Sony Ericsson's Aspen revealed, brings WinMo 6.5.3 with it

Today’s looking to be a pretty big day for both Sony Ericsson and Microsoft: with the official announcement of SE’s new Aspen handset, both companies are ready to show off what they should have done in the first place.

Sony Ericsson has never had much luck with their portrait-QWERTY portfolio, with their last attempt being the weirdo P1i a few years back, but the Aspen looks to be a solid (if rather dull) step in the right direction. It packs a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera, WiFi, A2DP, with quad-band GSM/EDGE support into a svelte little frame, and its Greenheart pedigree means even the most eco-conscious among you will find something to like about it.

Honestly though, the big news lies in the Aspen’s OS: it’s the first WinMo device to run 6.5.3, and while it may sound like yet another pointless incremental update, but it’s really anything but. Thanks to the guys at Redmond, touchscreen performance has been improved and (lest we forget), it adds support for capacitive displays and multitouch. Hopefully, the enhanced touch support will work as snappily as it does on the Zune HD, but if it’s anywhere in the ballpark, consider us satisfied.

The Aspen is set for launch in Q2 of this year, in both black and silver. Joy!

[Sony Ericsson, via Engadget]