Affordability In A Smart And Earth-Friendly Sony Ericsson Aspen

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Affordability In A Smart And Earth-Friendly Sony Ericsson Aspen

Coming out with Windows Mobile Handsets may seem like an uphill battle these days, what with a cumbersome OS that can’t seem to cope with the cutting edge functionality of other platforms like the emerging Android.

But Sony Ericsson is unfazed especially with the third iteration in the recent Windows Mobile OS – the WinMo 6.5.3 that finally got its act right with better finger-friendly features, improved memory management and gesture controls.

The leading Japanese mobile phone maker just announced early this month the release of three new eco-friendly handsets to add to its GreenHeart portfolio – the first of its product announcements for the new year.

One of them is the Sony Ericsson Aspen, the first smartphone to use the new Windows upgrade that makes it the best Windows Mobile phone in the market today.  It could possibly be the first Sony Ericsson to sport the Blackberry type QWERTY candybar form factor with a distinctive styling that makes it more interesting than most Blackberry handsets out there.

At a Glance

The Aspen is a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on 2G and a dual band UMTS on 3G with HSDPA/HSUPA, WiFi 802.11b/g as well as local data synching options with wired microUSB 2.0 and wireless Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP.  You get a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT LCD screen typical of Blackberry styling.  You also get a resistive touchscreen with improved gesture and touch control from an enhanced Windows Mobile version.  There’s even a gravity accelerometer for auto-rotate viewing.

Imaging is quite basic with a 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera that features smart contrast and a rudimentary video recording capability. Its multimedia does better with the media players we’ve come to expect for the Sony Walkman heritage.  There’s a media browser for your images, audio and video files and you get access to its PlayNow site for the latest games and music files.

Your listening experience rounds off with a stereo FM receiver with RDS and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Internal memory is just 100 MB that uses a better memory management from its WinMo 6.5.3 but you also get microSD expandability up to 16 GB.  When fully charged you get up to 10hours of talk time on 2G and 450 hours on standby.  You can also enjoy 12 hours of uninterrupted music payback time.

Software-wise, its A-GPS receiver comes with Google Maps.  You get Java-based social networking apps like Twitter and Facebook as well as instant updating you media sharing sites like YouTube.  WAP 2.0-enabled HTML browsers and push email client software as well as a PDF and MS Office document viewer are standard.

The Aspen’s earth-friendly features start with recyclable materials and water-based paint used for its body.  There are not printed user manuals but you get access to online e-manuals.  There’s the WalkMate pedometer and CO2 calculator that tells you how much CO2 emission you prevented by just taking the bus or walking instead of your car.

Availability

The Sony Ericsson Aspen is expected to reach its intended markets within the 2nd quarter of the year.  No pricing information is available at this time but based on its press release, this is an affordable smartphone which is confirmed by a rather unremarkable and modest set of features.

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