Sony Ericsson announces W205 and S312 entry-level phones

Are there really many people left entering the mobile phone market these days? Or is “entry-level” just another phrase for “cheap and low-spec”? Sony Ericsson’s just dropped us word of a couple of new “entry-level” phones that it’s bringing out in the middle of this year.

First there’s the W205, which is probably the snazzier of the two. It’s a Walkman phone, which means that it’s got some music-y features (though not a 3.5mm headphone jack). There’s an FM radio, a track identification system, as well as a fully-featured MP3 player with shuffle, loop, album art, playlists, etc.

It’s also got a 1.3-megapixel camera, memory card support – which you’ll need if you want to add music to it – and a 1.8″ screen. It’s 96g and measures 92 x 47 x 16.4 mm. It’ll be available in Q2.

Then there’s the S312, on which the biggest feature seems to just be that it’s got a dedicated video camera button. There’s a 2-megapixel camera, and a few photo uploading tools, but this really isn’t a seriously cameraphone, especially as the claimed 2.5X zoom is entirely digital. Anything taken at that level of zoom is going to look awful.

Again, there’s memory card support, a 2″ screen, and it comes in two colours – dawn and silver. It measures 100 x 46 x 12.5 mm and weighs 80g. It’ll also be available in Q2.

Sony Ericsson