Sony’s p950i (code name Hermione) Smartphone Revealed

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

It went by the code name Hermione and here’s what we know thanks to our newest contributor Burak Bayburtlu. He has been hot on the trail of the upcoming Hermione (code name for Sony’s P950i Smartphone) and he turned up a ton of info. This is one of the first pictures.

Final production colour will not be gold, but more likely dark grey.
• Info on the back of the phone: It seems it resembles the W800.
Note: Info on the back is still very scarce and unconfirmed.
• The first spy photos in the web !!
• P950i seems to be the final name
• Wi-Fi is confirmed
Note: Got some reports that Wi-Fi works on some prototypes, but keep in mind support for Wi-Fi is still a rumour until SE confirms it !
• Introduction to market is in November. Availability on the market is week 6 (February 2006)
Coincidence or not, it’s during the 3GSM World Congress

Prototype name:
SonyEricsson Hermione
Designation:
P950i

SPECIFICATIONS

Dimensions:
5.5 x 10.5 x 2.0 cm
(P910 is: 5.8 x 11.5 x 2.6 cm)

Colour (probable):
Silver on the flip and edges (top and bottom).
Darl grey in the main body and behind the keyboard.
(On the spy pictures you can see it’s gold. Gold, it seems, means it’s a prototype in the final stage of development)

Screen:
Type: TFT LCD, touchscreen (source)
Dimensions: 4.5 x 6.0 cm
(P910 is: 4.2 x 6.4 cm)
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA), 262 K colours
Full Specifications

Network:
UMTS
Tri-band GSM (GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900)
GPRS
Wi-Fi

Camera:
Front camera for videophone (probably)
Back camera with 2 MegaPixels resolution (1632 x 1224 pixels), CCD (probably)
Autofocus, Macro (probably)
The back of the phone, it seems it’s closer to the W800 than the K750.

Input:
Flip closed, there’s a 5-way button and 2 rocker buttons. Top portion is for virtual keys (displayed on screen), bottom left is return (U arrow sideways) and right is C. Like the the previous models, the flip can be opened and dismantled.
Flip open, touchscreen plus a qwerty keyboard in the body of the phone, similar to the P910 keyboard but with larger keys.
The jog-dial is smaller than the P910’s.

Processor:
Philips Nexperia™ Mobile Multimedia Processor PNX4008 (source)
208 MHz speed (probably)
Processor specifications - NOT phone specifications
Full specifications (PDF)
Key features
• Unique architecture for unprecedented multimedia performance
- ARM9 processor in 90-nm CMOS technology running at 208 MHz
- Dedicated accelerators for video, audio, graphics, and security
subsystems to provide optimized performance and reduce power
consumption
• High-resolution imaging
- Still image capture up to 4 MegaPixels
• Video record/playback
- Simultaneous H.263, MPEG-4 encode/decode of streams up to
CIF resolution at 30 fps
• Video telephony
- Full-duplex, low-latency video encode/decode mode
• Enhanced audio/music
- Dedicated DSP for all audio activities
- Integrated stereo DACs and ADCs
• 3D gaming
- OpenGL-ES compliant 3D graphics accelerator
• Security
- PKI, Symmetric and Hash Coprocessors
- Random Number Generator with fuses for key generation
• Space-saving LFBGA320 package

Operating System:
Symbian OS 9.1
UIQ 3.0

Synchronization:
New ActiveSync system like, licensed from Microsoft.
Source: hermione.cogia.net