Sony Ericsson and Vodafone announce F500i model

Featuring a large colour screen, integrated still and video camera and support for music ringtones, the F500i offers consumers even greater opportunities to enjoy high quality games as well as an extensive range of services available on Vodafone live!™. The F500i will be sold across Vodafone live! markets, from the middle of July.

The F500i is designed specifically to help Vodafone meet the needs of consumers who increasingly want to get more out of multimedia services. Vodafone live! brings together an extensive range of services. "The Sony Ericsson F500i is the latest exciting addition to our range of Vodafone exclusive handsets allowing customers easy access to Vodafone live! services," said Guy Laurence, Vodafone's Global Marketing Director of Products and Services. "With the growing popularity of high quality, easy-to-use camera phones and the continued high interest in games, the F500i is well positioned to appeal to a broad range of consumers keen to combine the excitement of gaming on their handset with a host of features, allowing them even more ways to keep in touch with their friends and family".
"We are very excited about expanding our collaboration with Vodafone and bringing the F500i to the market, as we share their passion for compelling mobile entertainment services," says Jan Wäreby, Corporate Executive Vice President and Head of Sales & Marketing at Sony Ericsson. "Our focus on easy-to-use camera phones has been well appreciated by consumers around the world and with the F500i, we also offer a great gaming experience to Vodafone live!ä users."

The F500i promotes the use of imaging by its ease-of-use and dual front design concept, allowing both telephony and camera features on the same handset. A dedicated camera button on the side of the phone gives fast and easy access to the camera; it only takes a few clicks to take and send an image or a video clip.

The camera features a 4x digital zoom and its 128x160 pixels, 65,536 TFT colour screen presents video, images and games with great clarity and resolution.

With its colour screen and MultiAction joystick, the F500i gives a superior gaming experience. It features a graphics platform especially suitable for graphically rich mobile applications and content, Mascot Capsule® Engine Micro3D Edition and a wide variety of great games will be available for download from the Vodafone live! portal. Compatible with the Gameboard EGB-10, the F500i can easily be transformed into a full-fledged gaming machine.

Imaging & Messaging 128 x 160 pixels Display TFT 65,536 Colour screen 10 MB user Memory QuickShare™ SMS, EMS & MMS 3D graphics (animations and pictures) Wallpapers Themes Picture phonebook Entertainment Polyphonic (40 tones) Music DJ™ Direct links for easy download Java MIDP 2.0 DRM (forward lock and SD support) 3D games Connectivity USB and RS 232 WAP 2.0 GPRS class 10