Sony Ericsson W550i / W550c

Available now
9th August 2005

A very close relative of the W600, the Sony Ericsson W550 is almost identical in terms of specification. The W550 comes the same 1.3 megapixel digital camera, multimedia playback, 176x220 pixel display plus 265Mb of internal memory (about the same as a compact MP3 player), web browser, email client, Bluetooth and a FM radio.

The W550 has no EDGE support, unlike the W600, but it does come with a peer-to-peer gaming facility (similar to the Nokia N-Gage series). We don't know if games can use the screen in landscape (wide) mode or not, however. Another minor difference between handsets is colour, the W550 comes in Blue, White or Orange (the W600 is Orange-only). Also, the W600i is quad band, the W550 is only tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900.

Again, the 256Mb of memory means that this isn't an iPod killer, but the bundled applications make it easy enough to transfer music from a CD to the music player. It looks quite cool though, which is always going to be important for a "Walkman" branded device.

The Sony Ericsson W550 will be available in two configurations, the W550c for China and the W550i for the rest of the world. At the same time, the W600a is being renamed the W600i and will be released worldwide. Sony Ericsson say that the W550i, W550c and W600i will all start shipping from early Q4 2005.

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