Sony Ericsson announced four new phones last week to extend the reach of its global product portfolio and meet a number of specific regional market needs. Three models, the Z558, and W830 & W958c Walkman phones are optimised for China and South East Asia markets. The Z550a is optimised for the Americas.

The W830 Walkman phone is a specially adapted EDGE version of the recently introduced W850 Walkman phone. It will be available in two versions; W830c will feature a Chinese keypad whereas the W830i will be aimed at other SE Asia markets. W830 is configured out-of-the-box for the PlayNow 3.0 direct music download service featuring Sony BMG artists. The phone is also configured for operator over the air (OTA) music download services and accepts many popular music file formats including e-AAC+, which reduces download time and space needed for tracks. Storage for music tracks is plentiful; a 1GB memory stick PRO Duo is supplied in-box, which is enough for around 900 songs in e-AAC+. This can be expanded to up to 4GB.

The Walkman player 2.0 simplifies navigation through music genres, playlists, individual songs or music albums. Plus there is also TrackID, which allows you to record a few seconds of a song, either via the microphone or the in-built FM radio. With one click you can then send that clip to the Gracenote worldwide music database which will identify the track and relay the information back to the phone. So no more arguing about who sang that song on the radio!

W830 - Features at a glance

• EDGE 900/1800/1900
• 2.0" QVGA TFT 262k
• Walkman Player 2.0 [MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, m4a playback]
• Up to 30 hours music playing time
• Full-length music download OTA and Playnow 3.0 full track music download support
• Music/video streaming
• TrackID
• RDS FM Stereo Radio
• Audio out via system connector
• Dedicated A+B gaming buttons
• Java 3D gaming
• OMA DRM v. 2.0
• 2 mega pixel
• LED Light
• Video Recording/Playback
• Push e-mail
• Macromedia Flash
• USB 2.0 Mass storage
• Full Access Net front HTML browser
• RSS feeds
• Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP)
• Landscape browsing
• Expandable MS PRO Duo slot
• PC Synchronization
• Flight mode
• FOTA