After removing 450 employees from the payroll last September, Sony Ericsson is now planning to close down four of it’s facilities and lay-off 2000 employees worldwide.

The facilities that are planned to be shutdown are the facilities in RTP (North Carolina), Small Facilities(Miami, Seattle and San Diego), Sweden and Chennai. 2000 employees will be laid off and some of them will have the option of getting transfers to other places like Atlanta or California.

The process will take place in different steps, one at a time. This decision comes after incurring huge losses during the year. This maybe mainly due to the lack of competitive handsets from Sony Ericsson. Hopefully Sony Ericsson comes back with the launch of the XPERIA X10 which looks to be a very promising device. At least, lets hope that the employees get their jobs back.

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The phone is 4″ x 1.7″ x 0.5″  in dimensions and weighs around 70 grams. It has a Transparent scratch-resistant monochrome 1.8” TFT. It has upto 88MB of internal memory with an expandable external memory of upto 2GB. Internet can browsed on the phone using NetFront Web Browser.

For entertainment purpose, it has a built in FM Radio along with a Media Player which can play MP3/AAC audio files. It also features a special feature called as “TrackID” in which you can record a few seconds of a song and get track, artist and album info sent to your phone within seconds, pretty much like “Shazam”.

XPERIA Pureness supports Bluetooth A2DP, USB connectivity and 3G with HSPA support.The phone has a talktime of 3.5 hours(UMTS/HSPA)/8.5 hours (GSM/GPRS/EDGE) and a standby time of 350 hours.

For more details, you can visit Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA Pureness page.

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Earlier, we had published information and provided a leaked picture of the Sony Ericsson Kurara. Well now once again, we have some more leaked pictures of the Kurara. These are the live pictures posted by folks over at the SEMC Blog.

There has been some new information gathered:

• It runs on Symbian S60.
• It has a 3.5″AMOLED Touchscreen Display
• It has an 8.1Megapixl Camera with Portrait Mirror and it seems to lack the LED flash which we previously thought was present.
• It maybe capable of recording HD Videos.

While many rumours claim it to be an media centric device with good imaging capabilities, the lack of an LED flash causes doubt. The handset is set to be launched in 2010 at an unknown price.

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We had earlier heard about a Sony Ericsson device codenamed Kurara. Now only a day after the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 has been announced, we have another leak to satisfy our hunger.The Sony Ericsson Kurara (Final Model Name Might Change) is a full touchscreen phone running on Symbian S60 (Not sure if it’s 5th Edition).

The other features include:

• 3.5″ AMOLED Touchscreen Display
• 8.1 Megapixel Camera with LED Flash(The camera is almost centrally located on the device. Don’t know why but there must be a reason for placing it so)

Thats all the information we have gathered and have to offer for now. But as soon as new information comes out, we will be sure to let you know.

Source

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Many analysts have called it the game over for Sony Ericsson but this is not stopping the folks at SE from innovating.The SE Satio was an impressive handset considering the Symbian implementation. And now the SE Xperia X10 with Android. Nice to see a brands going with multiple platforms these days. All this means healthy competition and more choice for the consumer. Hope prices are realistic !  Here are some SE X10 pics straight from the SE HQ

The X10 might come to India as we got an email about the handset from SE India and also the SE india site features the handset.

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Here is what the X10 has got .

• Size: 119 x 63 x 13 mm
• Weight: 135 grams
• Phone memory: Up to 1 GB
• microSD Memory card included: 8 GB ( sony finally ditches memory stick)
• Operating system: Google™ Android Donut, version 1.6
• Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
• 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA) TFT Scratch-resistant touchscreen with 262,144 colours
• 3.5 mm audio jack , microUSB,Wi-Fi,Bluetooth
• 8.1 megapixel camera with 16x digital zoom

The XPERIA X10 will be available in selected markets from Q1 in the colours Sensuous Black and Luster White. Hope India is one of them

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Well the day is finally here. Sony Ericsson is set to unveil the Sony Ericsson Rachel/XPERIA X10. There have been numerous leaks on the internet about the device.

Even Sony Ericsson had given us some sneak previews of the phone. So we decided to refresh your mind with details, pictures and videos of the phone before it’s announcement.

First things first. Sony Ericsson has created a site called What’s Next as a sneak preview to the XPERIA X10.

Here’s the link

Secondly this is the sneak preview video that Sony Ericsson have supplied us with:

Now another video which shows the Media UI of the phone:

Now onto the features of the phone that you can expect:

• 1GHz Snapdragon Processor
• Google Android OS
• 4″ Touchscreen Display with 854*480 Resolution
• 32GB Internal Memory, micro-SD Card Slot, 256MB RAM
• Accelerometer, 3.5mm Audio Jack
• 8 Megapixel Camera with Autofocus, Geo-Tagging, Face-Detection and Touch Focus
• GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, HSUPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, DLNA, mini-USB
• Black and White Colours

We will inform you with the latest news on the XPERIA X10 as Sony Ericsson announces it.

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Sony Ericsson has finally launched the Satio a.k.a Idou along with the Yari and Aino phones in India.While the Satio is the most impressive of the three and packs a 12 Mega Pixel Camera and runs Symbian OS and sports a pretty large touchscreen display

Sony Ericsson Satio

Satio is the best phone SE has to offer to Sony fans today.

Satio Price – Rs. 35950

Sony Ericsson Yari

2.4″ 262k Colour Screen with QVGA resolution, 5MP Camera (Autofocus,LED Flash, Geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilizer) and QVGA Video Recording, GPS, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, 60MB memory with micro-SD card slot etc.

In addition to these features, it also has motion-based gaming as it is mainly a gaming handset and it also has loads of other features.

Yari Price – Rs. 16950

Sony Ericsson Aino

  This is a Phone which can connect with your PS3 and you can beam your content on to / from your gaming console. It also packs a 8.1 Megapixel Camera.The Aino features a 3.0″ 16Million colour Touchscreen Display with a resolution of 240*432, 8MP Camera (Autofocus, LED Flash, Touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilizer, smart contrast, red-eye reduction, videocalling), GPS, Wi-Fi etc.

Aino Price – Rs.28950

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The comparison will look shortly at the software differences between the Satio and the current S60 5th Edition UI from Nokia (which we will develop in another post with some very long video reviews), then it will focus at the hardware side-by-side comparison with the 3 devices.

S60 5th Edition Software UI Comparison: Sony Ericsson vs Nokia

The first thing you will notice when launching the Satio is a different homescreen from the usual S60 5th edition one were’s used to on Nokia devices. This homescreen is divided in 5 panes (5 icons on the top) that are Contacts, Bookmarks, Main Homescreen, Photos and Applications. The Main homescreen has an integrated Music Player widget and a quick access to the Dial-Pad, Media Browser, Messaging and Search function. In comparison, the homescreen on the 5800 Xpress Music is dull with a couple of application screenshots, Search, Email and Calendar, with quick access to the Dial-Pad and Contacts.

The Menu UI and most of its structure is very similar between both variants of S60 5th.

The Gallery on the Satio is divided in 3 main views: Photos, Music and Video, and uses a whole different UI system than the Gallery on Nokia’s Symbian devices.

Next up is Gravity, the Twitter client, running on both devices side by side, and proving that applications written for S60 5th Edition are not only compatible with Nokia’s devices, but also with the Satio from SE.

We won’t go into more details in this post, as we have prepared some video reviews of the Satio’s UI in action, so keep you eyes on FoneArena for that

Side by Side comparison: Satio vs Nokia N97

The two flagships go head to head here, or side by side if you want. We can see that although the frontal size of the twi is very similar, the N97’s rounded angles make it look and feel much smaller than the Satio that has very square and angled corners. The Satio hence comes out as an imposing handset, whereas the N97 looks more hand-friendly. In terms of materials, both devices rely heavily on good material plastic, a nice clear screen cover, and some metallic accents.

Although both devices have almost the same thickness, they use it differently. The N97 embodies a slide-out qwerty keyboard, whereas the Satio’s thickness is mostly in the top part due to its sliding camera cover that protects the 12MP lens module.

Both handsets feature a flicking keylock on their left side, the N97 has the standard microUSB port to connect with the computer and to charge it, whereas the Satio has the more archaic pop-port connector. It also has a microSDHC slot.

The bottom side on both devices is clean of connectors or buttons.

The right side is where a great difference can be observed. Like the N97, the Satio has volume keys (also used for zooming) and a dedicated camera key, but this one is circled by an LED light that turns blue when the camera is in action, and it also has a Photo gallery quick access key, and a dedicated photo/video capture switch for the Camera.

On the top, you can see the power button on both handsets, as well as a 3.5mm headset plug on the N97. The Satio uses its pop-port for music headsets.

Side by Side comparison: Satio vs Nokia X6

The Satio and the Nokia X6 share a very similar rectangular design and form factor, the Satio though is a a bit bigger (not as much as the first image shows, the Satio was placed closer to the camera than the X6), longer, larger, but also way more thick. The main unit on the Satio (without the camera cover) is almost the same thickness as the X6, but add it, and you have a lot of bulk showing up. Another main difference is also with the X6 having 3 touch-sensitive keys (call/menu/end call), whereas the Satio has hardware buttons.

Side by Side comparison: Satio vs Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

The Satio outperforms the 5800 XpressMusic in nearly all aspects, yet still manages to be only a bit bigger. Take a look at the images below to see for yourself how a 3.2MP plastic-covered cameraphone looks next to a 12MP metal clad device.

What are your opinions of the Satio after seeing it next to its competitors? Are y put off by its size, or willing to compromize given the many features it offers?

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Both the devices ie Sunny and Susan look very similar to Nokia 6500 Slide and Nokia 6500 Classic respectively. The main similarities being the chrome accents and keypads.

Sony Ericsson Sunny

Sunny is a slider with a unique curved bottom portion. The video shows a 5 Megapixel Camera with LED flash but lacks a lens cover. Screen size looks approximately around 2.2-2.4″. The only other feature known is the presence of an accelerometer which enables auto-rotation of screen.

Sony Ericsson Susan

Susan is a candybar with a similarly shaped bottom portion. It also sports a 5Megapixel camera with LED and lacking  a lens cover. Screen size the same and accelerometer is again present.

Both the handsets have very good and similar styling and uses lot of metal elements. The videos shows drops of water which might be indicating some splash-proof feature.

We’ll be on the look-out for more information and update on the same.

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