After its October launch, the Windows Mobile 6.5 gets a third version upgrade that finally puts it act right with a slew of finger-touch and more gesture friendly enhancements to bring it at par with the other better smartphone platforms in the market.  With just 8% market share of the word’s smartphone market, it has been falling year-on-year behind with a few makers like HTC junking it in favor of Android.

Of the few smartphone makers left running it, the Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has the world’s first smartphone to run the new Windows Mobile 6.5.3.  This is the Sony Ericsson Aspen, formerly named Faith.  Looking at its previous handsets, this could well be its first Blackberry-styled smartphone sporting the familiar QWERTY candybar monoblock form factor.

It is also one of the latest addition to its GreenHeart stable of eco-friendly mobile phones that started with the C901 GreenHeart last year.

Eco Friendly Features

The press release form its official announcement leaves little data on its “green” features but we can surmise that it shares many of the first GreenHeart model.  The spec sheet shows it has the WalkMate pedometer and a CO2 calculator that tells you how much carbon emission was saved by walking rather than taking your car.  Its body must have at least 50% made from recycled plastics and painted using waterborne paints, among other green features which are basically found in other eco-friendly phones from LG and Samsung.

Smart Affordable Features

Apart from its Blackberry styling that’s distinctly unique among Sony Ericsson phones, the Aspen takes advantage of the enhanced WinMo 6.5.3 platform to have faster browser page loading performance, a finer memory management as well as providing better zooming, gesture and touch control without the need for a stylus.  The WinMo is said to have capacitive touchscreen and multitouch support though that feature is not found in the Aspen as it only has a resistive touchscreen on its 2.4-inch QVGA display with the usual Windows-constrained 64k colors.

The Aspen is a 3G phone on the dual band UMTS (900/2100) for the European markets and a quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) on 2G.  It has the usual high speed data connectivity that you can expect even for mid-priced 3G feature phones like HSDPA/HSUPA, WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for high speed data transfers.

Its QWERTY candybar body comes in either silver white or ivory black and measures 117 x 60 x 12.5mm with a 130g weight that makes it less than pocket-friendly. You get a basic 3.2-megapixel fixed focus camera with smart contrast and video recording that is quite common in low-end smartphones.  You also get A-GPS receiver, 3.5mm headphone jack, an accelerometer, stereo speakers and a modest 100 MB of internal memory expandable to 16 GB with its microSD slot.

Software-wise, the Sony Ericsson Aspen provides seamless social networking with an instant access to Facebook as well as Windows Live Messenger and comes with a bundled Google Maps.  Its multimedia has the usual media players we expect from Sony’s Walkman tradition and now comes with media browsers that support music, photos and videos. There’s also access to PlayNow apps for games and new music.

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This week Jon’s got hold of the new Nintendo dsi XL, Ortis looks at the eco media player and Dionne brings us the latest tech news. For more videos, news and reviews go to fwd.five.tv

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* From our expanded online assortment; not available in all Best Buy stores
* Intel® Centrino® processor technology with Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor T6400
Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset, Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN network connection (802.11a/b/g/n) and extended battery life.
* 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 memory
For multitasking power. 800MHz frontside bus, 2MB L2 cache and 2.0GHz processor speed.
* Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
Records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible media. Also supports DVD-RAM.
* 14.1" WXGA widescreen display
With XBRITE-ECO technology and 1280 x 800 resolution brings life to your movies and games.
* 250GB SATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
Offers plenty of storage capacity.
* Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
With Intel® Clear Video technology features and up to 1750MB available video memory for intense detail. Intel® High Definition audio.
* Personal musical light show
With a 12-tone music analyzer for translating your music into LED lights.
* Touch sensor A/V slide control
Allows you to easily control your music and movies with the slide of a finger.
* Built-in 1.3MP MOTION EYE camera with microphone
Makes it easy to chat with and send video mail to family and friends.
* i.LINK (IEEE 1394) port and 3 USB ports
For digital data transfer and mobile digital imaging capabilities; Memory Stick PRO memory card slot with MagicGate support and Secure Digital media card slot.
* Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 and EDR interface
With stereo A2DP Bluetooth technology easily link with other Bluetooth-enabled devices such as a cell phone or MP3 player.
* Built-in 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector
And V.92/V.90 high-speed data/fax modem for flexible wired Web connectivity options.
* Weighs only 5.7 lbs. and measures just 1.6" thin
For easy portability.
* Long battery life
Of up to 3 hours and 47 minutes to give you more time away from an outlet.
* Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) preinstalled
Software package included with Microsoft Works SE 9.0 and more. 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 included.
* ENERGY STAR compliance
Assures a high standard of energy efficiency.

Total Price (with tax and shipping) is $900. Please give your comment about this product only.

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Simon Drew

You can visit Best Mobile Contracts to see all the latest mobile deals available. You can see what deals are available for Aspen Greenheart and other phones. They also compare mobile broadband so you are always connected.

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The leading Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson just announced last week a trio of eco-friendly handsets in its GreenHeart stable.  One of them is a Blackberry-like smartphone sporting a candybar QWERTY form factor – the Sony Ericsson Aspen.  It lays claims to be the world’s first smartphone to use the improved iteration on the Windows platform – the WinMo 6.5.3.  It is also Sony Ericsson’s first handset to look like a Blackberry but with a distinctive styling that is sure to appeal to the serious corporate tykes weaned on the Blackberry.

GreenHeart Features

The recent announcement came with a press release that has few details about the Aspen’s eco-friendly features.  Based on the accompanying technical data sheet, it carries the same WalkMate pedometer and CO2 calculator that its C901 predecessor had.

As a green handset meant to ride on the earth-friendly bandwagon that rivals LG and Samsung have joined lately, the Aspen would be no different from the C901 with at least 50% of its body honed from recycled plastics and using waterborne paint. We also expect online e-manuals instead of the printed ones as well as power efficient battery chargers.

Standard Competitive Features

Hardware-wise, apart from having a neat Blackberry style punctuated by an elegant simplicity that’s uniquely Sony Ericsson, especially its silver white version (other than its ivory black color), the Aspen has no remarkable feature set to really make it stand out among smartphones or even feature phones.

You have a basic 3G on a dual band UMTS (900/2100) for the European markets and a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on 2G.  You get the usual HSDPA/HSUPA speeds as well as WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for data connectivity options.  There’s a 2.4-inch QVGA display typical of most Blackberry-styled handsets but with resistive touchscreen capability and a Windows-limited 64k color support.

You also get a very basic 3.2 megapixel camera that only features smart contrast and a rudimentary video recording. There’s A-GPS and stereo FM receivers, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a modest 100 MB internal memory expandable to 16 GB with its microSD support.

It’s in the software that the Aspen holds more appeal with a functional edge over other Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones in the market.  The third dot-dot version has improved its gesture control, memory management and touchscreen support to include multitouch capacitive capabilities.  Too bad, the Aspen is only resistive.

It has the Java apps to make it a social networking handset with instant access to Facebook and Windows Live Messenger.  Its GPS gets complemented with bundled Google Maps and comes with the usual WAP-enabled HTML browser and push email client.  Multimedia is predictably capable as in any Sony Ericsson handsets leveraging its Walkman heritage and is supported with PlayNow access and media browsers.

Conclusion

The Sony Ericsson Aspen is earlier known as the Sony Ericsson Faith – a rather apt designation for putting faith on the handset despite a better Windows Mobile version running it.  Apart from that, there’s not much compelling reason give this smartphone a try based on its spec sheet.  But if it’s priced right along the low end smartphones, it might get some following.

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Sony Ericsson Aspen – first look

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Simon Drew

You can visit Moby1 to compare all the best mobile phone contracts. You can find the best Sony Ericsson Aspen contracts being offered. You can also search through the best deals available for PAYG phones

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