Leaked pictures of Sony Ericsson S500i/Shinobu
These may be leaked pics of the Sony Ericsson S500i.
I say may, as although the phone has clearly moved from the "is it a fake?" stage to the "it's real but what's it called?" stage of the rumour-mill, no-one yet knows what it's called.
I posted a video of the S500i a few days' back, but even then, no-one knew its model name.
Despite this, I can reveal (drum-roll please!) that it is, in fact, the Sony Ericsson model currently codenamed Shinobu.
More details and pics of the Sony Ericsson S500i (for want of a better name!) after the jump.
Terminal.hu, a Hungarian site, are reporting this phone's called the S500i, but I'm not so sure, as Sony Ericsson phone models beginning with the letter s died out a few years back (most are now prefixed with W, K, J, P or M).
Whatever its real name, its codename is the Shinobu, which helps us fill in a few gaps regarding specification.
How do I know it's called the Shinobu? Well, Terminal.hu is written in Hungarian, and unfortunately, Babelfish's Hungarian translation is as good as mine (i.e. nonexistant!).
The word Shinobu, though, features in Terminal.hu's report, and Sony Ericsson forum SE-NSE happen to have a small pic of the Shinobu.
Compare SE-NSE's pic of the Shinobu (below, in orange) with the "S500i" pictured left, and apart from a different colour scheme, they're one and the same!
So, if our unknown phone is the Shinobu, what can we expect from it?
Rumoured specs include the following:
- Walkman phone (naturally!)
- Slider design
- HSDPA
- 12.5 mm thick
- 2.4 inch 320 × 240 pixel QVGA screen
- 2 mega pixel camera (no AF)
- Estimated price $582
It should also come with pick up/hang up keys, gaming keys, and a base similar to the W580.
Not bad, particularly with HSDPA. The S500i/Shinobu is looking like it's heading towards final production, so we should hear an announcement from Sony Ericsson soon. Keep reading MobileMentalism for more details.
[Source: Terminal.hu, SE-NSE, Esato]
