Sony Ericsson quietly outs W8 as first Android Walkman phone
updated 10:55 am EDT, Thu April 21, 2011
Sony Ericsson W8 brings Android to Walkman phones
Sony Ericsson's Indonesian branch has held an unceremonial launch for the first Android-based Walkman device. The Walkman W8 is skewed to the budget side with a 600MHz processor, a three-inch 320x480 touchscreen, and a 3.2-megapixel camera, but thrives on its connection to the Walkman's audio badge. The music player has a direct shortcut from the home screen and the customized player from Sony Ericsson's Mediascape front end, along with an upgraded set of stereo wired earbuds.
The software on the W8 still uses the four-corner version of Timescape from phones like the X10 mini and is still using Android 2.1, likely due to the extra processor burden that would come from using 2.2 or 2.3. Just 168MB of RAM is onboard.
Sony Ericsson is bringing the phone primarily to Asia and the Pacific, including China, India, the Philippines and other major countries in the two areas. It ships before the end of spring with an unknown but likely low price. A US launch isn't as probable given the arrival of much more advanced, media-ready phones like the Xperia Play. [via GSMArena]
