This much awaited phone has been the talk of the town since it was announced in Feb 2009. At the time of the announcement Sony had predicted the launch of this phone in the 2nd half of 2009; however, rumors suggest that it may be on sale in Oct or Nov 2009. During a recent visit to a press conference we got an opportunity to get a feel of this phone. IDOU is just a prototype name for this model which is still unnamed. 'Idou' in Japanese means 'a change' and looks like this phone is going to change the way we look at phones.

This phone comes with a 12 megapixel camera that is powered by autofocus, a Xenon flash, LED flash for video recording, Smile Shutter technology (it only captures an image when a person is smiling, how cool is that!), geo-tagging and face detection. It also has all the advanced features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, microSD memory slot, USB 2.0 connectivity, touchscreen, HSDPA and an accelerometer, this means that the phone detects the angle in which it's being held and can change the screen to portrait or landscape view. Sony Ericsson IDOU has a 3.5 inch display screen that completely covers the front. The touchscreen is very responsive and easy to use. You can use the touchscreen function on the display to access the camera and phonebook via shortcuts; in addition, there are touch music player controls on the display. You can also access the main menu; the video player, messages, and the search option, there are dedicated keys for each of these at the bottom of the display.

On the right side of the phone are the volume rocker, media player controls and a camera shutter. The left has a headset jack/charger port. It's disappointing that the phone has only one jack and Sony doesn't provide another jack for the headphone. On the top of the display there is a secondary camera which has been designed for video calls. It is well located and has an ambient light sensor; this makes the camera automatically adjust the brightness of the display depending on its surroundings.

As the IDOU is still in its early stages we are unable to completely test and review the software functions. If the software remains stable the IDUO will definitely be a phone to have. At the moment Sony is enjoying the anticipation in the market and is heightening it by keeping mum. It hopes to be able to reveal all soon including the official name of the IDOU phone.

Sam Lee is a mobile enthusiast and runs the popular website Cellular Deals. For more cell phone deals and recommendations on choosing your next cell phone, go to => http://www.cellular-deals.com