Sony Ericsson's Walkman mobile range gets a new 8GB model - the W980i - a 3G HSDPA phone with an FM transmitter inside for sending tunes to radios

Sony Ericsson has pumped up its music mobile lineup with the release of the W980i Walkman music mobile, a smart clamshell device with 8GB of internal storage, and an FM radio transmitter built in. The W980i Walkman is also the first of the music-centric range to use Walkman on Top external music player controls on the front of the phone's flip.
Sony Ericsson promises an enhanced clear audio performance from its new W980i Walkman, and room for up to 8,000 tracks inside. The W980i doesn't offer Memory Stick Micro (M2) card expansion, however, just the onboard 8GB of storage.

The 3G HSDPA, quad-band GSM/GPRS phone supports downloading of tracks over the air, with links to Sony Ericsson's PlayNow service embedded in the phone. It includes the Shake control and SensMe functions included on recent Walkman mobiles, but introduces an FM transmitter for the first time - enabling W980i users to transmit their tunes to other nearby FM radio devices, including hi-fis and car stereos.

It comes equipped with Sony Ericsson's usual array of Walkman phone standard gadgetry, including TrackID, stereo Bluetooth and an FM radio with RDS. A 3.2-megapixel camera is in the spec too, with picture and video blogging options for captured images. Video calling, downloading and streaming are all part of the feature rundown too, and a full web browser is onboard, with RSS feed support.
The W980i has a 2.2-inch, 262,144-colour QVGA (240x320 pixels) internal display and a smaller 176x176 pixels 262,144-colour external screen, and music player battery life of up to 16 hours.

Available in Piano Black, the Sony Ericsson W980i is due to hit the shelves in the third quarter of 2008.