Sony Ericsson this morning stepped out with the T700 as its latest designer phone. The bar design is a spiritual successor to the T610 but measures just 0.39in thick through the use of a metal shell. It also finds room for features absent from larger and more expensive devices: a 3.2-megapixel camera is built-in, as are stereo speakers for sharing music without plugging in earphones.

The cellphone designer supplies more than average in the bundle, with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro for storage and a color-matched headset. The T700 will work in North America with quad-band GSM calls and EDGE data and so is likely to be available in the area, though 3G support is limited primarily to Europe. Sony Ericsson promises a launch in early fall with all-silver, black-on-red, and black-on-silver color options.