Sony Ericsson Zylo and Spiro

Available now
13th April 2010

One of a pair of "Walkman" phones, the Sony Ericsson Zylo and its sibling the Sony Ericsson Spiro are (by our reckoning) the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth Walkman phones from Sony Ericsson, and the first additions to this range since the W205 announced a year ago.

Both phones are fairly low end and really just seem to exist in order to refresh the rather dated Walkman phones currently in the range. Given the modest specifications and the somewhat tarnished brand, we don't imagine that these will be hugely popular.

Sony Ericsson Spiro

The simplest of the two phones, the Spiro is a dual-band GSM device with a 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel display, a 2 megapixel camera, an FM radio and a Facebook and Twitter application in addition to the latest version of the Walkman player.

There's a 3.5mm audio socket, stereo Bluetooth and microSD memory, all in a package weighing just 90 grams.

In truth, the Spiro is not terribly sophisticated and is possibly best regarded as a Walkman that can also make phone calls and do some basic web browsing. It should be cheap, but we don't know exactly how cheap it will be.

Sony Ericsson say that the Spiro should be available during Q3 2010 in two shades of black plus pink and green colours.

Sony Ericsson Zylo

A step up from the Spiro, the Sony Ericsson Zylo is a 3G device with a 3.2 megapixel camera and a larger 2.6" 240 x 320 pixel scratch resistant display.

The Zylo adds an FM radio to the Walkman player but there's no mention of a 3.5mm audio jack although it does support stereo Bluetooth. The Zylo also supports Microsoft Exchange synchronisation and can talk directly to Facebook, Twitter and Picasa. There's no GPS, but it can geo-tag photos, presumably using the mobile cell location as a guide, there's also a web browser and email client too.

Talktime on 3G is 3.5 hours with up to 16 days standby time and the Zylo weighs 115 grams. It should be available during Q3 in black, silver and pink colours.

It's not the world's most exciting phone, although the animated cassette tape in the Walkman player is very cool. If your priorities are listening to music, making calls and some basic interaction with the web then it might be worth considering.