New HD-Capable Sony Ericsson Phone Leaked (Twice Already): Kurara
Right after Sony Ericsson made the XPERIA X10 (AKA Rachael/X3) official, the rumor mill threw out another leak at us. This time it is as model called the Kurara. Kurara seems to be the basic version of the flagship model Satio. For those who don’t know, Satio is a new phone from Sony Ericsson that centers around a 12.1megapixel camera and a 3.5inch screen 16:9 aspect ratio. Over all, it is pitched as a multimedia phone that has a great camera and a great screen that allows you to immerse yourself in the experience.
So the Kurara offers an experience that is more like a toned down version of what you get on the Satio. The rumors peg the camera on this phone at 8.l megapixel and screen is said to be 3.5inch. The other interesting part about this phone is the fact that the screen is apparently AMOLED. The OS is Symbian S60 5thGeneration, again as per the rumors.
The camera is apparently capable of recording HD video. I agree with SlashGear’s Chris Davies here – it probably means that it does 720p video. From the side, you can see the phone has an oblong shape, plus there are dedicated buttons that make it look like a point and shoot instead of a phone. The teardrop profile also makes it look pretty sleek and stylish. That is one thing that Sony has always tried to keep up through almost all its phone – good looks.
The big question is what the UI would be like. Sony Ericsson has already declared that they are making a whole new line around the X10. They have also said that the new UI and UX (User Experience) is going to be cross-platform, so that means it is coming to their Symbian phones as well.
So, to make two plus two, this phone might have the new UI built into it. Won’t that be fun – to have a nice amd basic camera phone with the new fangled UI. In any case, the Kurara does seem like it will be ready for a show ‘n tell at the WMC (World Mobile Congress) 2010.
Sony Ericsson has declared that the Satio will not receive any updates and hence will remain excluded from this new UI endowment. One more bad news is that it looks like the Kurara will not have an USB port. That means yet another phone with the proprietary port. It is called a Universal Serial Bus for a reason you know.
After the initial leak, the phone got a new set of photos where its size was put into perspective by propping it up against a beverage can. The close up of the device further confirms the HD imprint on the back of the device.
Whether these leaks are hurting SE’s development cycle can only be speculated about. It did look like the company was hurried into announcing the X10. Since they are going to bring it out way after the holiday season, there was no reason to make it official so soon. They could’ve taken their time and sprung a more finished product on us.
But our expectations tend to get pretty wild with such continuous leaks and that can hurt the product instead of help it. So companies are always forced to taken some kind of measures to curb the unreasonable expectations. Apple seems to have done that by intentionally hinting at things about the tablet without really leaking anything. So SE perhaps thought it best to let everyone know what they were doing, set an ETA and then get back to working on it. All in all, this year’s WMC is shaping up to be a promising one device-wise.
