Mobile phoners looking for quality, style and good looks will love Sony Ericsson's Z550, announced this week. Finished in a combination of premium brushed metal and high gloss material, the Z550 is a classy partner for work and leisure with universal appeal.

The 1.3 Megapixel camera has 4x digital zoom and takes great snap shots and video for capturing those unpredictable moments. These can be viewed on a crisp, bright colour display. With 20MB of onboard memory expandable to 1GB, it's simple to store and share a large collection of pictures using MMS, Bluetooth or e-mail.

The Z550 connects easily to a PC for fast transfer of multimedia files and synchronisation with your phone book and calendar. The phone also has full HTML internet browsing and optional Bluetooth headset and car-handsfree kit for wireless freedom on the move.

The Sony Ericsson Z550 is a GPRS clamshell camera phone available in Sterling Black or Pearl Copper and starts shipping during Q3 2006. It is available in the following variants:

• Z550i Tri-Band GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific.
• Z550c Tri-Band GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Mainland China.

Features at a glance:

• Imaging and messaging
• 262k color TFT display, 220 x 176 pixels
• 128 x 36 pixel STN sub display
• 1.3 mega pixel Camera
• 4 x digital zoom
• Video recording/playback
• 20 MB user memory
• QuickShare
• SMS, EMS and MMS
• Email (POP3/IMAP4)
• Push e-mail
• MP3/AAC Support
• FM Radio
• Streaming Audio/Video
• PlayNow Ring tones
• PlayNow Games
• Polyphonic 40 ring tones
• Java MIDP 2.0
• 3D games
• Music DJ/Video DJ
• OMA DRM phase 1
• Tri-band 900/1800/1900
• GPRS class 10
• Memory Stick Micro - (M2) slot (support up to 1 GB)
• USB 2.0 support
• WAP 2.0
• Bluetooth
• PC Tools & Software
• Speakerphone
• Full HTML browser