2004 Holiday Pre-Preview
A pleasant surprise at the event came from Sony Ericsson, who was showing off the S710a publicly for the first time. As expected, it closely resembles the
S700i, but what wasn't revealed until now was the color. Unlike the silver finish of the S700i, the S710a will sport a matte black finish.
As announced earlier, the S710a also features EDGE high-speed data, which the S700i lacks. But to add EDGE, they had to remove the FM radio. Not a big deal for most people, especially since the phone includes a memory card slot and MP3 player. The S710a also supports U.S. frequency bands, including GSM 850, while the S700i supports GSM 900 for Europe instead.
Other than EDGE, FM radio, and the frequency bands, the S710a and S700i are similar, including a gorgeous QVGA display, megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and much more.
The S710a is currently slated to be available in the U.S. around Thanksgiving.
In other Sony Ericsson news, the Z500a should hit shelves any day now. Since PTT deployment is progressing slowly among the major GSM carriers, the Z500a will initially ship without that feature, (just like T637). Then look for the P910a to ship in late October.