We're still smarting from the apparent cancelation of the fabulously powerful K850 from AT&T's 2008 lineup, but as consolation prizes go, the Z750a ain't bad. That being said, it's solidly seated in the midrange, which seems like an unusual place for Sony Ericsson's very first carrier-launched 3G handset for the US to be; the 2 megapixel camera isn't going to "wow" anyone, and the choice of colorful, ultra-gloss shells definitely limits the phone's appeal to a certain demographic. On the bright side, the music player has an XMB appeal to it -- users of other recent Sony Ericssons will feel right at home with the app -- and it's one of the better built-in players currently available on any handset. The Memory Stick Micro slot makes that player just a little trickier to use for anyone that isn't already using Sony Ericsson kit, but c'est la vie, we suppose. Check out some shots in our handy dandy gallery here.

It's not a surprise, but it's still overwhelmingly refreshing to see Sony Ericsson finally (and we do mean finally) bringing some 3G action onto AT&T. The "a" variant of the glossy, colorful Z750 clamshell will be hitting AT&T in an official capacity come early April, featuring an OLED external display cleverly concealed by the phone's translucent shell, a 2 megapixel camera and media player both backed up with Memory Stick Micro M2 expansion, stereo Bluetooth, and of course, that lovely HSDPA 850 / 1900 that's eluded Sony Ericsson's AT&T offerings for far, far too long. Look for it to go out the door for $49.99 after a $100 rebate.

We've just received a fresh round of release dates on AT&T, and if we had to pick a single word to describe the theme here, it'd be "colors." Shades upon shades of phones -- both new and old -- will see a release on AT&T in the next couple of months, starting with the Sony Ericsson Z750a, the first 3G Sony Ericsson to be released by a carrier in the States (but not in North America -- that honor belongs to Rogers); it'll hit in your choice of gray, pink, or purple in early April. The now-ancient UTStarcom 5700 finally sees release toward the end of April more than a year after we first saw it in the FCC's business, giving a lower-end choice to the Windows Mobile faithful. Finally, May should bring about the LG CU720 Shine in black, following its initial offerings of silver and red.

Oh, and it looks like the Motorola Z9 and the black Centro should be widely available pretty much any minute now -- stay tuned. Strangely missing from the list is the Vu, though that doesn't necessarily mean it won't be released by the end of May, it merely means that AT&T's not sure yet. Surprise, surprise.

[Thanks, Kal]

We've already mentioned that the LG Vu is looking solid for a late March release after being held up (or so they say, anyway) to work through a few MediaFLO issues; we've now received independent confirmation that it's true -- assuming no more issues arise, of course -- but that's not all. No, far from it, in fact. The Sony Ericsson Z750 is apparently inbound for a release within two weeks, and along with the rugged Motorola W760 "Hurricane" (pictured), that should close out AT&T's March docket.

Moving on to April and beyond, the Pantech "Breeze" is expected some time next month, but don't get too excited -- it's an entry level flip that should move out the door free on contract. The Motorola Z9 slider should lackadaisically stroll into stores in late April, and finally, we've heard that the Nokia N95 has been approved by the carrier's powers that be (!!!) and should be available in the second quarter; no word on whether it's the standard N95 or the N95 8GB, though. How about an N96 with MediaFLO while you're at it, guys?

[Thanks, Kal]

Update: We've just heard from another tipster that the N95 in question is the original for the North American market, the N95-3. It apparently just started going through the arduous approval process last week, a testing marathon that takes roughly 400 hours -- four to six months -- to complete. By then, we'll all have 4G radios embedded directly within our brains and be living in terraformed colonies on Mars, but it was a nice thought on AT&T's part nonetheless.

We've just been slipped some bittersweet information that we deliver with a heavy heart: AT&T's latest pricing information, which runs through April 7, apparently makes no mention of the hotly anticipated LG Vu. There's no mention of the Samsung Access, either, leading us to believe that the carrier's mobile TV launch may have been pushed out one more time for good measure. Of course, we suppose it's possible that there's no delay and they just haven't slipped pricing details to stores yet, but we're jaded enough at this point to say that another slip is entirely within the realm of reason. Now, onto some happier tidbits: the black version of the Shine should launch, along with the Sony Ericsson Z750 in pink, gray, and purple, the long-overdue 5700 low end smartphone, the white Centro sporting push-to-talk support, and the Motorola Z9 slider -- which AT&T curiously identifies as "ruggedized." We don't remember anything remotely rugged about the one we saw, but whatevs.

[Thanks, Kal]

Wouldn't it be pretty awesome to have the launch dates for, like, all of AT&T's most anticipated devices on one convenient 440 x 330 image? Well, that's not quite what we have here -- the Sony Ericsson K850 is nowhere to be found, for one -- but this is a solid start. It sounds like that SMT5700 (codename "Bulldog," how cool is that?) that we've been anticipating for nearly a year now will finally get outed on February 5 alongside the Vu. We still don't know whether AT&T's MediaFLO network will launch at the same time, and we've heard rumors that there will be a second Vu without MediaFLO support, so we could be seeing that here but we're really not sure. Despite the missing K850, Sony Ericsson's still putting up a reasonably strong showing here with a pink W580i launching this week and the 3G Z750 in grey, pink, and purple on March 11. In addition to the Vu, LG will be offering the CU720 Shine in red on January 22 and in black (ooh, that might look hot!) on February 28. Option's HSUPA data cards are now targeted for January 24, and last -- and probably least -- the Motorola V3xx outstays its welcome by making an encore appearance in "lavender" on the 22nd of this month.

[Thanks, Kal]

It looks like Sony Ericsson may be taking a slightly more high-road approach to its first 3G handsets for North America than Nokia did with the N95, pairing up with AT&T all official-like for the Z750a and K850a. This inventory sheet, apparently off of an AT&T system, indicates as much -- and yes, we realize it's totally Photoshoppable, but the Z750 and K850 both seem like obvious additions for the carrier, don't they? Sony Ericsson could try to sell the phones directly through SonyStyle as it does with other models, but you figure that if they're going to put the effort into finally adding North American 3G, they're going to try to go big by launching it in AT&T stores. With a 5 megapixel camera on the K850, who's complaining?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Sony Ericsson is starting, slowly but surely, to warm up to the concept of North American 3G bands with the K850 candybar and Z750 flip both in the mix (no smartphones yet, but we'll take what we can get). Don't believe it? We don't blame you -- despite the official announcements, neither model has launched yet and Sony Ericsson's been neglecting the market here for years -- but we've got an FCC approval here to back it up. This one happens to be for the Z750i, a reasonably attractive handset featuring a 2 megapixel cam, 2.2 inch primary and OLED secondary displays, integrated FM radio, Memory Stick Micro M2 slot, and Exchange ActiveSync support. Here's the kicker, though: Sony Ericsson has actually committed to launching this tri-band HSDPA phone in North America before the rest of the world, giving us one small victory in the battle to put some quality European hardware in our pockets. No offense, Nokia, we love you guys too.

Sony Ericsson took the wraps off a pair of new Walkman phones today, including the company's first to boast that oft-desired HSDPA connectivity. Starting with the more familiar territory, the company's W580 slider handset will give you quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity, along with a 2-inch QVGA display, 2 megapixel digital camera, an FM radio, and Bluetooth 2.0, among other Walkman-related features, all in 14 mm thick package. The Z750 clamshell phone, on the other hand, adds that aforementioned tri-band HSPDA action to the mix, along with a slightly larger 2.2-inch display, and the same 2 megapixel camera, FM radio, and Bluetooth 2.0. Look for it to roll out in the third quarter of this year as well, with "Phantom Grey" model also available for those that don't dig the pink look.

Read - Sony Ericsson, W580
Read - Sony Ericsson, Z750

[Via HowardForums]