Sony Ericsson W800 is first Walkman branded mobile phone

Sony Ericsson has entered the mobile music market with the announcement of the W800, the first Walkman branded mobile phone. The Sony Ericsson W800 combines a mobile phone, a high quality digital music player with up to 30 hours battery life, and a 2 Megapixel camera.

Sony’s world famous Walkman mobile music brand makes the W800 a serious contestant in the digital music player market. The W800 is supplied with quality stereo headphones and it is compatible with MP3 and AAC music file formats. It comes with a 512MB Memory Stick Duo, enough storage for around 150 music tracks, or 10-12 full length CDs.

The phone comes with Disk2Phone, a software that enables transfer of music CD’s onto the phone via a PC.

Sony Ericsson promisses owners will never miss a call when listening to music, as the phone ring is played through the stereo headphones as well. If the user chooses to take the call the music is paused for the call’s duration. The music player is operated with just one Direct Music button that plays, pauses and stops tracks, and player and phone can be used independently of each other, so for example the user can switch the phone off for a plane journey while still using the music player.

The battery can supply power for 15 hours if the phone is switched on, or up to 30 hours if it isn’t.

The W800 offers a 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus, picture light, active lens cover and digital still camera interface. Users can also extend the W800 with accessories such as the MMC-60 Music Cable which connects the device to play out on a stereo hi-fi, and the HCA-60 Advanced Car Handsfree which allows music to be played through car speakers.

The W800 will come in two variants: the W800i triple band 900/1800/1900 MHz for European market, and the W800c triple band 900/1800/1900 MHz for the Chinese market.