Sony Ericsson Unveils New G-Series UIQ Handsets
Sony Ericsson held a press conference this evening, before the 2008 Mobile World Congress began, and unveiled 7 new handsets. However, this being ‘Symbian-Guru’, I’m going to focus on the 2 new ‘G-Series’, which are based on Symbian UIQ. The G700 and G900 are both candybar handsets with 2.4″ QVGA touchscreen displays.
The G700 comes in Silk Bronze and features a 3.2 megapixel camera with image stabilization and red-eye reduction, as well as FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and Opera Mobile pre-installed.
The G900 comes in either Dark Red or Dark Brown and sports a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, image stabilization, red-eye reduction, and facial recognition, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and Opera Mobile pre-installed.
The key feature to these handsets, however, is the touch-based input…
If you’ve used a UIQ touchscreen device in the past, you know that it’s basically a stylus-dependent OS. Sure, if you’ve got fingernails or extra-pointy fingers, you can get by, but it’s not really designed for that. Not so with the G-series. They’re designed to be ‘Touchscreen Organizers for the Masses,” with features designed specifically for mass-market users, not technophiles.
A new notes application allows you to create notes from the home screen and then save them much like a sticky note you’d put on your refrigerator. When taking a picture, you can also touch a part of the screen to quickly change the focal point of the image. The new messaging application allows you to touch the name of the contact and be presented with various communication options such as calling or messaging.
The G-Series definitely positions UIQ as a real competitor to Nokia’s yet-to-be-seen-on-a-phone S60 Touch UI, and it will be interesting to watch the two compete using the same Symbian undergarments. I really like that both the G700 and G900 are the same size as a regular handset, and pretty much look just like a regular phone, only with a touchscreen, much like the asian ‘clone’ handsets have been doing for a while now. They both also come with a stylus, but it’s clear that you won’t depend on the stylus as much as you would have in the past.
I’m slightly concerned, however, with the small 2.4″ display. I’m sitting here attempting to see what it would be like to touch my N95-3’s 2.6″ display, and I’m not really sure even that would be a pleasant finger-based experience. I’ll be really interested to get a hands-on with these devices to really see how they function.
All in all, a great way to start the conference. Stay tuned to Symbian-Guru.com for the latest Symbian-related news from Mobile World Congress 2008.
For a touchscreen-based device, there’s a lot of buttons on the screen. One of the issues that people asked me about with the Treo is why it has so many buttons if there’s a touchscreen. I’m inclined to agree with them on note of these devices.