The Sony Ericsson Spiro is a recently announced new slider handset from the mobile phone giant
. Featuring the manufacturers renowned Walkman Technology, it is easy to see the target market of this handset. A versatile internal media player and a micro SD slot offers the potential to store a whole music collection making it an effective music phone.
As well as the Walkman player and a versatile internal media player can support many different music and video file formats such as MP3 and MP4 respectively. Track ideas included which identifies the track name and artist of the song simply by holding their handset close to a speaker or other source of music. Social networkers are well catered for with Facebook and twitter applications allowing them to share their thoughts with friends and family on the move with the minimum of fuss. Additional entertainment options include a stereo FM radio player and a number of pre-installed games (along with access to a library of downloadable games).
The Sony Ericsson Spiro is a relatively compact handset measuring just 92x 48x 16.8 mm and is very light weight at just 90 g. A number of different colour variants will be available upon the release of the Spiro. These range from contrast black, sunset pink, spring green and stealth black. Therefore a colour scheme to suit most tastes is sure to be found offering aesthetic appeal to style conscious users who view their phone as a fashion statement.
A 2 mega pixel digital camera is included as part of the handsets package of features. This operates at a pixel resolution of 1600x 1200 pixels resulting in reasonably high quality still images. The camera can also shoot video as an alternative method of image capture.
The TFT screen measures 2.2 inches and thanks to a pixel layout of 240x 320, it boasts the ability to display up to 256K colours providing excellent display of on screen imagery making it perfect for viewing photos and video files.
5 MB of internal memory is provided as standard along with a micro SD card slot. The latter can be utilised by installing a memory card of up to 16 GB which is capable of storing a large number of music files or other data. The internal phonebook can store up to 2000 entries and boasts the popular Photocall feature which allows a photo to be assigned to a particular contact within the phonebook, and this is in turn displayed on the screen whenever that person calls.
Class 10 versions of GPRS & EDGE provide the Sony Ericsson Spiro with its connections to cellular networks which allows text messages and voice calls to be sent and received. This also provides the handset with its Internet connection. Both Bluetooth and micro USB connections are provided as standard which allow the handset to connect to other compatible hardware devices such as mobile phones and computers. By doing this, users can carry out a number of tasks such as sharing contact information and transferring media files.
Whilst the Sony Ericsson Spiro is definitely no Smartphone, it offers a reasonable level of everyday functionality within a handset which wont break the bank.