Take the iconic BlackBerry QWERTY keypad, throw in a touchscreen capable of multi-touch(we hear!), add a new powerful operating system and some decent multimedia…and you might get something like the recently announced Sony Ericsson Aspen smartphone. Yes, we know that Sony Ericsson was a major player in the QWERTY phones department with the legendary P series and even with the Xperia, but its QWERTY keypads were either hidden behind normal ones (in the original P series) or came as a slide outs in the Xperia. That’s why we are so interested in the new Sony Ericsson Aspen, which looks like a BlackBerry-Nokia E71 clone, only with the snazzy Sony Ericsson looks thrown in. The device is not due to be out until the second quarter of this year, but we must admit to being very curious at Sony Ericsson’s first real go at a BlackBerry clone.
The device’s screen at 2.4 inches and 240×320 QVGA resolution is pretty much par for the course, but what really caught our attention was the fact is that SPB Mobile Shell interface with panels (as seen in the Xperia X1 and X2) which throws a whole new look on Windows Mobile 6.5.3 (yes, it is the first phone in India to get THAT advanced a version of Win Mo) - and the fact that the screen is a touchscreen which gives it a leg-up on standard QWERTY devices like the E71 and the BlackBerry Bold, and takes us back to the era of the Treo.
Apart from that, there is of course the 3.2-megapixel camera that comes with distinctly un-enterprise features like multishot and self-timer and the usual connectivity options including A-GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. For the eco-friendly, there is the GreenHeart panel, the eco-friendly packaging material and eco-mate application - stuff that might not sway a person into buying this baby, but heck, does not harm either.
We do not know the price yet, but if it is around Rs. 15,000, then Sony Ericsson could be getting right back into the enterprise market.
