At a recent June 16th CommunicAsia conference in Singapore, Sony Ericsson announced a number of new phones implementing design features from the Xperia line. Among these phones is the Sony Ericsson Yendo, the first of the Walkman series of phones to have a full touch screen interface. Combining Sony Ericsson’s philosophies about communication entertainment phones, the Yendo brings together music, social networking, and communication on a mobile device that provides a number of ways to customise and personalise it to your liking.
The Sony Ericsson Yendo brings many of the popular award-winning features of the Walkman series to a touch screen platform, creating the basis for an enjoyable phone experience, and allows for the expression of individuality at the same time to help you get the most out of your mobile device. A variety of colour combinations are available to allow consumers to pick the one most suited to them; expected to be available in select markets in Q3 2010, around the same time as the Xperia X8, the Yendo will be offered in Black, Blue, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Silver, White, and Yellow styles, allowing you to make a bold statement with sleek, modern design and eye-catching colouration. Though pricing and regional availability have yet to be announced, the Yendo is expected to be a fairly affordable phone and Sony Ericsson Yendo deals will be widely available in most parts of Europe and Asia.
Utilising the same four-corner touch screen interface that made its first debut on the Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro, the Yendo allows you to quickly access your favourite applications directly from the home screen with customisable shortcuts, making navigation so easy it only requires a single hand. The four-corner UI allows you to add applications and widgets to the home screen, drag them aroundto arrange the shortcuts in each of the four corners so they’re easily within reach of your thumb, or drag them off the home screen to delete the shortcuts and clear up some clutter. The 2.6” TFT touch screen is capable of displaying 256,000 colours in crisp, vivid quality, making the Yendo an ideal platform for media and entertainment as well as communication. After listening to consumer feedback, Sony Ericsson has combined some of their most popular devices to create the perfect union—As a result, according to Jenny Maltesson, Global Product Marketing Manager of Sony Ericsson, “marrying the popular four corner UI debuted on the successful Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 mini, with our award winning Walkman™ phone experience, consumers now have a unique Communication Entertainment experience.”
The Yendo runs in a proprietary Sony Ericsson operating system, so it lacks some of the functionality of its Android-based siblings, but it still has some impressive specs. Its 720 MHz processor ensures everything runs blazingly fast, and is quite unexpected in such a reasonably priced little phone. Additionally, though the Yendo lacks broadband 3G access and wireless support, it does have 2G EDGE/GPRS data connectivity and basic Obigo Q7 web browser with bookmark capabilities and Google search as well as web feed support. Utilising the Google search from standby, you can easily get answers to your questions or satisfy your curiosity while you’re out and about. Java support allows you to get more out of the browser and your mobile device, making it possible to download Java-based games, applications and productivity tools from the PlayNow network. With 5MB of internal storage for contacts and system data, and support for up to 16GB of external storage via microSD cards, the Yendo has plenty of space for your music, media, and data, and the microSD card is highly portable and easily exchangeable, allowing you to bring a nigh-unlimited library of music with you wherever you go.
As suggested by its Walkman heritage, the Yendo is a great platform for enjoying music on the go. With Sony Ericsson’s MediaGo, you can quickly and easily transfer music from your PC to your mobile phone to keep your library synced between devices. Touch Walkman, album art, and the ability to organise music into playlist directly from your mobile device keeps all your music accessible at the touch of a finger, and integrated connectivity to the PlayNow store makes it easy to find new music, as well as games, media, and applications to bring all the entertainment features you want to your phone. Using the impressive TrackID software, you can easily record a few seconds of a song you might hear on the radio, in a store, or at a club and have the album, artist, and track information returned to your phone almost instantly and then go pick up the song on the PlayNow network, making it a breeze to discover and listen to new music.
Not only can you listen to your own music library, but the Yendo has support for FM streaming radio, allowing you to hear some of your favourite radio stations on a portable device that you can carry around in your pocket. You can also set your phones ringtones to play your favourite MP3 or AAC tracks when you receive a call, and Bluetooth A2DP support allows you to listen to your music wirelessly, or you can use the 3.5mm headphone jack for analogue headphones.
In addition the audio playback capabilities, the Yendo has a few other multimedia features. To help you capture those important events and funny moments, the Yendo has a 2.0-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom. Use the camera to snap quick picture or record a video, and you can then use the integrated Facebook and Twitter apps to upload your images or videos. Keep in touch with your friends with instant messaging, SMS text messaging, and MMS multimedia messaging as well as predictive text input and Orkut support; all of these services combine to make the Yendo a respectable social networking and communication platform as well as a portable entertainment centre. Measuring just 9.4 x 5.2 x 1.6 mm, and weighing only 81 grams, the Yendo is a bite-sized mobile device, which makes it easy and convenient to bring along with you everywhere so you’re never far from friends, family, and fun. Have your say on this fun new handset on the Sony Ericsson Yendo reviews page.
Comments:
