showing three new phones and two new smart extras, all of them will be available in selected markets from Q3 this year.
For the full press releases for all this with full specifications etc head over to the Sony Ericsson Press Room
The first two phones are the new additions to the Xperia^TM family of smartphones:
Xperia^TM ray

Xperia^TM ray is a fully fledged Android smartphone on the latest Android platform for smartphones, a.k.a. Gingerbread. It also features the 8.1 MP Exmor R^TM camera and the Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® engine as known from e.g. Xperia^TM arc. What’s special about it though is its size and design. I’ve been using one for a few days internally now and it really is a special kind of smartphone. It’s sleek and beautifully designed and its more narrow form factor almost remind me of the feel of the successful models W880 and W890. Despite its slim (9.4mm) and small footprint it has a FWVGA display, i.e. same 854×480 resolution as e.g. Xperia^TM arc, but in a 3.3 inch display size which give an amazing feeling of high resolution and clarity. It also has a very elegant blackness to the display which makes it nearly invisible when in standby, making it blend into the black glass front perfectly. The slimness, lightness and more narrow form factor really makes it slip into my jeans pockets perfectly. It’s also built around an internal aluminum frame that comes out on the edges as side lines. This gives an extremely solid feeling to it. Despite its sleek form factor it still packs the same 1500 mAh battery as Xperia^TM neo so there shouldn’t be any compromise on battery life either. For me personally this could very well be the perfect form factor in a smartphone! Here’s a video showing some of the thoughts behind the design of Xperia^TM ray:







XperiaTM active

Xperia^TM active is also a different kind of smartphone compared to the earlier phones in the Xperia family. While it packs a full feature set of Android Gingerbread, a 3 inch 320×480 Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® engine and a 5MP camera with HD-video recording etc it also is dustproof and water resistant. The resistance to dust and water meets the standard of IP67 which is described like this:

“According to International Protection Rating. IP67 implies that when the phone is correctly mounted to maintain its dust and water resistant qualities, there is no ingress of dust (digit 6) and that ingress of water (digit 7) in harmful quantity shall not be possible if the device is dropped in fresh water under up to 1 m of submersion for a duration of maximum 30 minutes.”

You can find more information in the IP rating standard here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_rating
What this really means is that Xperia^TM active is the smartphone that you don’t have to be as careful with as previous ones. You can use it for an active live, out running in the rain etc without being worried that your phone will be damaged from it. If you’re not the active type there are of course also lots of other situations where a more resistant phone comes in handy, me being a lucky father of two little girls can definitely see a case for it besides exercising in the rain
The scratch resistant screen also uniquely incorporates wet finger tracking, to ensure the phone works perfectly when either the screen or your fingers are wet.
Besides that it also is a beautiful smartphone which really gives a feeling of sturdyness to it even though it has basically the same form factor as the previously announced Xperia^TM mini.
Remember, most of our phones, including Xperia^TM active, also features ANT+ which makes it possible for you to connect a compliant heart rate monitor directly to your phone to monitor your heart rate in lots of different exercise applications out there.
Here’s a video of Xperia^TM active:





We’re also announcing a new feature phone over in Singapore:

Sony Ericsson txt

The Sony Ericsson txt is a feature phone with features inspired by Xperia^TM at an affordable price. As a sister phone to the previously announced Sony Ericsson txt pro it gives you excellent support for messaging on the go with a full QWERTY keyboard and incorporates an SMS shortcut key for quick and easy messaging. It also comes with an embedded “friends” application that lets you instantly follow Facebook and twitter updates from your selected top five friends. It comes with Wi-Fi, a 2.6 inch screen and a 3.2 MP camera.
Last but not least my friends over at Extras haven’t been lazy either. We’re announcing two new Smart Extras that further build on extending the proposition of our Xperia^TM smartphones through accessories that enable new functionality.



LiveDock^TM
The first Smart Extra^TM out in Singapore is the LiveDock^TM multimedia station. It gives you the ability to seamlessly integrate your Xperia smartphone into your home. Simply connect your phone to the docking station and it will launch your specified application automatically for you. If you own more than one LiveDock^TM you can even set them to launch different applications, e.g. a world clock at your desk at work and perhaps a photo gallery for slideshows, kind of like a digital photo frame, at home.

LiveSound^TM
The LiveSound^TM hi-fi headset gives an excellent sound experience combined with a stylish tangle-free design. It also has LiveKey^TM control which gives you the possibility to access applications in your phone directly with a simple push of a button on your headset. As an example you can start your sports app by pressing the LiveKey^TM control. Pressa again during your workout to get information such as heart rate or distance covered. All this keeping your phone in your pocket. It’s built on a new generation of speaker drivers which combines a decrease in physical size with a breakthrough in audio quality. For me personally the new softer ear buds (that come in different sizes) gives a perfect fit and the flat tangle-free cord is a brilliant enhancement.

  Written by Rikard Skogberg