Sony Ericsson have announced the new Sony Ericsson W610i Walkman phone, which is extremely similar to the W880i, Sony Ericsson's other new Walkman phone it announced this week.

For example, the W610i offers only half the storage capacity of the W880i (521MB rather than 1GB), but it does come with a 2 megapixel camera with auto-focus (whereas the W880i has no auto-focus).

Indeed, such is the similarity of the two phones, you wonder why Sony Ericsson felt the need to create two devices in the first place.

Read on for more details of the Sony Ericsson W610i.

Sony Ericsson W610i overview

The W610i is another good looking candy-bar Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson. It follows their latest design, all black and fiery orange (or silver, if you prefer), with the three-circle design in the middle neatly highlighting the navigation keys.

It offers a 2 megapixel camera with auto-focus, the same video recording and playback as the W880i, and even adds the "innovative" TrackID music recognition app (you know the type - whistle a tune into it, and it'll text you back the name of the track and the artist). It also has a bigger screen than the W880i (1.9" TFT screen against the W880i's 1.8").

However, whereas the W880i offers 3G connectivity, the W610i is restricted to just quad-band EDGE. It's also a bit lardy, measuring 14mm against the W880i's 9.4mm.

W610i similarities with the W880i

It seems the W610i will make an excellent mid-range Walkman phone. However, I'm a bit confused as to where Sony Ericsson are pitching this phone compared with the W880i. The W610i has a bigger screen, better camera, longer battery life, and the TrackID app, whereas the W880i has 3G, twice the storage, and, well, that's it! Everything else is the same.

The two phones are so similar, you're left wondering why Sony Ericsson bothered making two devices in the first place, and didn't concentrate on just the one. Unfortunately what you're left with is two phones, neither of which does exactly what you want: you either go for the W880i and put up with a camera without auto-focus, or the W610i, and make do with no 3G. Couldn't we just have one phone with auto-focus and 3G?

And although both these phones are extremely competent, they're hardly jaw-dropping. Even Sony Ericsson's press release describes the W610i as "a credible fusion of phone, music player and digital camera." Credible?! Is that the best superlative they can think of?!

Missing Wow Factor

This is a bit of a worrying trend. Although Sony Ericsson's profits are up, their phones seem to have stagnated, and they're offering only incremental improvements over last year's models.

This is the same strategy that Motorola adopted for several years after the monstrous hit it had with its RAZR. Now that the RAZR is getting on a bit, Motorola finds it has no natural successor to keep the cash coming in, and so its profits and stock price are currently taking a hammering.

Sony Ericsson may need to release something with the wow factor soon, or else they may start to suffer the same fate...particularly when a certain other music phone is released later in the year.

Sony Ericsson W610i Specification

• 512MB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) in box
• Walkman® player 2.0
• Up to 25h music playback
• Flight mode
• Disc-2-phone
• OMA DRM 2.0
• TrackID™
• PlayNow™ 3.0
• Bluetooth Audio Streaming (A2DP)
• Streaming audio/video
• 2.0 megapixel camera with auto focus
• Horizontal camera UI
• Picture Blogging
• Video recording and video playback
• Advanced LED light
• PictBridge
• VideoDJ™
• PhotoDJ™
• Face warp application
• IM & Presence
• Full HTML browser with
• RSS
• Push Email
• Bluetooth™ 2.0
• Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) slot
• USB Mass storage
• PC Synchronization
• Java MIDP 2.0
• 14mm thin
• Premium material
• 1.9 inch 262K TFT LCD display
• EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• Talk time: Up to 7 hours
• Music Playing time: Up to 25 hours
• Standby time: Up to 350 hours

The Sony Ericsson W610i release date is Q2 2007