Sony Ericsson announces W880 and W610 Walkman phones

We've already knew it was going to happen and it really did - Sony Ericssontoday announced its new line that consists of the phones themanufacturer is going to launch during the year. All the new models arein candybar design, but among them are budget phones, some targeted to multimedia, and two music-oriented Walkman phones.

Sony Ericsson W880 was rumored to be the "Ai" phone - the slimmest device of the manufacturer. Only 0.35 inches (9mm) which is slimmer than Motorola's SLVR/RAZR and Q and a bit "thicker" than Samsung's ultra-thin candybars. Don't judge for the book by its cover it true for the W880. Dispite its size it is also feature packed and has QVGAdisplay (only 1.8" though), M2 memory slot (it comes with 1GB memorycard in box) and full Walkman capabilities. Unfortunately it stilldoesn't have standard 3.5mm stereo jack but uses adapter (also includedin the box) to connect standard headphones - something silly for a"Walkman". The W880 is tri-band + UMTS phone for Europe.

W610 on the other hand is quad-band GSM capable of global roaming. It is fatter, at 0.55inches (14mm) and being part of the mid-tier - not so feature packed. It comes in the box with with half-gigabyte M2 card for memory. As a standardWalkman phone A2DP stereo Bluetooth audio is supported and unlike theW880, it has FM radio. An additional bonus is the auto-focus of the2-megapixel camera (not present for the W880) which partiallycompensates for the lack of 3G.

The W880, together with W888(the Asian version that drops the 3G) are expected to launch in firstquarter of the year, while we will have to wait until Q2 for the W610.All of the phones have scored FCC approval.