The Sony Ericsson K550i (and the i-mode variant, the K550im) are perhaps a good example of the way technology progresses in the mobile phone industry. Almost two years ago, Sony Ericsson announced what was then their high-end camera phone, the K700i. Today, the K550i shares almost exactly the same features, but as the number designation shows, Sony Ericsson now regards this particular handset as a mid-range device.

Sony Ericsson W610i is a very slim monoblock phone with a thickness of just 14mm, it comes with a 1.9″ 176×220 pixel display, 2 megapixel digital camera, an FM radio and expandable memory using Memory Stick Micro cards. Sony Ericsson include a 512Mb card in the box which is enough for about 8 albums worth of high-quality MP3s.

The Sony Ericsson K610im is an i-mode version of the lightweight K610i 3G phone. It’s an incredibly light 3G phone, weighing just 89 grams, but it still manages to fit in a 176×220 pixel display, 2 megapixel camera and Memory Stick Micro expandable memory.

As far as we know, this is Sony Ericsson’s first i-mode phone and it’s one of only a few 3G i-mode phones around. And since the K610im is based on one of the hottest 3G phones of 2006, then it’s an attractive option for i-mode users.

The specification of the K618i already – it’s a very lightweight 3G phone weighing just 89 grams with a 2 megapixel camera, expandable memory (using Memory Stick Micro cards) with a 256Mb card included, it has Bluetooth and of course an MP3 player.

The K618i’s display is only a 176×220 pixel unit, but this is an acceptable trade-off for the handset’s light weight and it will be good enough for most people. Overall, the K618i shows typically stylish Sony Ericsson design – it’s a smart looking device that is pretty unmistakable in its origins.

Sony Ericsson K610i is probably the lightest 3G phone to date, weighing just 92 grams – and yet it still packs in a substantial number of features.

The K610i comes with a 2 megapixel digital camera, 176×220 pixel display in 262,000 colours, a secondary camera for video calling, expandable memory using Sony Memory Stick Micro cards, a multimedia player (plus the same Disc2Phone software found in the Walkman series of handsets), web browser, email client and all the usual features you’d expect to find in this type of device.

Sony Ericsson K700i adds additional functionality to the popular and highly-rated T630 model. What’s new in the K700i? Firstly, the VGA camera has been enhanced with a camcorder capability for recording videos.

The TFT screen is 65,000 colours, like the T630, but it has been increased to nearly twice the size of the T630 – great for photos, videos and games. Ringtones have been upgraded from 32-voice to 40-voice. There’s also an integrated FM radio and MP3 player. Another improvement is the increased memory – at 41Mbytes, this is more than virtually any other phone on the market, and is ideal for storing photos, videos and music.

Sony Ericsson P990

is the latest P-series Symbian smartphone from Sony Ericsson, following on from the successful P800, P900 and P910 models. Expected to start shipping in Q1 2006 to Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa as the P990i, and to mainland China as the P990c. There is no word of a North American variant.

Sony Ericsson lauch two variants before Chrismast day – the Z310a is a quad-band GSM version of the phone for use in the US, the Z310i is a tri-band version for everyone else. Otherwise, pretty much all the features on the Z310i and Z310a are identical. Both of them are very attractive mirrored clamshell phone aimed at the lower end of the market.