Sony Ericsson announced three new phones on Thursday, all of which will eventually appear in the United States. Sony also announced a new sideloading movie service that will be compatible with two of the company’s newly announced phones.Sony Ericsson’s U.K. division announced the three phones in the U.K., which will ship to “selected markets,” including the United States, in the fourth quarter.
The three phones are the Satio, which was previously known as the Idou, the 12.1 megapixel cameraphone that wowed audiences at the Mobile World Congress; the Yari, a phone designed for “gesture gaming; and the Aino, which boasts an 8.1 Mpixel camera and the ability to control the Sony PlayStation 3. Sony did not announce prices on any of the models.
Both the Yari and Satio/Idou will be built in both U.S. and European versions, with the U.S. versions compatible with AT&T but not with T-Mobile. The Aino will come in one model, but it looks like that model will be compatible with AT&T.
Sony’s new movie service, dubbed PlayNow, will make its debut on both the Satio/Idou as well as the Aino. However, PlayNow will only be available in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and in the U.K., at least for now.
Sony is positioning all three phones as entertainment devices, but with different slants on the concept. PlayNow, by contrast, is designed to an overarching service that add value to multiple models.
PlayNow is a service to download movies via a PC and then “sideload” them to the phones via a USB cable. Using a desktop browser, users will be able to visit the Sony PlayNow web site and choose from about 15 movies at any one time. Sony will add four new titles every month, subtracting the same amount, the company said. Users can download and watch 60 movies in a 12-month period; each movie can be watched as many times as a user likes for 90 days.
Sony has positioned the Yari as the ultimate phone for mobile fun, with a number of innovative new features. Sony claims that the Yari will be the first phone to allow “gesture gaming” outside Japan, which apparently involves moving the user’s body to play a number of games that will either be preloaded or can be downloaded. It’s not clear, however, which games will be included, or how these gestures will actually be incorporated.
The Yari will measure 100 x 48 x 15.7 mm, with a weight of 115 grams. The slider phone will include a 2.4-inch screen capable of 240 x 320 resolution. Inside will be 60 Mbytes of storage, plus a microSD slot for an included 1-Gbyte card. The Yari will ship in Achromatic Black and Cranberry White early in the fourth quarter.
Features will include the gesture games, which will be controlled with gestures and an arcade-style “A” and “B” button, as well as a 5.0-Mpixel camera with face detection and geotagging. A2DP stereo Bluetooth will be included, as well as the ability to shake the phone to shuffle tracks. The Yari will also include the ability to place a “music call,” apparently allowing a friend to listen to the same track over the phone.
The Aino can also be considered a gaming phone, albeit in passing. Sony is positioning the phone as a complement to its PlayStation 3 console, allowing it the ability to access content stored on the console via Wi-Fi, a capability previously reserved for Sony’s PSP mobile gaming device. The Sony Media Go software also allows content to be transferred from the PC to the phone via Wi-Fi.
The Aino measures 104 x 50 x 15.5 mm, weighing 134 grams. The slightly larger size also translates into a larger 3-inch screen, with a 240 x 432 screen with 16 million or “true” color playback.
The Aino provides assisted GPS, and the ability to access DLNA devices on the network. A 8.1-Mpixel is also included, with a 16X digital zoom. It also packs a wireless Bluetooth headset as well as a charging stand. It will ship in either Obsidian Black and Luminous White.
The Satio/Idou appears to be identical to the model that Gearlog tested out at the Mobile World Congress.
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