A few years ago I had a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. For that time it was pretty great, and it had excellent sound quality and audio playback lasted something like 12 hours or more. If I remember correctly that was one of the longest audio playback time you could get in a phone in those days. Last year I remembered about them, and I was wondering when is Sony Ericsson going to release an Android Walkman smartphone? Well, it seems that day has finally come – the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman is here.
The Bad
I’m going to start with the bad parts first. Aside from the strange long name, one other “issue” I’ve noticed about this phone is that it’s thick. Come on, SE! This is not 2005 anymore. So don’t act like it is, and you can get away with phones that thick in 2011. They do have a slim phone, the Xperia Arc, but that’s about it. All their other phones some of the thickest phones on the market.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This phone does look stylish, and I actually love the design, and I hope they continue with this kind of style, but I also hope the next models will be at least 30% slimmer, and not look like it’s as thick as half the screen’s width.
The Good
First of all, the phone comes with Android 2.3, and that’s always a good thing, especially when you consider that last year Sony Ericsson was the manufacturer lagging the most in software updates for their Xperia phones. This year they seem to take the software side of the phones very seriously, and they even had some of the first Android 2.3 phones on the market.
They’re still a bit behind on the hardware side of things, though. So far I haven’t seen a high-end phone from them with a dual core processor, but the good news is that it doesn’t look like this phone will have a very high price. With its 1 Ghz Snapdragon CPU, a 5 MP camera that can shoot 720p video, and also a front-facing camera (presumably VGA), this phone looks like it will be priced mid-range.
As mentioned earlier, the Walkman phones strongest point is the crisp sound and long audio playback time, and the SE Live with Walkman doesn’t lack that. It even has some music related features such as the ability to share the songs you like on Facebook, identifying the name of the songs you don’t know, and their xLOUD technology for enhanced audio output.
Conclusion
With a stylish design (although thick), more than decent specs, and being great for listening music on the go, I think this phone will do pretty well with the mainstream population, when it will arrive in Q4 this year, globally.
Full Press Release:
22 August 2011, London, UK – Sony Ericsson today announced Sony Ericsson Live with Walkmanâ„¢, an Android smartphone that delivers a unique social music experience. A dedicated Walkmanâ„¢ hardware button provides instant access to the music player and consumers can also like, share and discover content through a deep Facebookâ„¢ integration. The infinite button lets the consumer explore even more and the *Qriocity service from Sony provides music and video content for the consumer to enjoy.
With attractive curved design, a glossy finish and a mineral glass display, the phone has a 3.2″ screen and a powerful 1Ghz processor. A front facing camera is enabled for Skype video calling, while a 5MP AF camera can capture 720p HD video recording. *Sony’s xLOUDâ„¢ enhances audio output, while the latest Android platform for smartphones (Gingerbread 2.3) provides access to over 250,000 applications on the Android Marketâ„¢.
Nikolaus Scheurer, Head of Product Marketing, Sony Ericsson said: “Consumers want smartphones to deliver a rich and social entertainment experience. Rather than a one dimensional music experience, they want instant and seamless access to new content, combined with the ability to share and connect with their friends. The Sony Ericsson Live with Walkmanâ„¢provides exactly this, in a powerful package with great style.”
A perfect combination of social networking and music entertainment:
- Deep Facebookâ„¢ integration: Allows users to instantly access Facebook through the most used areas of the phone such as the picture gallery, music player, phonebook and calendar.
- Media Discovery Application: A dynamic application placing the world of music and videos at consumer’s fingertips including Facebookâ„¢ recommendations from their friends.
- Infinite button: Tapping it within the media player enables consumers to have instant access to new content about their favourite artist, such as music videos, artist information and lyrics search.
- Qriocity music and video content services from Sony: Consumers can access millions of songs from all major labels and watch thousands of movies from all major studios. Only Sony Ericsson Android smartphones provide consumers with unique access to the entertainment services from *Sony.
- *Sony’s xLOUDâ„¢ technology: Enhances audio output of the inbuilt speakers at high levels.
- TrackIDâ„¢: Identifies the music track you are listening to within the FM radio and music player. The track can then instantly be shared or downloaded.
Sony Ericsson Live with Walkmanâ„¢ will be available globally in selected markets from Q4 2011.
For full details all products news, please visit the press room and the product blog:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/press/pressreleases/latestnews
http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/Sony Ericsson Live with Walkmanâ„¢at a glance.
*Please note that all services mentioned may not be available in every market.