Sony Ericsson K860

Year: 2007
Prototype level: Cancelled
Codename: Severine

Overview

The Sony Ericsson K860, codenamed Severine, was an ambitious Cyber-shot project developed as a successor to the K850. Its defining feature was a three-times optical zoom camera, an unusual capability for a phone at the time, combined with autofocus and a xenon flash. The design remained close to the K850 in overall form, but incorporated a sliding lens cover and other changes intended to turn it into a more advanced camera phone. Early Sony Ericsson portfolio information also described the K860 as a high-end candybar with GPS and DVB-H support. 

Severine was developed far enough to produce highly finished working prototypes, but the project was ultimately cancelled. Contemporary information linked the cancellation to delays surrounding the K850 and the changing direction of Sony Ericsson’s product portfolio. The project resurfaced years later when surviving prototypes appeared, confirming that the phone was much more than an early concept. Some surviving examples are reported to have been close enough to the K850 internally that firmware could be shared, although the optical-zoom camera hardware remained unfinished or problematic. 

For the collection, Severine is a particularly interesting example of a cancelled Cyber-shot flagship: it represents a direction Sony Ericsson was seriously pursuing, but which never became the company’s first commercially released phone with three-times optical zoom. The exact intended retail designation is slightly uncertain, with surviving documentation variously associating the prototype with K860 and K890, but K860 is the designation most commonly connected with Severine.