Sony Ericsson unveils world's first 12MP phone

Sony Ericsson's 12.1MP Idou
Sony Ericsson's 12.1MP Idou

Sony Ericsson jumped the gun on its competition at Mobile World Congress this year by announcing the world's first 12MP cameraphone, as well as a new Entertainment Unlimited service.

The Idou, which is currently only a concept but will launch in the second half of 2009 features a 12.1MP sensor, a large 3.5-inch touchscreen with 'intuitive touch features' according to Sony Ericsson and a 16:9 widescreen screen ratio.

The Idou will also launch a new interface for Sony Ericsson, based on the work from the Symbian Foundation, so all those who have loved SE's interface for all these years will possibly weep (though the rest of us will cheer).

United we stand

Sony Ericsson also unveiled Entertainment Unlimited, which it said will be "Uniting best in class entertainment experiences into one offering such as the Walkman music experience, the Cyber-shot imaging experience, Java gaming and messaging integrated with services and applications."

The new service will work by allowing easier integration between devices on a home network, and embracing sharing whilst unifying the features of the Walkman and Cyber-Shot brands... no mention of the PSP phone though.

The Entertainment Unlimited 'umbrella' will be used throughout 2009, according top Sony Ericsson, so we'll wait and see what other handsets it inspires.

Check out TechRadar throughout MWC as we get a hands on with the Idou, and see if the 12.1MP sensor really lives up to its billing.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.