Sony Ericsson just announced their new Sony Ericsson M600 cellphone, and it sure looks dead sexy. Flip-less cousin to the Sony Ericsson P990, the stylish M600’s advantage lies in its compact form factor coupled with powerful business functions. These include PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors, Adobe PDF viewer, RSS reader, push email supporting services such as BlackBerry Connect, Seven and Visto, and UMTS 2100MHz for fast downloads.

Other features include 2.6-inch 240×320 262k color display, dual function QWERTY keypad, 3-way jog dial, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo audio support and 80MB of internal memory expandable with Memory Stick Micro cards. Also, it is the second phone, after P990, to run on the new Symbian 9.1 OS and UIQ 3.0 interface.

As cool as the feature set looks, the M600 lacks some handy features such as a digital camera and WiFi support. And the other possible con is the way the QWERTY keys are laid out. It looks like it’ll need some serious effort getting used to.

The M600 will begin shipping 2nd quarter of 2006 in 2 flavors, M600i and M600c, with the former for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas, and the latter for Mainland China. Price is unavailable at this time.

Sony Ericsson M600 – Features at a glance:

Imaging & Messaging

• QVGA 2.6’’ display
• 262K colours TFT
• Video playback 30 fps
• Online picture sharing
• SMS, MMS, POP3 e-mail
• Push e-mail
• Dual function keyboard
• Typing corrections and word completion
• Handwriting Recognition
• Touch screen

Entertainment

• Media Player (support for MP3, AAC, ACC+, E-AAC+ and m4a)
• OMA DRM phase 1
• Streaming Audio/Video
• Audio out over system connector
• 3D games, Java MIDP 2.0
• 40 Polyphonic ring tones

Connectivity

• Dual Mode UMTS 2100 MHz, triple band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz
• Symbian 9.1 and UIQ 3.0
• Stereo Bluetoothâ„¢ support
• Infrared SIR
• 80 MB internal user memory
• Expandable Memory Stick Microâ„¢ (M2â„¢)
• Full HTML browser Opera 8
• RSS feeds
• Flight mode
• PC Tools & Software
• PC Synchronization
• USB 2.0 Mass storage, Full speed (12 Mbps)
• USB charging
• External antenna connector
• Stereo Portable Handsfree and USB cable in box

Business

• VPN clients (for free)
• Encryption (try & buy apps)
• Virus Protection/Firewall ( try & buy apps)
• Onboard application shop
• Speakerphone
• PowerPoint, Word and Excel editors
• Adobe PDF viewer