Sony Ericsson has finally launched the Satio, the phone it showed off back in February under the guise of Idou, packing the best of all its brands into one phone. But can the sheer range of gadgetry and a new OS be enough to lure customers back to the brand?
Not content with being leaders in cameraphone and multimedia technology, Sony Ericsson has decided to put the two Walkman and Cybershot brands together in the new Satio. This means an industry-leading camera, a full range of multimedia playback options and it's based on Symbian S60 5th edition to boot.
The overall feel of the handset is odd. Thanks to the sheer range of camera-related gadgetry on board the rear of the phone has a massive camera section bolted to the back, which makes it a little chunky.
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But weirdly the phone didn't feel heavy at all – in fact we thought the battery needed to be put in, it was so light, but the power pack was snugly under the cover, so this is pretty impressive.
The Satio feels OK in the hand – it's not snug, but the 3.5-inch touchscreen (although sadly resistive rather than capacitive) is well positioned, and most of the functions are within a thumb's reach.
The front of the phone is very minimal – it's got a call, hang up and menu key, and that's about it. We would have quite liked to see a cancel/back button too, but that obviously wasn't on Sony Ericsson's agenda with the new Symbian OS it's packing.
There is a front facing video camera on there too for all that video calling fun everyone has these days, but it's down the sides of the phone where the button frenzy really begins.
On the left-hand side is the slider for unlocking the phone (which is in just about the right place for most hands), the standard Sony Ericsson port for USB connection, charging and headphone connection (boo!). Below that lives the microSD slot, which is covered by a nice hinged flap.
Over on the right side of the phone we get the camera controls, with the zoom buttons doubling as the volume up/down keys, despite having the 'proper' zoom icons on.
Below this is the photograph playback key, allowing quick access to your snaps in both camera mode and standby. There's also a video/camera swap hard key as well, which we're trying to work out if it has another function in other applications. It appears not to.
And below that is the stylishly hewn shutter for the camera. This side of the phone is well put together, laid out in the right manner and given the Satio's penchant for touch operation, a welcome addition.
On the back we've already mentioned the massive camera section, and while the cover might be massive it still has a really pleasing action to it, uncovering the decent lens underneath.
It's not the most wieldy of phones, we'll admit, but given the sheer amount of technology under the hood we're happy to say this is pretty much the best job Sony Ericsson could have done.
In the box
The Satio is being tipped as a multimedia device, and to that end the box is filled with audio and visual goodies. We've already pointed out how very, very disappointed we are there's no 3.5mm headphone jack on the Satio, but Sony Ericsson has tried to temper that problem with a variety of headphone options in the box.
The connector also comes with a music controller, which works pretty well for both media and as a hands free unit. The bundled buds are of a slightly better quality than the usual pin-thick ones Sony Ericsson puts in the box, but we quickly changed these to some better options.
However, if you do want to use them, there's a variety of ear buds to fit your ears, which we liked.
Video-wise, Sony Ericsson wants you to see the Satio as more of a multimedia hub, and to that end has popped a video out cable in the box (and a pretty rugged, rubberised one at that). It connects using the standard port on the side, and allows you to pump whatever you want to the TV from the phone.
Beyond that, there's a charger, a USB cable and a stylus – you might as well have this if you're using a resistive screen, and handwriting recognition works better with it.
And there's no installation CD in the box – Sony Ericsson has placed that on the phone in the bundled 8GB microSD card. We like this idea a lot, as it just simplifies the process, so well done to SE
Samsung genio touch!
This phone is like one of the most amazing phones ever, this is because of all the different covers you can get for them I have on of these phones and i reccomend them deeply! More information will be on soon!
TheiPhone 3GS was announced on June 8, 2009, and has improved performance, a camera with more megapixels and video capability, and voice control.[23] It was released in the U.S., Canada and 6 European countries on June 19, 2009,[3] in Australia and Japan on June 26,[24] and saw international release in July and August, 2009.
The Iphone 3Gs also has many features that the other Iphones didn't have such as: Bigger memory for more apps and voice control. However the Iphone 3Gs doesn't have blutooth.
More information about the Iphone can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone .
Curved mobile phones on their way?
Mobile phones have come in all manner of different shapes and sizes over the years. Standard candy bars, clamshells, sliders, swivel designs - even odd origami-like multi-twisty phones. One thing all these different phone types have in common, though, is flatness. The fascia of the phone is always completely flat, largely because the screen itself has to be flat.
Somehow similar to the Snaked concept, the NEC Tag is a flexible phone concept that can be , for example, hung from a belt or wrapped around the user’s arm. Interesting is that the phone has shape-memorizing material and sensors that allows the phone to change its shape according to the mode.
The basics
This 8GB PMP has a capacitive 3.3-inch OLED touchscreen, 3.5mm headphone socket, accelerometer, TV Out, FM radio and stereo Bluetooth. It supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, DivX and XviD playback, measures 106x57x13mm and weighs 77g.
The good
Dive into the 480x272-pixel, 16 million colour OLED display and you’ll never want to return to plain old LCD. Colours shimmer with life, action glides effortlessly and shadows have rich, deep blacks. The touch tech is responsive, letting you skim through lists with a flick of a finger. Fire up some high quality audio files and your ears will tremble with pleasure – the S9 cruises effortlessly into the sonic stratosphere, leaving rivals (including the iPod Touch) grounded. You’ll get a transatlantic 11 hours of video playback from a single battery charge.
The bad
The S9 needs to work on its vocabulary. While it’s conversant with vanilla MP3s and WMAs, it can’t speak DRM with Microsoft or any dialect of Apple’s AAC. Video isn’t much better, with the Cowon unable to understand the latest MPEG-4 or H.264 clips. There’s no web browser on board and no one would prefer Cowon’s fussy and overcomplicated menus to the simple elegance of an iPod Touch interface. Not to mention dire headphones that would look overpriced at Poundland.
The bottom line
You probably can’t afford Sony’s gorgeous OLED telly but this high-class OLED PMP is within almost anyone’s budget. Arguably the best video and audio quality of any media player today, although not the best choice if you’re sitting on a pile of AAC or DRM tunes
This phone is a brilliant phone i have never seen one like this before, as you can see it has a side ways flip up which is quite unsual if you have one of these phones please email me and say what you think about it at : coolboyhazzer@hotmail.co.uk.
