Personal assistants are expensive, we’d guess, so Sony Ericsson’s launched a handset that it’s claimed is the next best thing.

Sony Ericsson's G705: supports HSDPA and Wi-Fi

The GE705 supports every form of connectivity you'd expect from a cutting-edge phone, including quad-band GPRS/GPS/Edge and HSDPA.

Full HTML web surfing’s available on the handset, not least over Wi-Fi, and web pages can be displayed either horizontally or vertically on the phone’s 2.4in display.

Slide it open or take pictures

A mediocre 3.2-megapixel camera is teamed with a 3.2x digital zoom, with all images stored to the bundled 1GB Memory Stick Micro card. Content can also be moved around over Bluetooth or USB.

M2 memory cards slot into the phone's side

There’s no funky photo features to speak of, like smile detection, but picture blogging and PictBridge image printing are both supported. The phone also supports Assisted GPS and enables the forgetful to geo-tag their images.

The phone has a talk time of around ten hours, but will sit happily awaiting orders for up to 400 hours.

Sony Ericsson’s GE705 will be available later this year, but a price hasn’t been given yet.