Sony Ericsson Yendo

Whilst recent successes for Sony Ericsson have come with devices running on the Android platform, there are other handsets in the Sony Ericsson range that have done well for them over the years, and probably the most popular has been the range of Walkman branded devices. Recently Sony Ericsson announced the latest handset in the Walkman range, the strangely named Sony Ericsson Yendo, which we are going to take a closer look at now.

The styling of the main UI on the Yendo, at first glance, gives the impression it could be an Android device, but it isn't. This impression is gained by the main standby screen offering four shortcuts, one in each corner, as found on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. The Yendo is a compact handset,
measuring 93.5 x 52 x 15.5mm, and weighing in at just 81g. The main TFT display is a resistive touchscreen, which means you can interact with the device using a stylus, if you wish. The display itself measures in at 2.6 inches, and has a QVGA resolution, and supports up to 256,000 colours.
nternal memory on the handset is pretty poor, to be honest, with just 5 MB available, but thankfully this can be increased with the addition of a Micro SD memory card, with the Yendo able to support cards up to 16 GB in size. The device is a non 3G handset, and neither is there support for WiFi, so no high speed browsing here. All data transfers are instead dealt with via EDGE or GPRS. Bluetooth 2.1 is included, for short range information transfer, and the inclusion of A2DP means you can stream stereo audio to a compatible Bluetooth headset. The handset also includes a Micro USB connector, and there is a 3.5mm audio jack if you prefer to listen to your music with a wired headset.

Being a Walkman device, music is clearly the main focus of the Yendo; the handset offers the latest version of the Walkman music software, which allows you to sort your music into a variety of playlists. As well as the default playlists, you can sort music by genre, album or artist, as well as just listing all your songs in one long list. You can create playlists manually, allowing you to choose different playlists to match your mood, and the inclusion of SensMe will automatically suggest music based on the style of music you are currently listening to. Shake control allows you to skip to the next track with just a flick of the wrist (assuming you are holding the phone at the time) and the device also includes the excellent TrackID music recognition application. And if there comes a time when you want to keep up to date with the latest music, the Yendo offers a stereo FM radio, with RDS support, too.

The Sony Ericsson Yendo will come in a range of bright colour options, including Black, Blue, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Silver, White and Yellow. A really decent selection, which should offer something for almost everyone. Equipped with a standard 2.0 Megapixel camera, the Yendo also includes native apps for Facebook and Twitter, and you can download apps, games and wallpaper for the device from the Sony Ericsson Play Now service.
Feature for feature, then, the Sony Ericsson Yendo is not the most highly specc'd device on the market, but where it promises a lot, namely in the music department, it delivers a high quality user experience. The inclusion of a touchscreen makes menu navigation on the Yendo a breeze, and the wide choice of colours should ensure a broad market appeal.

The Sony Ericsson Yendo is expected to launch during Q3 2010.