Well, I did say I had exciting news for Sony Ericsson fans today, and here it is: after some speculation, it seems that the first Sony Ericsson Android phone has leaked online, according to Unwired View.
Currently going by the name of Rachael, their new Android phone is set to be part of the Xperia range, so it looks like SE are finally making good on their promise that the Xperia brand would have more than just Windows Mobile phones in it. The specs for the Sony Ericsson Rachael (if they’re genuine, which I’m hoping they will be, as that pic looks like a proper prototype, not a render) are also a bit good. There’s an 8 megapixel camera on the back, there’s a chuffin’ big screen on the front, and best of all… they say the Sony Ericsson Rachael is going to be packing a Snapdragon processor, running at 1GHz, just like the Toshiba TG01. Which makes me rather excited.
Of course, ‘Rachael’ won’t end up being its final release name, but it does beg the question of what it will be. X2’s already been taken by their next WinMo phone, so is this the fabled X5 that’s been bandied about the place as a future Xperia phone?
We shall have to see.
However, that link doesn’t just have one phone on it. Y’see, a second Sony Ericsson phone has been leaked as well, and this one… well, this one’s an entirely different, and much more leftfield kettle of fish.
Actually, I’ll be honest, the Sony Ericsson Kiki is like something straight out of Star Trek, in that it doesn’t actually have what would traditionally be called a ’screen’. Nope, what it has instead is a window. Where the screen would be is what amounts to a double-glazed window that goes all the way through the phone, leaving a big gaping, glass-filled hole where the screen would be. And then, the things that would traditionally be onscreen, like the clock, the menus and all that, are projected from inside the phone, onto that glass window.
So, in other words, you’ll be able to see the ’screen’ from BOTH sides of the phone, and it’ll be overlaid on the real world, that you see through the ‘window’ on the phone.
That’s… that’s mental!
Looks like the body of the phone will have hidden keys, as well, that only start glowing when you want to use the keypad, in much the same way as some of their Walkman phones had hidden ’screens’ that appeared to be part of the phone’s casing. But it’s that massive window I can’t get over. I have honestly never seen anything like that on a phone before, and here’s hoping the novelty value makes it a compelling buy, because I can’t see its specs being that great. I can’t even, for the life of me, figure out where a camera could possibly go on it.
Either way, I’m dying to get my hands on these two to have a play about with them. The Rachael for obvious reasons, but the real star, purely for its novelty value, could be the Kiki. We shall see what transpires…
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July 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
[...] source phone OS, which theoretically means lots of phones can use it, from top-end smartphones (Sony Ericsson Rachael, anyone?) to low-enders aimed at the mass market. So far, though, we’ve only seen Android pop [...]