Sony Ericsson U5i passes FCC tests, runs Symbian, is not Kurara

There's something strange going on - the Sony Ericsson U5i passed FCC testing a few days ago, but that model number was tossed around as the Sony Ericsson Kurara model number, though this U5i seems to be a different device.

The Sony Ericsson Kurara leaked a while back - a Symbian powered phone with a 3.2" nHD touchscreen and 720p video recording. The Kurara CPU is supposedly a Cortex A8 running at 600MHz and the phone touts 3G with HSPA and Wi-Fi.

The Sony Ericsson U5i that passed the FCC testing however was tested for just two GSM and EDGE bands (850/1900). They also tested 802.11b/b Wi-Fi, but there's no 3G in sight in the test report.

A post on Cellpassion indicates that the Sony Ericsson U5i is indeed 2G only. The other specs they mention is the Symbian OS and nHD screen resolution (no screen size though), oh, and a 2MP camera. Maybe those initial rumors were wrong about the Kurara having the U5i model number.

So, the Sony Ericsson U5i seems to be targeted at the same crowd as the Nokia 5230 and the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic.

Update: It seems that thing about the U5 having only a 2 megapixel camera is not correct. Obviously Cellpassion have taken that spec from a wrong place in the U5i XML file. As it turns out, U5i may still be Kurara (or vice versa) but that doesn't answer why the FCC didn't test any 3G frequencies on their test unit.

The announcement of the U5i (be it Kurara or not) should be expected in Q1 2010 as the Sony Ericsson confidentiality request to FCC expires in the end of March. Of course, we expect a few more leaks before then, but if you know something, do let us know.

Source: FCC, Cellpassion