This beautiful girl is (code)named Rachael, and Sony Ericsson is going to be releasing this handset as the company’s first Android phone. Sure, it looks a little bit like all of those rushed-to-market smartphones that only exist to counteract the iPhone (Samsung Instinct, cough), but let’s not forget, it’s what’s inside that counts. And Rachael is rocking not only an 8 megapixel camera, but a 1 Ghz processor courtesy of Qualcomm. As far as I’m concerned, that’s by far the fastest processor running on a phone that I care about.
Sadly, that 8 megapixel camera is probably going to keep it out of the hands of US consumers, unless you buy it unlocked from overseas. American cell phone carriers absolutely love charing ridiculous amounts for the data users transmit over their networks. It’s sort of amazing that the iPhone’s unlimited data plan is $30 a month given that AT&T’s text messaging plan costs users around $1300 per megabyte. So providers all around quiver at the idea of users’ transferring eight megapixel pictures over their networks.
If you’re not in America, however (or if you’re willing to drop the cash for the unlocked phone), you will have the Sony Ericsson interface for Android, which looks pretty nice. If you just want the handset with a different Android interface, you’ll probably be able to so; Android phones are not exactly locked-down devices.
(Video and pictures via Boy Genius Report)
