Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's Z750 and W850

Sony Ericsson is making the rounds at CTIA with a couple of slick new handsets that are, indeed, coming to the U.S. market. First up is the Z750, a looker of a clamshell that marks Sony Ericsson's first HSDPA phone for the States. Right off the bat, I was impressed with the mirrored, translucent shell, which lights up with caller ID and message info when calls or text messages arrive.

I also liked the razor-sharp 2.2-inch display and the roomy, easy-to-use keypad. Even better, though, is the Z750's support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Direct Push-yet another consumer-oriented handset that can tap into corporate e-mail servers, fast on the heels of the just-announced Helio Ocean. Meanwhile, the phone also comes with a 2-megapixel camera, picture-blogging capabilities, a slot for M2 memory expansion, and an RSS ticker. Not too shabby.

I also had a chance to check out Sony Ericsson's latest Walkman phone. The W850 has a slider design and, at about 3.3 ounces, felt surprisingly light for its size. Most of the Walkman features you'd normally expect are here, including a media player, an FM radio, an M2 memory expansion slot, and support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, plus a pedometer if you're taking the W850 for a run. The quad-band EDGE phone lacks 3G capabilities, so you won't be able to download full-length music files or watch streaming TV, although the 2-megapixel camera will let you blog your snapshots on the fly. My favorite feature? The glowing lights that flank the keypad and turn orange when you switch over to the Walkman player.

Both the Z750 and the W850 should arrive sometime in the third quarter, according to Sony Ericsson; the EDGE-only W850 could be on either Cingular or T-Mobile, while I'm guessing that the HSDPA-enabled Z750 will just be for Cingular.