Sony Ericsson will launch the A8i handset for the largest carrier in the most heavily populated place on the planet. China Mobile will be home to Sony Ericsson’s first TD-SCDMA smartphone, the A8i, and will be featuring the carrier’s OMS (Open Mobile System) 2.0 platform, which uses Google’s code and is like the Chinese version of Android. The A8i is very Xperia-X10-esque and share some similar specs, too.
According to CNet Asia:
The A8i comes with a 3.5-inch 854 x 480-pixel touchscreen, 3.5mm audio jack, microSD card slot and 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. Connectivity features include Bluetooth stereo A2DP, Assisted-GPS for navigation, Wi-Fi and support for China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (CMMB) mobile TV standard. Sony Ericsson’s TrackID, a service which lets users identify music over-the-air, will also be linked directly to China Mobile’s entertainment download offering for access to local content.
This is potentially good news for Sony Ericsson as China Mobile is a huge market. The A8i seems a decent enough handset, and if priced accordingly it may do well for the smartphone manufacturer’s first TD-SCDMA OMS platform. There is no official release date or pricing just yet, but Sony Ericsson says it plans to launch the device for China Mobile next quarter.
[Via: Asia CNet]