Today Sony Ericsson announced their M600 3G phone - a slimmer and lighter version of the P990 model. Unfortunately Sony Ericsson M600 lacks a camera, Wi-Fi support and FM radio.

The new stylish tri-band device has touchscreen and handwriting recognition. The phone runs on Symbian OS 9.1 and UIQ 3.0 and is specified for email handling. Several email clients can be installed on the phone. The large dual function keyboard makes for easy messaging input and is also the keypad for number buttons. Bunch of office tools are also present in the M600. Anti-virus, firewall and encryption software are pre-installed on the device which has 80 MB internal memory. A 64 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) is also included in the box. The M600 communicator has RSS feeds support, PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors and a PDF viewer. The mobile has standard connectivity options as Bluetooth, Infrared and USB 2.0 (via which can be charged). Audio/video streaming and MP3/AAC/ACC+/E-ACC+/m4a formats are supported.

The business orientated M600 UMTS phone has been scheduled for shipping in the Q2 2006.

Sony Ericsson press release

M600 slim, compact and stylish UMTS messaging phone puts secure e-mail and Internet at your fingertips

London, 6th Feb 2006 – Sony Ericsson today announces the M600 phone and messaging device. This is a fully-specified email tool and mobile phone rolled into an extremely stylish, slim device featuring a touch screen and handwriting recognition. M600 is the second Symbian OS 9.1 and UIQ 3.0 enabled phone in the Sony Ericsson portfolio offering users great customisation opportunities and the ability to buy personal productivity and other applications from the Sony Ericsson Application Shop. New push email applications, remote synchronisation and expandable memory give owners a UMTS phone and email connectivity in a device that easily fits in their pocket - at just 15mm thick, it is one of the slimmest business UMTS devices of its kind available.

The software platform and user interface, make multitasking – for example browsing the Internet whilst making a voice call - a reality. M600 also takes full advantage of its UMTS capabilities with fast and easy email handling (even with large attachments) and high bandwidth multimedia downloads. Document handling offers and PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors and an Adobe PDF viewer.

The ergonomic design of the M600 makes it easy to operate with one hand or two and gives versatile options on how to perform messaging tasks. For example the large dual function keyboard makes for easy messaging input and is also the keypad for number buttons. Reading emails and viewing high quality video and graphics content is made easy with the 3-way Jog Dial and a 2.6” QVGA screen, capable of handling 262K colours.

Range of standard and proprietary push email applications enabled for operator customisation are being developed in conjunction with a number of partners. These are:

AlteXia
Ericsson Mobile Office (EMO) (Try and Buy)
iAnywhere OneBridge
Intellisync
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
RIM - BlackBerry Connect
Seven
Visto
Standard Email - IMAP IDLE working on all standards compliant servers

These companies are developing a range of email solutions to enable access any time, anywhere to private or corporate email accounts.

With so many connectivity possibilities, Sony Ericsson has taken great care to ensure mobile security. McAfee, the powerful anti-virus & firewall software for cellular applications and Pointsec encryption are offered as Try & Buy packages and Certicom VPN client for secure access to corporate networks is offered free of charge.

For such a slim device the M600 has an impressive 80MB onboard memory for storing email attachments and multimedia content. An additional 64MB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™), which is a new ultra-small recording media designed for highly compact mobile devices, is provided in the box. The M600 is the first Sony Ericsson product to feature this new memory card.

The M600 is available in Granite Black and Crystal White and starts shipping during Q2 2006. The different regional variations of the M600 are:

M600i - Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas

M600c - Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz for Mainland China (Launch for mainland China dependent on availability of 3G services.)

M600 will be available in 4 hardware keyboard variants: QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and Russian