Sony Ericsson Satio

Before beginning this Sony Ericsson Satio review, we need to clear something up – Satio is pronounced Sah-tee-oh, apparently! Right, with that out the way, let’s have a look at what the Sony Ericsson Satio has to offer.

Imagine having the perfect mix of camera and phone, with a huge 12.1 megapixel camera capable of taking superb pictures, coupled with a touchscreen user interface and all the mobile connectivity and multimedia features you could ever wish for. That, in a nutshell, is the Sony Ericsson Satio.

When Sony Ericsson decide to create a flagship mobile phone, they don’t mess about – they create one that blows the competition out the water! The Satio might not be the first 12.1 megapixel camera phone on the market (the Samsung Pixon 12 takes that honour, at least in Europe and the US), but is the best – and by a long long way.

Read on after the jump for the complete Sony Ericsson Satio review.

Five reasons to buy the Sony Ericsson Satio

1. It’s the best camera phone on the market by far. 12.1 megapixels, autofocus, face detection, image stabilization and tonnes more makes the quality of its pictures better than many dedicated cameras.
2. Huge list of features, including GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, and video recording/streaming
3. Stunning 3.5″ touchscreen with 16 million colours
4. Great Web browsing experience, plus built-in Facebook and YouTube apps
5. Integrated Google maps with turn by turn navigation

…and some downsides

• Old-looking user interace that’s now looking increasingly dated
• Features and Web apps are less integrated than on some other phones
• No 3.5mm headphone jack

Overview of the Sony Ericsson Satio

The Sony Ericsson Satio is a brilliant blend of camera and phone. On the front, it’s clearly a touchscreen phone, while on the back, it’s clearly a camera. Inside, it’s both, perfectly mixed with the right combination of superb picture taking features and mobile phone options.

I’ll talk about the picture-taking abilities of the Satio in a minute. For the moment, just accept that you won’t find a better camera phone on the market today, so if it’s a quality camera phone you need, stop reading now and go buy the Satio!

Before that, though, I’ll talk first about the Satio’s other features; it’s mobile phone features, connectivity options, Web browsing, GPS, media player, 3D games, video streaming (including YouTube videos), and pretty much every other option that Sony Ericsson could throw at this beast!

The Satio’s screen

The Satio comes with a 3.5″ touschreen with a 16:9 widescreen display. Capable of displaying over 16 million colours at a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels, the screen is superb, which is pretty much what you’d hope for with a phone designed to take perfect pictures. Not much point taking the perfect picture if you can’t actually view it properly!

The only downside of the Satio’s screen is that the touchscreen nature of it is based on resistive technology rather than capacitive, like the iPhone and Android. This means that you need a fingernail or stylus (supplied) to use the touchscreen successfully. You can’t simply slide your finger on the screen and expect things to work like they do on the iPhone.

On a smartphone, this would be criminal (as it is on the Nokia N97!). But the Satio’s not a smartphone; it’s a camera phone, and it’s touchscreen is perfectly adequate for the Satio’s needs/

The body of the Satio

The Satio comes in a candybar form factor with no keypad. Indeed, the only physcial buttons are the call accept, cancel and a menu button. Every other feature is accessed via the touchscreen.

From the front, the Satio looks like any other touchscreen device. The back, however, is a different story, as it’s here that the Satio’s true power really lies – it’s gigantic 12.1 megapixel camera!

There’s a glorious and huge slide out lens-cover on the Satio which adds to the feeling of quality. This “power bulge” reveals the lens underneath with its focal range written proudly. Above it is the xenon flash – the best in the business, no less!

Make no mistake, the Satio, is no shrinking violet – at 112mm x 55mm x 13.3 mm, and weighing in at 126 grams, it’s not exactly a slimline device! However, you wouldn’t expect a flagship phone to be super-slim, and it’s certainly no bigger than its main competitors (it’s about the same size as a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, for example).

The Satio’s main features

Inside, Sony Ericsson have packed the Satio with a huge array of features. As well as the camera-specific features, which we’ll come to in a minute, the Satio also contains the following:

• 12.1 megapixel camera with auto-focus, xenon flash and geo-tagging
• A-GPS
• Google Maps
• Turn by turn navigation
• Media player
• Web-kit Web browser (the same one used on Nokia smartphones, Android phones and the iPhone)
• Virtual QWERTY keyboard
• Landscape and portrait mode with automatic switching between the two according to the phone’s orientation
• HD and 3D games
• Facebook application
• Video streaming and viewing
• YouTube
• Wi-Fi
• HSDPA
• Quad-band GSM
• TV-Out and USB

This is pretty much everything we’d expect from a feature phone these days, and is another of the great qualities of the Satio – it has a great camera and it doesn’t compromise on features. Better still, because it’s Sony Ericsson, all the features work exactly as they should, with top quality results across the board.

There is, however, one omissions – the Satio has a proprietary headphone jack, rather than a standard 3.5mm jack used by virtually every other manufacturer on the market.

User interface and overall user experience

The Satio uses the Symbian S60 mobile operating system that’s also found in other phones such as the Nokia N97. However, this operating system is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and as user interfaces go, the Satio’s is looking rather dated.

It’s not that it’s bad. Indeed, in many ways, it’s virtually the same as any other Sony Ericsson user interface. But that’s my point – the interface hasn’t changed all that much in over 5 years and still resembles that of the Sony Ericsson S700 I bought back in 2005! There’s a few nice touches, such as improved icons, a few fancy transitions, and of course the touchscreen display itself, but it already looks dated, and it’s not even on the market yet!

That said, this isn’t a fashion phone, and it isn’t designed to go head to head with the likes of the iPhone. It’s designed to be the best camera phone one the market with a superb range of features. We’ve already checked out its range of features – what, them, of the Satio’s camera?

The Sony Ericsson Satio’s camera

Sony Ericsson have done all they could to make the Satio the best camera on the market. To do this, they’ve added the following features:

• 12.1 megapixel camera
• Xenon flash (the best type for camera phones)
• Dual LED flash (for recording video)
• Up to 12x digital zoom
• Auto focus
• BestPic
• Face detection
• Geo tagging of photos
• Image stabilizer
• Photo feeds
• Photo fix
• Send to web
• Red-eye reduction
• Smile detection
• Touch focus
• Video recording

That doesn’t tell the whole story though. What you get with the Satio is an experience much closer to that of a digital camera than you’d expect with a mobile phone.

Take, for example, focusing. Not only does the Satio come with auto-focus (which you’d expect), it also has face detection, which locks onto a face and focuses automatically on it without you having to do anything. Switch on smile detection, and the Satio won’t take a picture until it detects a smile (or a gurn – it might be clever, but it still can’t distinguish between attractive and minging smiles!).

There’s an image stabilizer which reduces vibration, automatic geo tagging of your pictures, red eye reduction and touch focus, which is my personal favourite. This lets you adjust the focus of the camera by touch. You simply line up your shot so the the picture is shown on the screen, then touch the screen where you want the camera to focus. It makes taking great quality pictures a snap, and shows just how well touchscreens work with cameras.

Google android G1

It's been a little more than a year since Google Android was announced and rumors of a little device called the HTC Dream started to leak onto the Web. We think it's fair to say that the Dream stirred up as much anticipation and hype as the Apple iPhone, not only because it would be the first smartphone to run Google's mobile platform but also because of the potential to overtake Apple's darling. (Hey, like it or not, the iPhone set a new bar for handset design and convergence, and serves as a sort of benchmark for touch-screen smartphones these days.)

On September 23, the world was officially introduced to the HTC Dream, now known as the T-Mobile G1, and the initial reaction ranged from "That's it?" to "I have to have it!" Unfortunately, we fell more into the "That's it?" camp. From the outset, the G1 offered more functionality than the original iPhone and even the current iPhone 3G (before iPhone OS 3.0), including copy and paste, multimedia messaging, a better camera, and Google Street View. It also delivers good call quality and snappy performance. T-Mobile's recent roll out of the Android 1.5 Cupcake update also fixes the issue of previously missing features, including video recording, stereo Bluetooth support, and a soft keyboard. However, there are still some omissions, such native Microsoft Exchange support, and nagging design quirks that left us cold.

Despite these complaints, we did come away impressed with the Google Android operating system. There's huge potential for the G1 (and any Android devices after it) to become powerful minicomputers as developers create more applications for the open platform. Right now, there are only about 35 apps in the store, so we feel the G1 is a bit limited. Obviously, there's enough curiosity about Google Android to attract buyers; and in fact, preorders for the G1 have already sold out. However, it doesn't quite offer the mass appeal and ease of use of an iPhone, so the G1 isn't a good fit for anyone making the jump from a regular cell phone to their first smartphone. Power business users also might want to hold off until more corporate support and productivity applications are added. We'd say the T-Mobile G1 is best-suited for early adopters and gadget hounds who love tinkering around and modding their devices. We'll continue to test the G1 and applications as more are added, and though we hope for better hardware in the future, we're excited about Google Android and feel it could change the way we use smartphones. The T-Mobile G1 will be available through T-Mobile black, white, or bronze and costs $149.99 with a two-year contract.

Design
The T-Mobile G1 is manufactured by HTC and has a similar look and feel to the company's other Pocket PC smartphones, such as the T-Mobile Wing and the Sprint Mogul. Measuring 4.6 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.6 inch deep and weighing 5.6 ounces, the G1 is definitely not the sleekest device, and we certainly wouldn't call it sexy. Instead, the words "interesting" and "weird" come to mind. This is mostly because the bottom section of the phone juts out at a slight angle. We asked HTC about this design decision but have yet to hear from them as of press time. Presumably, it's to get the phone's speaker closer to your mouth, which isn't a bad thing but consequently, it affects the ergonomics of the keyboard, which we'll touch on later. In a battle of pure looks, the iPhone would win hands down.

In a battle based on looks, we'd probably have to give it to the Apple iPhone.

Keyboard
That said, the G1 has solid construction and features a soft-touch finish on the back that provides a nice rubberlike texture, making it easy to grip the phone and comfortable to hold. Also, there's a good reason for G1's larger size: a full QWERTY keyboard. There are a number of users who are reluctant to switch to a full touch-screen smartphone because of the lack of a tactile keyboard, so the G1 is certainly an attractive option for such customers.

To access the keyboard, just push the screen to the right. The sliding mechanism is fairly interesting in that it's not a straight up-and-down motion; the screen actually swings out slightly to the left before snapping into place. We were indifferent to this design quirk; we didn't find any particular advantage or disadvantage, just something to note. The sliding motion was smooth, but after a few days of use, we started to notice a creaking sound whenever we nudged the screen--not good.

The T-Mobile G1 has the advantage of a full QWERTY keyboard. While spacious, the bottom portion of the phone makes it awkward to type.

The keyboard itself is a reminiscent of the T-Mobile Sidekick, as many observers pointed out during our review period. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since we like the Sidekick's keyboard. The buttons are a bit small, but overall the keyboard feels roomy and there's enough spacing between the keys that we think it shouldn't give too many users problems. If anything, we wish the buttons were raised a bit more, since right now, they're set flush with the phone's surface. The bigger issue is that the bottom section of the G1 makes it awkward to hold the phone when typing messages, since your right hand doesn't quite have the full range of motion. It definitely affected the speed and accuracy of typing.

With the release of the Android 1.5 update, the G1 now has an onscreen portrait and landscape keyboard, providing you with another way to enter text onto the smartphone. With a physical keyboard, some might wonder why a soft keyboard is even needed but it was annoying and inconvenient to have to slide open the phone every time you wanted to type anything, such as a simple search term or a URL address, so we're happy to see this added feature. In addition, the update supports the installation of third-party keyboards as well.

Touch screen
When you slide open the phone, the screen orientation automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode. With the Cupcake update, the G1's built-in accelerometer has been activated to work in a number of applications, such as e-mail, the Web browser, Google Maps, and more, so the screen orientation will automatically change when you rotate the phone.

The actual display measures 3.2 inches diagonally and has a 320x480 resolution. It's vibrant and sharp, and like the iPhone and RIM BlackBerry Storm, the touch screen is capacitive, so it will only respond to the touch of your finger and not your fingernail or other objects like a stylus. The G1 provides haptic feedback, but only for certain actions and not with every touch. First, you'll feel a slight vibration when performing a long press on an icon. Overall, we thought this was fine, but there were times when the G1 didn't register our actions, so some kind of confirmation would have been nice.

To access various functions within an application, you can perform another long press and a window will pop up with your options. It's contextual, so the menu items will always be relevant to the program you are in. You can swiftly navigate through lists with a quick flick, or you can drag your finger for a slower, more precise look. In addition, you can pan and move Web pages and other documents by holding and then moving your finger around the screen. Unlike the iPhone, however, the G1's touch screen isn't multitouch, so you can't zoom in and out of pages by pinching your fingers apart. Admittedly, we really missed this feature, since it makes viewing Web pages and pictures easy, but it's not necessary.

User interface
Overall, the T-Mobile G1's interface is clean, fun, and easy to use. You have the freedom to customize the Home screen with your favorite apps, and you can do this in a couple of ways. For example, you can do a long press on the Home page, which will bring up a menu where you can add shortcuts, widgets, or change the wallpaper. The Android 1.5 update also brings a home screen widget bundle of an analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search.

To add more shortcuts, there's a little tab along the bottom edge of the screen that you can touch and then pull up, which will reveal a full menu of applications. From there, you do a long press on an icon and then drag it to the Home screen. To remove it, perform the same touch action and then drag it to the trash can. Note that this action simply removes it from the screen and doesn't delete the application from your device. There are also sliding panels to the left and right where you can add more shortcuts, and there's a notification bar at the top, which you can pull down like a window shade and view missed calls, new messages, downloads, and more.

There's a lot to like about the G1 interface, with its glass touch-screen display, the slide-out QWERTY keyboard (although we don't like the small keys), and the Pearl-like trackball for navigation. We would even say that the responsiveness of the touch screen is on a par with that on the iPhone's. But we have to say its overall interface just isn't as intuitive. For example, as with most every other phone, the need to dip into the menu layout every time we wanted to access something can get a bit clunky. Yes, it's possible to drag out your favorite applications as shortcuts, but that means you need to spend quite a bit of time setting that up. With the iPhone, there is no home screen at all; you're brought directly to the menu. We realize that the iPhone is a very unique phone in this sense, but in a strict comparison between the G1 and the iPhone, the iPhone's interface wins out.

While you'll use the touch screen most of the time, there are some navigation buttons below the display, including a trackball and a Menu key.

Also, though we like the aforementioned trackball and menu bar, it just isn't quite as smooth as the multitouch gestures on the iPhone, especially for zooming in and out of pictures. This is even more apparent in the browser application, which we'll explore later.

Exterior features
Below the display, you get some tactile navigation controls, including Talk and End/Power buttons, a Home shortcut, a back button, a trackball navigator, and a Menu key. Similar to the touch screen, the Menu button is contextual to what application you're in at the time. For example, if you're in the Web browser and press Menu, you will get options to open a new window, go to a URL, bookmark a page, and so on. It's a minor issue, but we're a bit annoyed that pressing the End/Power key automatically locks the handset; we're used to having the End/Power key as a shortcut to exit the application. Because of this, we ended up having to unlock the screen frequently, which got annoying.

The left spine holds a volume rocker and a microSD expansion slot. To access the latter, you have to push the screen open in order to remove the protective cover. On the right side, you will find a camera activation/capture button, though you can also press the trackball to take pictures. We actually preferred this method, since the dedicated camera key was a bit small. Plus, when holding the phone horizontally, our thumb had a tendency to keep nudging the screen upward while trying to take a picture.

Much to our disappointment, the G1 does not have a standard headphone jack; instead, you must use the USB port and an audio adapter.

On the bottom of the unit, there is a mini USB port, which is protected by an attached cover. This is where you can connect the power charger and sadly, this is also your only option for connecting a headset. There's no dedicated headphone jack, 3.5mm or otherwise, which is really disappointing. We've asked HTC about this decision, but again, have yet to hear back from them as of press time. Yes, there's a headset included in the box, but you don't get the same comfort and quality as you would with a nice pair of headphones. If you want the privilege of using your own 'phones, you'll have to spend extra money to buy an adapter.

Last but not least, the camera lens sans flash or self-portrait mirror is located on the back, and the G1 offers a user-replaceable battery.

Accessories
The T-Mobile G1 comes packaged with a travel charger, a USB cable, a wired headset, a 1GB microSD card, a soft protective case, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.

Features
As the first smartphone to run the Google Android operating system, what does the T-Mobile G1 offer? Well, it delivers a lot of the basic core functions and of course, tight integration with Google's products, including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. Wireless options and multimedia capabilities are also well represented on the G1.

Voice features
The T-Mobile G1 is a quad-band world phone and offers a speakerphone, voice dialing, conference calling, and speed dial. There is not support for visual voice mail. The address book is limited only by the available memory, while the SIM card can hold an additional 250 contacts. One nice convenience is if you have a Gmail account; all your contacts will automatically be synchronized to the phone book, and Android 1.5 lets you see your Google Talk friends' status in your address book as well as in messaging apps. Each entry has room for multiple phone numbers, e-mail addresses, IM handles, postal address, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a photo to a contact as well as a group ID and one of 33 polyphonic ringtones. There's even a setting to send a contact's phone call directly to voice mail every time--good if you really don't like someone we suppose. The G1 supports T-Mobile's MyFaves service, giving you unlimited calls to five contacts, regardless of carrier. Individual plans for MyFaves start at $29.99 a month.

Bluetooth is onboard with support for wireless headsets, hands-free kits, and now thanks to Android 1.5, stereo Bluetooth and audio/video remote control.

Sony Ericsson Aino

Sony Ericsson Aino is without a doubt one entertaining slider. It does pretty much all the stuff the other Sony Ericsson feature phones do, but does it better. It brings in some heavy multimedia firepower such as a PS3-inspired touch menu, a large 3-inch touchscreen, VGA@30fps video recording.

Of course, Wi-Fi and GPS are also in the mix to make the device that much more tempting. The Remote Play feature, initially developed for PSP, enables users to control and access media content on Playstation 3 from their phone.

Sony Ericsson Aino

Unfortunately, we don't really find the Sony Ericsson Aino exterior breathtaking. It rather takes a somewhat conservative approach and an unassuming touch-only look, when it's not opened.

Sony Ericsson Aino at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/2100, GPRS/EDGE class 10, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA, 2 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen slider
• Dimensions: 104 x 50 x 15.5 mm, 134 g
• Display: 3-inch 16M color TFT display, 240 x 432 pixel resolution
• Memory: 55MB integrated memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• UI: Proprietary Flash-based UI
• Still camera: 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, smile detection, image stabilizer, smart contrast
• Video recording: VGA video recording at 30 fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, GPS receiver with A-GPS support
• Misc:Partial touchscreen functionality, accelerometer for screen auto rotate, FM radio with RDS, Remote play for Playstation 3
• Battery: 1000 mAh battery

The Sony Ericsson Aino is the first phone by Sony Ericsson to sport a widescreen and touchscreen display. Yes, the 3-inch screen is actually touch-enabled but only in the multimedia part of the menu and the camera interface.

The 8 megapixel camera is all there as well, so you can bet you get all the goodies that Sony Ericsson can offer in one single device.

The Sony Ericsson Aino

Well, the Sony Ericsson Aino is in our lab right now and it's ready for some pre-release action. There are limitations of course - for instance, the camera is nowhere near proper working condition, but there's plenty of time ahead of market release. We really hope to get a better working unit.

But let's not keep you waiting any longer. Head on to the next page for our hands-on scoop of the Sony Ericsson Aino hardware and ergonomics.