The Mobile World Congress 2008 currently taking place in Barcelona (codename 3GSM Congress) is an event attracting the representatives of numerous telecom companies, where they do their best airing their latest developments, announcing new devices and showing off their portfolios. All of the most notable solutions due to enter the market over the course of the year are first displayed here. Of course, a number of lower ranking models also take part in the exhibition, but the most accent is placed on the hi-end offers. This time the exhibition wasn’t an exception to this rule, and the vendors accumulated large audiences combined of ordinary consumers and press representatives.

One thing you should know before reading further is that a flagship doesn’t necessarily mean the most functional device in a company’s portfolio – on many occasions, these two happen to be totally different products. An all-in-one solutions sporting every mentionable virtue might prove outrageously expensive and score but poor sales, while a more simple device often becomes a bestseller and spawns a large number of imitations by other companies as well as its direct descendants within its native company’s portfolio.

We’ll have a look at the most notable devices found on the companies’ exhibition stands. SonyEricsson conducted a short press conference and aired a number of announcements a day prior to the official opening of the event, which seems to be a well-planned step which attracted maximum attention to the company’s achievements. An impressive collection of new devices were presented on the company’s stand, the most important of them being a WM-based PDA phone. This is the first collaboration experience of the two companies whose goal was to issue a fully developed PDA device (save for some components licensed from third parties, like the Active Sync protocol, etc), which brought on somewhat controversial attitudes.

The true potential of the UIQ platform is still being a matter of debates, the long development terms and problems faced while implementing new hardware features lead to a number of negative factors popping up ahead, resulting in a drastic lack of powerful UIQ solutions on the market today. Motorola Z8 and Z10 lack feature balance, the application stability and quality of feature realization aren’t impressive as well. SonyEricsson P1i, W960i grew obsolete before they were ever released since they’re based off the outdated Philips Nexperia PNX4008 platform (200 Mhz CPU), so they could pose literally no challenge to the latest Nokia smartphones in terms of performance.

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Converting the software platform to meet the requirements of the new hardware platform (OMAP 2420/2430, later 3430) takes way too much time, so SonyEricsson feels rather weak on the PDA front. The rights for UIQ platform split as 50%/50% between Motorola and SonyEricsson, thus a more logical response would be designing smartphones using SE’s own platform, but the lack of resources forces the company to look for alternative solutions. The most likely one is to pick up WindowsMobile for a while. The same situation involves the Samsung company: having issued a number of S60 devices, the vendor pays royalties to the platform owner (Nokia in this case), and so does SonyEricsson licensing the Microsoft property. For the time being, this appears to be the best way out.

It’s better to expand the portfolio with a powerful device using a third-party operating system than keep the throne unoccupied. That means, all in all, that the collaboration between SonyEricsson and Microsoft is equally profitable for either side. This also means that bad days are right ahead for the lesser market players on the PDA market: E-Ten, Gigabyte, Samsung. The latter, being a WM PDA manufacturer, can hardly pose any serious competition to HTC and frankly speaking Samsung doesn’t see this direction as one of their priorities, even the most interesting Samsung PDAs enjoy a very limited popularity on the market.

SonyEricsson decided to ally with HTC in designing their first PDA flagship. Xperia X1 is a product of SE-HTC collaboration, and in fact is HTC hardware combined with SE design and a few lesser components. The development costs were rather high for the SonyEricsson company, and HTC gladly accepted the offer, themselves being unable to issue such a powerful solution on their own by that time. Talking in advance let’s check out that HTC will release a similarly positioned product about the third quarter of 2008, the new PDA will replace HTC TYTN II (Kaiser)

A new and strong player enters the WM market arena, its first model being maxed in all regards, wherever a newer and more advanced kind of technology is applicable. SonyEricsson’s PDA phone looks truly impressive. Thus by the second half of 2008 we’ll witness an interesting situation when a number of extremely powerful WM solutions by different companies will engage in a fierce competition, and the one designed by SE is among the most likely leaders in this future race. By now, certain market niches contain PDA phones with some very original, new traits, for example LG KS20 (a fashion-oriented PDA outpacing the Touch device’s specifications), Samsung i780, Gigabyte MW998, E-Ten X650, M810, each of them being quite a well-grounded solution. However that’s more like a topic to a different article, let’s dwell on Sony Ericsson further.

A few months ago the company registered a new mobile device brand, XPERIA. According to the vendor, the line will include handsets with functionality greatly expanded beyond the usual borders of a GSM/Web communication device. This sounded much like an announcement of a new product pool consisting of PDA phones and smartphones, and the guess proved true. However even the experts were quite surprised when X1 with WindowsMobile on board was first publicly announced.

This device’s positioning is quite clear. It’s a hi-end PDA phone combining multimedia and business aspects. SonyEricsson XperiaX1 used the side-slider form factor and is equipped with a QWERTY keyboard. X1 has WM 6.1 for an operating system, comes with a trademark launcher (similar to hat of LG KS20 but a more functional one) and provides a multitude of possibilities yet to be reviewed in future articles. The preliminary review is little more than the term suggests, since the device isn’t finalized yet and we can’t draw any final conclusions. The specifications aren’t the final official data as well, but rather mere estimates.

The model utilizes an ARM11 CPU operating at a frequency of 520 Mhz (much the same thing is used in Toshiba G900, for instance). The screen sports a diagonal of 3’’ and uses a WVGA resolution (480x800), there’s a 3.2 Mp camera with auto-focusing feature on board (up to 640x480, 30 fps video records), the variety of telecom modules includes GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA/HSUPA. From the functional point of view, X1 stands among the most advanced WM-based PDAs. The design and materials used are also worthy of appraisal: the body uses a good deal of metal, the dimensions are quite modes – 110x53x16.7 mm and the weight is only 145 g, which is less than with the above mentioned Toshiba G900 (which has a roughly comparable functionality).

This way or another, the device is destined to become one of the milestones of the telecom market, however the situation is likely to get spiced with intrigue when HTC release their own version of this concept incarnated as a sequel to TYTN II. The models are aimed at the same audience, however the different power and positioning of HTC and SonyEricsson brands will make the competition less severe. We hope that Xperia X1 will meet no delays on its way to the store shelves since it’s an extremely interesting product with chances to initiate a small revolution within its market segment.

SonyEricsson Xperia X1 Specifications

Form Factor: side slider
Dimensions:110 x 53 x 16.7 mm
Weight:145 g
Camera: 3,2 Mp auto-focus, video recording (640х480, 30 fps)
Storage: 400 MB, microSD slot
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB, WiFi
Supported Networks: HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 / 1700,GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EGPRS class 10
Navigation: integrated GPS module
Standby: up to 330 hours
Talktime: up to 265 minutes
Screen: widescreen VGA (480x800), 65K colours, 3’’, TFT
Messaging : SMS, MMS, E-mail, Wireless push e-mail, Windows Live Messenger
Player: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA
Multimedia: Windows Media Player

Moving along, we meet the two UIQ-based smartphones, opening the new product line with the G letter for the prefix. These are G700 and G900, the greater model coming with a GPS module and a better camera. The two devices share a mostly identical design, the only difference being that of color scheme. The smartphones retain dimensions more typical of casual phones, the bulkiness is gone for good, and the 2.4 touchscreens used for both do them full justice. The new firmware platform for this product line is still in a development stage, so currently the two devices are still based off Philips Nexperia PNX4008 (200 Mhz). The RAM size is 128 Mb, and the overall functionality is comparable to that of P1i, W960i – save for a number of visual changes that make these two models feel a bit different. The manufacturer positions the devices as advanced PIM-oriented solutions with a touch input capability. SonyEricsson G900 would make a very competitive solution provided that the price sticks to an adequate level, essentially it’s one of the smallest smartphones with a touchscreen and a quality camera. G700 poses little interest, the lack of Wi-Fi and camera quality is quite disappointing, this one will make but another budged offer.

Nokia 6220 Classic is estimated as G900’s closest competitor, it features similar characteristics though has no touchscreen (5 Mp Carl Zeiss camera, xenon flash, GPS support). The 6220 Classic model will have a lower price by the time G900 is officially released, so the consumer will face a difficult choice.

SonyEricsson G900 Specifications

Form Factor: candy bar
Dimensions:106 x 49 x 13 mm
Weight:99 g
Camera: 5,0 Mp auto-focus
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 262 K colors, 2,4 дюйма, TFT
Storage: 160 MB, M2 micro
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi
Supported Networks: UMTS 2100, GSM 900/1800/1900, EGPRS class 10
Navigation: integrated GPS module
Standby: up to 380 hours
Talktime: up to 120 hours

The next novelties passing into our spotlight are SonyEricsson C702 and C902. The manufacturing company reserved the C letter to anything that’s part of the CyberShot brand family, just like W stands for Walkman. The two new models are small-sized candy bars powered by the A200 hardware platform. The lesser model uses a 3.2 Mp camera, xenon flash and the screen diagonal scores 2,2’’. Quite fair specifications for its segment, Nokia N78 being the closest likely competitor to hat handset.

The greater C902 is distinguished by GPS support, a 5 Mpix camera with a peculiar type of lens guard and a surprisingly small, 2.0’’ screen which is hardly sufficient for a photo-oriented solution. In essence C02 is a major update to the K850i which sold rather poorly despite of its flagship status. The improved incarnation is much slimmer without any sacrifice in ergonomics, so that makes a fair offer for the mass market. Of course, this statement only remains valid if certain price policy requirements are meant, since the 5 Mp camera phone market is dominated by the omnipotent Nokia N82 and the ultra slim, fashionable Samsung U900 Soul is just ahead, both posing a merciless challenge to C902.

SonyEricsson С902 specifications

Form Factor: candy bar
Dimensions:108 x 49 x 10.5 mm
Weight:107 g
Camera: 5,0 Mp auto-focus, xenon flash
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 262 K colors, 2,0 дюйма, TFT
Storage: 160 MB, M2 micro slot
Supported Networks: HSDPA 2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EGPRS class 10
Standby: up to 400 hours
Talktime: up to 9 hours

SonyEricsson С702 specifications

Form Factor: candby bar
Dimensions:106 x 48 x 15.5 mm
Weight:105 g
Camera: 3,2 Mp auto-focus, xenon flash
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 262 K colors, 2,2’’, TFT
Storage: 160 MB, cлот M2 micro
Supported Networks: HSDPA 2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EGPRS class 10
Standby: up to 300 hours
Talktime: up to 7 hours

The two new folder handsets are also worthy of public attention, both utilizing the A200 platform. Z770 is a sequel to the stylish Z550 folder, the same designer ideas were applied here. The metalized body, strict angles, similar design details. Judging by the specifications, the handset belongs to the mid-end class. In essence, it’s a fair mass market solution sporting high quality of materials, winning design and a medium functionality.

SonyEricsson Z770 Specifications

Form Factor: folder
Dimensions:93 x 48 x 15.5 mm
Weight:91 g
Camera: 2 Mp no auto-focus
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 262 K colors, 2,2’’, TFT
Storage: 32 Mb, M2 micro slot
Supported Networks: HSDPA 2100, GSM 900/1800/1900, EGPRS class 10
Standby: up to 350 hours
Talktime: up to 8,5 hours

Let’s finish our article with a quick overview of an extremely interesting portable device: W980. The high public interest surrounding this handset isn’t a direct evidence of high functionality, far from that. W980 is but a fashion phone that follows the path of W880i, W910i. The phone has a focus on the musical features (not a smartphone as thought by some, it uses the A200 platform) and utilizes the folder form factor, it’s quite thin and lightweight. The face panel hosts three soft buttons controlling the music player, the right edge is the home to the keyboard block scroller, The exterior screen is large enough and sports an odd resolution of 176x176. The face surface is glossy, the device is quite prone to greasing. The semi-transparent piece inserted alongside the edge of the flipping part looks very original, the lightning effects look especially showy in the dark. However they lack the aggression of W580 or S500, for instance.

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The phone looks indeed nice (provided the grease had been rubbed away beforehand), and the musical specialization is also justified by a 8 Gb onboard memory module in addition to the dedicated player controls. There’s no memory expansion slot, unfortunately. The quality of music playback seems to have changed but a little, the increase in sound volume is also imperceptible. It won’t let you listening to your favorite music comfortably in a noisy environment, the perfect example being the noisy surroundings of the expo. Let’s expand this sin list with such a downside as the lack of a standard headset jack (with the brand Fast Port used instead, placed very awkwardly on the side edge) and you realize that W980 is just a fashion phone pretending to be a music player, but not a real one at all. The closest competitors to this one are likely to be Motorola V8 and Nokia N76.

SonyEricsson W980 specifications

Form factor: FOLDER
Dimensions: 92 x 46 x 16.9 mm
Weight: 100 g
Camera: 3 Mp without auto-focus
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 262K colors, 2’’, TFT
Memory: 8 Gb
Supported networks: HSDPA 2100, GSM 900/1800/1900, EGPRS class 10
Standby: up to 300 hours
Talktime: up to 9 hours

Summarizing the facts, the conclusion on the company’s latest products appears to be obvious: SonyEriccson are doing their best to expand their portfolio with devices belonging to all market segments, though the middle class prevails. Such handsets are sold quite intensely. The Xperia X1 looks a black sheep against the background of the aforementioned products, this is the company’s true flagship, a versatile all-in-one device, but the exotic platform the fact that X1 was developed in collaboration with HTC are a bit disturbing. The future royalties are estimated to be quite considerable, and the starting price of the device hasn’t been announced yet. A similar HTC model will be available simultaneously to Xperia X1, that is in the second half of the year, so the choice will be quite ambiguous. However, even if we assume the most skeptical point of view when assessing the company’s portfolio updates for the first half of 2008, SonyEricsson nevertheless keeps the leading positions.

The new W980 folder is also a great addition to the portfolio, combining original design and high functionality. Z770 is a top class product, yet it lacks some charisma only found with the musical model

The G700 and G900 brothers are an interesting experiment, much in keeping with the way Nokia expanded their portfolio of S60 devices. These are UIQ, touch-screen supplied smartphones fit into the bodies of casual phones both in terms of dimensions and design. The two bear a significant amount of extra musical and business features.

The C702 and C902 camera phones also turned out to be nice additions yet not completely deprived of drawbacks. C702 is a balanced mid-end handset, a replacement for the K810 model, while C902 is a highly improved version of K850 – the ergonomical problems are gone, the body uses materials of a much better quality, the plastic is no longer subject to degradation. Unfortunately the screen is outrageously small for a photo-oriented solution, but the first encounter revealed no other obvious downsides.

Considering the vast expansion of the portfolio and the number of high quality products introduced under the brand of SE, the company seems to be standing on the verge of an extremely beneficial financial year.