[Hands0n]

Another little belter prepares to leave the SE stables. Gawd, give me the six numbers on next Saturday and I'd be spending most of my time buying up the entire range - SE just do it so very right!

So, where does the K618 fit in the portfolio? Well it does much of what the other modern SE handsets do; but the main pull is likely to be its unobtrusive trouser pocket size :D



Sony Ericsson this week launched a mainstream 3G phone, touting the handset as a media-friendly business-oriented device - it's got push email support on board - that's no bigger than an average GSM/GPRS-only machine.

The candybar K618 sports a 1.9in, 176 x 220, 262,144-colour display. There's a two megapixel, 2.5x digital zoom camera on the back and a more basic, VGA one on the front for video calling. Bundled software includes a blog-posting tool for photos

The phone will ship with a 256MB Memory Stick Micro - aka M2 - card for media storage. Content can be copied over via USB - the phone appears as a USB Mass Storage device on your PC. It also supports Bluetooth-based wireless stereo audio.

The K618 will ship in Q3 in "selected markets", Sony Ericsson said. It will be offered in black and white versions. ®

Source Article: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/10/sony_ericsson_readies_k618/

[Ben]

If only Sony would ditch Memory Stick's ;)

[Hands0n]

Yea, for sure.

I suppose the only consolation is that if one is a diehard SE buyer then the memory stick technology can be transferred across to the new handset.

[solo12002]

" main pull is likely to be its unobtrusive trouser pocket size"

Handson - Something you want to share with us in this respect? Size matters ! lol:)

[Hands0n]

@solo12002 - That was one of those "Did I think that or actually say it?" moments lol!.

But seeing as you asked ........ if you've ever stuffed a Motorola A1000 down your trousers, or even a SE W900i you'll be knowing exactly what I'm on about :D

[Ben]

Neither handset leaves much room for anything else, that's for sure.

It's an interesting and good-looking handset (even if it is rather similar to some other SE models at the moment) and I hope it plays well for them. SE need to beef up their range, but I constantly get the impression that they're finding it hard to do that in the face of Nokia's 'a phone for everyone' approach.

[Hands0n]

I know what you mean vis a vis Nokia. SE do have the edge, in my opinion, where it comes to the optics (Cybershot generation) and the audio (Walkman). Overall build quality is superb on SE, but it isn't that bad on Nokia either - as a rule. SE are very "Japanese" in many respects, their colour schemes can be a bit jarring on the European eye (I'll just cite the W800 and leave it there!).

Nokia are certainly making a handset for each occasion - I could see a nice padded out top drawer with each one of their 3G handsets in the N and E series. I'd fish out whichever depending on what I was heading off out to do.

3G does need one or two ruggedised handsets though - something for the sports folk. I'd dread taking any of the current crop out in a boat for example!