Sony Ericsson W960i: 8 gigabytes of Walkman love

Besides packing 8 GB of internal memory and a 2.6 inch QVGA touch screen the new Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) W960i has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera. Triband GSM (900/1800/1900) is bad news for people in America who depend on the 850 MHz band and UMTS 2100 is something only the Europeans get to enjoy. Surprisingly a full blown stereo Bluetooth headset, the HBH-DS220, will be included in the retail box.

This 16 mm thin device weighs only 119 grams and has an estimated release date some time in the fourth quarter of this year. I’m a little disappointed that the screen has only 262,000 colors, but I’m absolutely infuriated that this device doesn’t have a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. It is a music phone, isn’t it?

Dear Sony Ericsson PR Department: Can you upload photos of this new device already? All we have is this dinky little thumbnail.

Press Release after the jump.

The Sony Ericsson
W960 Walkman® Phone

• Store more

Up to 700* albums and PC-to-phone transfer of 1GB in less than 3 minutes

• Touch and play

Navigate the latest Walkman® player with touch of a finger or stylus

• Explore more

Surf the Web via Wi-Fiâ„¢ or at 3G speed and watch videos in TV quality

Music marathon
Up to 700 albums – around 8000 songs* – can be stored on the 8GB memory of the W960 Walkman® phone.  Managing tracks is easy and it can transfer up to 1GB of data, including music tracks, from your PC to the phone in less than three minutes. With two stylish headsets supplied in the box (one of these the new Stereo Bluetoothâ„¢ Headset HBH-DS220) and a music listening time of up to 27 hours, you’re free to dance much more than the night away.

Visual feast
Album arts, TV shows and games. You can navigate the W960 and browse media files with the touch of a finger (or stylus). Just press the touch controls to find your way to whatever type of entertainment you need. If video is your choice, the phone supports video playback at 30 frames per second, which is the same as TV quality

Go Wireless
The 2.6” touch-sensitive display is great for Web browsing. Hook up to the Web using the 3G network or a Wi-Fi™ access point. Visit your favourite pages, buy music online, and download new programmes to make the W960 truly yours.

Performance photos
To catch the fun, the W960 Walkman® phone boasts a 3.2 megapixel camera within its 16mm frame. Auto focus makes your photos sharper, and with picture messaging or email you can share them instantly. Another way to spread the word – or photos – is to post them on your own blog site.

Sort it out
As with the W910 Walkman® phone, you can organize all of your content for the W960 using Media Manager PRO, a PC programme for optimizing music, photos and videos to be used on your phone.

Wise up
As with earlier Walkman® phones, the W960 incorporates TrackID™ music recognition software. This lets you record a clip of a song on your phone and find out instantly the name of the artist, track and album. Handy for those moments when you hear a song you like, but do not know who sings it.

On the W960 (and W910) this feature has been taken to the next level. You can now receive detailed information about the song identified – the background of the artists and the album. New ways to search have been added in, other than just by capturing an audio clip. If you know a bands name and not much else, for example, you can text search to find out more. Search by artist, title, album or lyrics.

Listen up
The W960 Walkman® phone really is the centrepiece of your music listening life, which is why both a stereo portable handsfree and a Stereo Bluetooth™ headset for music streaming are included with the phone. When you want more, the new Street-style Portable Handsfree HPM-83 adds urban style to the W960.  Its flexible neckband gives a secure fit and wraps behind the head, so as not to get in the way if you’re running or at the gym.  If you want to share your music library with friends, the Bluetooth™ Music Receiver MBR-100 plugs into your home stereo and lets you stream tracks directly from the phone to your stereo’s speakers. Why keep it to yourself?

Nicklas Sivander, Product Manager for the W960 Walkman® phone, Sony Ericsson, sums it up: “You couldn’t ask for a better music mix of high performance media player and intuitive phone.  The touchscreen is complemented by a regular keyboard and the phone itself is amplified by the Media Manager programme and the many music accessories. The days of taking an MP3 player, a camera and a phone with you when you leave the house are definitely over.”

The Sony Ericsson W960 Walkman® phone is UMTS 2100-GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 and will be available in Vinyl Black from Q4 2007.