Sony Ericsson Summer 2005
Both the W600 and Z520 use Sony Ericsson's new accessory connector, which was first introduced on the K750 and W800. The new connector is smaller, and supports the new, faster USB 2.0 standard.
One of the upcoming accessories for the new connector is a xenon flash attachment, shown above. Xenon is the same kind of flash you'll find in a standalone camera. In other words it's a "real" flash, with much greater range than the LED flashes found in most camera phones. Unlike Sony Ericsson's previous flash attachment which had its own capture button, (and was LED-based,) the new one is fully automatic.
Other new accessories for the new connector include a stereo line-out cable for connecting the W800 or W600 to your home stereo gear, and a charging stand with a pass-through connector for "docking" your phone with your PC or home stereo, using the appropriate cable.
Also introduced was Sony Ericsson's first Bluetooth headset to support the new Bluetooth 2.0 specification - the HBH-610.
Benefits of Bluetooth version 2.0 include greater security, improved handling of radio interference, and better sound quality. In addition, the HBH-610 boosts sound quality even further by using DSP (digital signal processing) to more effectively cancel echoes, reduce noise, and dynamically adjust volume. The unit can also be customized with changeable color covers. Interestingly, this newest headset uses Sony Ericsson's old-style charger connector. The new connector found on the new phones doesn't seem to be modular like the old type.
And finally, the company introduced a new, high-end Bluetooth car kit. The HCB-700 features a five-way joystick control with integrated jog dial, plus a separate LCD display unit. One very thoughtful feature of the display is a backlight that can be adjusted to any color in the rainbow. It can automatically change colors to indicate which phone it is paired with at the moment, or it can be fine-tuned to match the color of your car's dashboard lights, to blend right in with your car's interior.
On a more practical note, it also features voice digit dialing for phones that don't have that feature (most Sony Ericssons don't). Plus it can read practically everything from your phone's memory, so that simply by pairing your phone with the car kit, your call history, contacts, and even voice-dialing tags are all available via the car kit interface.