The latest on smartphones (and other gadgets)

Hey, it looks like SonyEricsson has finally produced a hot Windows phone. The soon to be released Aspen is a candy bar qwerty running Windows Mobile 6.5.3. The phone looks very sleek, especially in white. It has 2.4 inch screen, which is the same size as the Nokia E71, a bit too small for my liking but you can’t please everyone I guess. It is a touchscreen, resistive not capacitive, and comes with a stylus. The qwerty keypad has a similar shape as the E71 with the Q, A and Z all in a row beneath each other, instead of staggered like a PC keyboard. Some people will complain about this, but I have found the E71 keyboard ok after a bit of use. The phone comes with all the features standard on high-end phones.

And then there is the green angle. The phone carries the Greenheart moniker for which SonyEricsson claims recycled plastic housing, no lead and less chemicals, e-manual, ultra compact packaging and a low-power consumption charger to save energy. All good.

WinMo 6.5.3  includes a more finger-friendly layout, support for capacitive touchscreens, and acts as a platform to enable multi-touch. Microsoft has also improved browser performance with faster page load times and better memory management while improving the pan and flick gestures and zoom and rotational speeds. Funny then that the Aspen has a stylus, a resistive touchscreen and no multi-touch. SonyEricsson may have missed a trick here, but styli are very much de jour in their primary Asian markets, the whole hygiene thing. Still, good to see that there is still support for Windows Mobile.