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Sony Ericsson Satio (Idou 12 Megapixel) - Finally Out!

In Depth User Review

Window shopping can get as boring as the sheer fact of doing that, yet on special occasions it can bring a lot of interesting finds. But it would be a shameless lie to say that I haven’t looked forward to this particular photo oriented flagship smartphone to finally materialize in UK mobile shops. And now, after having seen the new toy in ‘person’ and gathered as much impressions as humanly possible in 5 minutes, I feel like my initial skepticism towards Sony Ericsson’s Satio shouldn’t go unpunished for various reasons.

Finding the right spot…

At the very core, Satio (also known as Idou) is the latest Sony Ericsson’s weapon of choice in the crowded multimedia smartphone segment.

A noteworthy fact is that it’s the very first phone from the Japan and Swedish joint company to see the S60 treatment, the touch oriented Symbian 5th edition operating system to be precise. After outsourcing of Symbian platform and making it more accessible to other major players at no additional costs, Nokia basically left the mobile industry in guessing about what will happen next. While this is definitely worthy a more in-depth article, for now it’s suffice to say that Nokia in a smartly fashion moved it’s focus away from Symbian to a seemingly more perspective in future growth platform for their high-end products, and naturally, that’s exactly where Maemo OS comes in.

It didn’t take too long for competing companies to capitalize on the opportunity to use Symbian as a software platform for their own flagship products, however the means of rival companies choose to fight for the supremacy in higher segment – faster processors, better screens or more megapixels – hardware, in short, may very well be flawed idea by design. Why is that even relevant to Satio?

A quick glance over to the closest rival’s short-lived fate – the Samsung I8910HD – and it becomes clear, that Symbian OS is no longer viewed as an effective way to gain more ground on the still fairly solid in demand higher-tier phones segment. So, from that point alone, Satio is an interesting product, an attempt to make touch-screened Symbian phone as attractive as possible to anyone who seeks a competent smartphone in the highly competitive world of the iPhone and Android OS counterparts.

Speaking Satio…

So without further pondering on whether Symbian is getting enough attention from 3rd party developers or whether it creates enough friction to stay relevant in the long run, let’s finally take a closer look at what is certainly a curios looking full touch-screen phone, the Sony Ericsson Satio.

Even before user’s mind registers the built materials or the ergonomics, it all comes down to the weight and feel of the phone. The Satio does feel lighter than it could have been, given it’s respectable proportions, and thankfully I found it a bit easier to hold in one hand than my Samsung I8910HD. Glancing over to the specs sheet, it becomes clear Satio wins over I8910HD with a few mm less under it’s belt mostly thanks to the smaller screen, but the difference in one hand usability is still staggering. The downside here, however, is that Satio is made entirely of plastic, the glossy kind, and as that, the phone simply adores more than ever collecting user fingerprints, especially on the front faceplate and lower part of the backside. Quite understandably, Satio is still generously proportioned even for touchscreen smartphone standards, and any potential buyers looking at this phone should carefully consider their needs and align their expectations for this SE flagship phone accordingly.

The large 3.5 inch touch resistive screen itself, without any doubts, is a perfect match for the overall size of the phone, and it’s sensitivity is easily on par or even surpasses that of the Nokia N97. Having tested other multimedia phones from SE such as the W995, I was ready for a crisp and colorful picture, however I couldn’t help but still feel surprised by what Sony Ericssson managed to achieve with the aging TFT screen technology. Being a I8910HD owner with it’s excellent AMOLED display, the transition to the Satio’s screen should’ve been immediately noticeable, however that wasn’t the case at all, and it tells a lot about the quality work SE have done in this aspect of the phone. Suffice to say, TFT screens fare a lot better in direct sunlight conditions, even though Samsung have made great strides at improving their AMOLED screens to compensate this weakness.

The use of a large 3.5 inch touch sensitive screen leaves little for the designers to work with, however the Satio still retains some of the manufacturers trademark features, with all the outgoing pros and cons. The slim, stretched out hardware keys below the screen in particular scream Sony Erricsson style, and, being noticeably extracted over the front faceplate surface, they remain quite usable and I had no second thoughts while using them. Both ends of the phone have rounded off edges that make the phone a little bit more compact and easier to fit in user’s pockets. Given the generous amount of provided hardware keys on Satio, it’s unclear why only the power key together with the single loudspeaker are allocated to the top, while the rest of the space is being used by a lanyard eyelet at the bottom. While this may very well be restrictions imposed by the design, SE could have certainly exploited the top and bottom parts of the phone more effectively to ease up the load on the overcrowded sides of the phone.

So let’s take a more accurate look at the right side of the handset. Normally you would find all the necessary keys for operating the camera and Satio is no exception to this rule. What’s more, SE has covered the main feature of this phone very neatly here by equipping it with a spacious shutter key that is simply a pleasure to work with. Interestingly enough though, there’s a pair of smaller keys further in the middle for quicker switching between camera modes and launching the gallery application. Finally, about the same distance to the left are located the volume rocker keys for more convenient zooming while holding the phone vertically. So far so good, and these well thought-out controls go a great way to supplement the raw imaging power of this handset.

Going right over to the left side, and another SE trademark feature immediately jumps into eyes – the proprietary connectivity port, that, quite possibly, is the worst aspect of this, so far very promising, multimedia smartphone. It handles all of the main external connection possibilities of the phone, including charging, data transfer to PC (SE Media Go desktop client to sync content is supported) and, wait for it, doubles also as headphone port. Now it doesn’t require much of brain power to realize that using headphones other than those supplied in-box without some kind of 3.5 mm adapter is impossible, and leaves much wondering about this particular decision made by SE. It’s particularly confusing, knowing that another company’s leading multimedia phone, the W995, features both the proprietary connectivity port AND a standard port for 3.5 mm headphones (you can even use two headphones at the same time that way).

Almost like apologizing for the inconvenience, SE at least swapped the overpriced Memory Stick Micro M2 to support the more widespread and affordable MicroSD cards, hidden behind a surprisingly cheap looking card slot door on the right. To wrap this side of the phone, on the opposite of the connectivity port comes the screen block switch that is more than just a welcome addition when compared to the oddly working key based lock controls on the Samsung’s I8910HD. The usefulness of the location of this particular unblock switch is an arguable thing and probably just a question of getting used to for majority of the users.

Made for photography…

Not incidentally, I’ve left the topping on the cake that is unarguably the backside of the phone. The brushed metal camera cover that gives the phone a somewhat massive hump on the back is hiding a truly worthy reason to own Satio, if not calling it the only correct one. Sliding the camera cover down was a rather fluid motion, albeit a bit too easy for my likes, and hopefully this won’t translate into any accidental camera activations after some months of active snapping. And there, in a tight cluster of little gizmos lies the definitive package for any respectable camera phone out there – 12 Mpix camera lens with another extremely welcome feature for those fast moving objects and quality night shots – Xenon flash.

What’s more, SE went further in perfecting Satio’s camera capabilities with an LED flash that is said to work much better while recoding, although it’s important to note here – without the 720p resolution HD video support ala Samsung I8910HD, which is a pity to say the least. Regrettably my extended phone testing was rather limited due to being in a shop with people breathing on my neck, so I was forced to leave the doubtlessly curios camera shot quality comparison to a another chance. Judging from the various online picture albums, the Satio doesn’t disappoint to say the least, especially at night and macro shots.

By now the reader should be already accustomed to the various bumps in my attitude towards this SE handset, and regrettably I’m forced to bring to reader’s attention yet another serious tripping point of the Satio, that comes in form of the low capacity 1000 mAh Li-Po battery. I obviously can’t comment on the battery life from my experience due to the already mentioned restrictions in trialing the device, but knowing the powerful ARM Cortex A8 processor clocking at 600 MHz and coupled with the large display, it’s a safe bet the user won’t get any more juice out of the phone than around 1.5 days of active usage, and that’s pushing it. In my yes, and I’m sure that many readers will agree, this is the second serious shortcoming of this phone, that quite possibly, might be just enough to turn many potential buyers away and make them invest their hard earned cash elsewhere.

Some final thoughts…

Another moment I’d like to, but simply couldn’t test enough was the software side of Satio. In particular, I was very curious to learn about any improvements SE managed to achieve to the crude looking Symbian 5th edition user interface, and whether there are any tangible differences when using the phone after similar Symbian touchscreen smartphones. Answering the first part of the question didn’t take too long, intriguingly enough.

SE managed to apply a rather noticeable face-lift to the UI, giving it a better resemblance with other company’s phones, however, for the better or worse, it’s still Symbian 5th ed to the core - a hastily slapped together 3rd ed with touch sensitive controls support. Satio being rumored as the very first Symbian Foundation phone, SE ultimately had to drop their plans in doing a complete overhaul due to time and, naturally, financial restrictions. To SE credit though, a quick tour through Satio’s menus proved to be a rather ‘organic’ experience with a particular SE ‘touch’ to it, and there was definitely less gray spots in comparison to the I8910HD.

A bit harder was to deal with the second part of the question. It’s obvious that many consumers, especially longtime SE users, wouldn’t be able to appreciate the change the same way as Symbian veterans. If looked past the different make-up, Satio operates as elegantly and clumsy at times as any Symbian powered touchscreen phone does. There’s a 5 panel customizable homescreen, the familiar Walkman music player with fancy menu transitions and kinetic scrolling through the lists (see the screen above), but it takes only a little detour to the Organizer folder to see some of the old, standard apps Symbian users came to know and love.

For others in turn, Satio’s smartphone functionality might only prove as an extra thing that is overshadowed by the impressive quality camera and beautiful screen. It only sweetens the deal. But the rest of the deal we’re talking here is a nearly complete package, having all other necessities such as WLAN, A-GPS and HSDPA connectivity options ready on-board. Mind you, however, the mentioned drawbacks should be taken into account no matter what type of user you are, even if already accustomed to the limitations of previous SE phones.

The asked retail price that Sony Ericsson imposed with the release of their first entry in Symbian is rather steep, perhaps too much to avoid forfeiting it to a not so bright future, and given the earlier mentioned flaws, the stellar camera alone simply cannot serve as the sole argument against the competition. So, love it or hate it? Probably a curios mixture of both, with kudos for some of the little tweaks on the UI and a few new apps that Sony Ericsson so carefully worked out. And knowing the company’s troublesome record with smartphones, rightly so.