Sony Ericsson announces W205 and S312 entry-level phones

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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

Denon announces 'entry-level' premium Blu-Ray player

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If this is ‘entry-level’, then I’m mildly terrified to see what Denon would describe as ‘high-end’. Oh wait. Now I’m scared. Anyway, back to the DVD-1800-BD. It’s a Blu-Ray player. It’s got HDMI 1.3a, full bit stream output of Dolby and DTS-HD audio, and 1080p upscaling of DVDs and 2-channel audio. It’s also got a stereo output, if you want to use it as a very expensive CD player.

There’s an SD card slot, too, and it incorporates a secondary audio and video decoder for picture-in-picture functionality, if you can handle watching two things at once. It’s going to be available at the start of December, and cost a whopping ‘entry-level’ £600. It’ll be available in Black and Silver.

Denon

Related posts: Denon shows off super-high-end DVD-3800BD Blu-ray player | Denon DP-200USB turntable – the stylish way to turn your records into mp3s

Pentax K2000: friendly, entry-level digital SLR for those stepping up from compact cameras

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Pentax has announced that its latest camera, the K2000, will be launched in November (in the US at least) for a very respectable $699.95 (about £400).

It features a lightweight, compact body, 10.2 megapixels, 2.7-inch TFT LCD, a gyroscopic mechanism for shake reduction — arguably better than software-based systems — and a host of automatic modes. There’s even a Help button which explains settings: great if you’re on the go and don’t want to carry the manual around with you…

IFA 07: Nikon launches two entry-level cameras, the L14 and L15

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Nikon are showing off their wares here at IFA, with several new cameras added to their CoolPix range. First up, for the entry-level seekers, the L14 has the honour of supposedly having the longest battery life out of the vast barrel of 3x zoomer compact cams. Specs include a savoury 7.1-megapixel sensor, 23MB inbuilt memory (expandable by using SDHC memory cards), 2.4″ LCD screen, and is available in black, or to please both genders, in blue and pink…