Sony Ericsson Jalou (Sony Ericsson BeJoo)

The Sony Ericsson Jalou is a very distinctive looking and lightweight fashion phone, due to hit the shops in time for Christmas.

Sony Ericsson describe the Jalou's shape as a "facet cut jewel form" and although the look is reminiscent of the Nokia 7070 Prism, the Jalou is a much more sophisticated handset.

The "Jalou" and "BeJoo" are two different names for the same device - the phone will be called the "Jalou" worldwide except for France where the "BeJoo" name will be used. The reason? Well, according to Sony Ericsson the "Jalou" name is too close to the French word for "Jealous", which goes to show that giving products a name rather than a number can be fraught with danger*.

In addition to the standard version of the Jalou, there is also a Dolce & Gabbana variant with gold plating, a rose colouring and exclusive D&G content. Alternatively the standard (and presumably cheaper) Jalou comes in "Deep Amethyst", "Aquamarine Blue" and "Onyx Black" colour combinations.

The diamond shape is not the only thing that gives the Jalou a distinctive look - it's also a lot less tall than most clamshell phones, measuring just 73 x 45 x 18mm when closed. Sony Ericsson have gone for this unusual size to make the phone as compact as possible, so it should fit it into the tiniest bag or jacket pocket. The Jalou is also very lightweight, coming in at just 84 grams.

So, what does the Jalou actually do from a technical perspective? Well, it's a fairly standard 3G phone with a 2" 240 x 320 pixel display, a 3.2 megapixel camera, microSD expandable memory, stereo Bluetooth and a multimedia player. There's a semi-concealed external display underneath the glossy casing, and you can also use the Jalou as a mirror to check just how gorgeous you are looking.

In Europe, the Jalou will support 2100 MHz UMTS plus HSDPA downloads, there will also be a US version which supports 900 and 1700 MHz UMTS and has the very useful addition of built-in GPS. We don't know why there's no GPS in the European version.. that would have been a pretty cool thing to have in a fashion phone. But, in other words.. the Jalou's beauty is not just skin deep.

It's an unashamedly girlie phone - some of the applications on the Jalou include a step counter, zodiac application and of course all the usual features such as a web browser and email client, plus a media player and FM radio. The display might be a little small for web browsing, but the inclusion of 3.5G data does at least mean that it will be quite fast.

There's no word on pricing, our best guess is that the standard Jalou will retail for about €400 SIM-free. Sony Ericsson say that both the standard and the D&G version should be available during Q4 2009.