Ever wanted to write a quick message to yourself, but no pen and paper are handy? You could write yourself a text message on your phone, but punching away on that keypad can get a little tedious. With Sony Ericsson's Z558, you'd be able to write directly on the phone's LCD, thanks to the touchscreen and stylus interface. Presumably the tiny stylus would slide out of the phone's body somewhere, because the last thing we need is another small gadget to misplace. The possibilities are pretty compelling, though — if you're someone who hates text messaging because of the unintuitive keypad lettering, then you could write out your messages longhand and have the phone's handwriting-recognition software convert it to a text message. Or, if the software sucks (as it probably does), just save your notes as "pictures," and send them to people via picture messaging instead. The onboard memory is a paltry 18 MB, but you can jack that up to 1 GB with some SD-card action. And the slick brushed-metal finish certainly doesn't hurt. The Z558 is set to hit stores in October, though exactly where is a little unclear. New Launches says China (Z558c) and "other markets" (Z558i). That could mean your neighborhood, though I wouldn't bet the farm on it. No price info yet.
— Peter Pachal

Sony Ericsson, via New Launches