Is this a prototype Sony Ericsson Windows Phone?

A picture has surfaced of what appears to be a Sony Ericsson Windows Phone, sporting a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, akin to the LG Qunatum and HTC 7 Pro. The picture evidently appeared on Lizhecome and was picked up by Xperia Blog.

As Pocketnow points out, some of those tiles look like the old, early development ones from when the OS was first introduced in February 2010. That could either mean this was a prototype device, back when SE was announced as a key launch partner, or...ya know, it's fake. We're leading towards the former theory though only because of the hardware buttons--those don't looked photoshopped to our eyes and would be a lot harder to fake than a single screen shot.

If it is a prototype, it sure looks nice and we hope SE has a change of heart soon and maybe brings this out. Anywho, discuss away on your theory.

Source: Lizhecome; via Xperia Blog, Pocketnow, nanapho.jp; Thanks, tezawaly

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.