For most, the thought of spending $500 or more on a phone conjures one of two images: a high-end, do-it-all smartphone, or for 98 percent of the populace, insanity. There's a rare breed out there, though, that'll gladly shell out serious dough to get that ultimate, well executed, gorgeous, glossy phone delivered from the furthest reaches of the globe. Notice we said "phone" -- not smartphone -- and that's a key distinction here. The Sony Ericsson K850i blurs that line in some respects, but at the end of the day, you're paying some serious dinero for a powerful piece of kit that's still fundamentally tied down by its closed, proprietary platform. Yep, that's right, the K850i's a dumbphone -- albeit one of the hottest dumbphones we've ever seen or used, complete with triband HSDPA. So is the price justified? Does Sony Ericsson have any business stuffing this much power into a non-UIQ handset to begin with? We're pretty sure it's "yes" on both counts; read on to find out why.

Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup!

A Chinese site has scored pictures of what is claimed to be the successor to the recently-released K850, in turn the successor to the lauded K800 "Wilma" that ushered in Sony's "Cyber-shot" camera branding to the world of handsets. Actually, all they really managed to score was the device's shell, which reveals a couple interesting tidbits: it'll maintain the K850's bizarre square keys, and it alleges to sport a 3x optical zoom. With that kind of lens power, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that there'll be a 5 megapixel sensor lurking under that protective cover (if not greater), making Sony Ericsson's next round of product announcements a potential boon for shutterbugs. Stay tuned.

[Via Gearfuse]

Don't you love it when the rumor mill actually produces some realizable results? While just about everyone had their doubts about the so-called "Bravia phone" that was supposedly coming down the pike, it looks like Sony, er, Sony Ericsson's SO903iTV will be the first handset to get the proper Bravia treatment. Aside from sporting a stylish red shell, landscape orientation, 3-inch widescreen display, and about every Sony-owned logo you can imagine, this mobile also gets a built-in TV tuner with "time-shift video recording." You'll also find a two-megapixel CMOS camera and a microSD card for loading up your media, but unfortunately for most of the world, we'll never get to touch it. Currently, the phone is set to launch solely on Japan's NTT DoCoMo, but given enough time, Sony might warm up to other markets in the future. Click on through for another shot.