|
Finally, we´ve got the Sony Ericsson Satio in our hands! Well, this is not a final, retail unit, but rather an early prototype. That is why we are coming up with a preview, without passing final judgment. Still, we are more than happy to take a peek at what we will officially have in Q4 this year and can´t wait to get down to the testing. Let´s just first fill you in on the background of the Sony Ericsson Satio though. Actually, Satio is the official name of the device that was, initially, announced as the Sony Ericsson Idou at MWC 2009. It´s advertised as the company´s first all-in-one multimedia cell phone and is to lend some color to their range. It is their first one in their lineup to feature 12-megapixel camera (with xenon flash) and run Symbian S60 (although, it was initially announced as a Symbian Foundation OS gadget). Other nice features include 3.5-inch, touch sensitive screen with 360x640 pixel resolution and delivers 16 mln. colors at cinematic 16:9 ratio, Wi-Fi functionality, built-in GPS etc. 
Design Sporting a 3.5-inch resistive, touch sensitive screen means you can´t expect the Sony Ericsson Satio to be a small device, but its size is pretty OK with us, given the functionality it delivers. It´s interesting to notice that despite it looks rather bulky, the phone feels light in your hand and we hope this stays the same when the retail version comes out. Like the Samsung OMNIA HD and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, there are only three buttons on the front side – send and end, along with a third one that´s located right between the latter and pressing it gets you to either the main menu or task manager. The light sensor that automatically controls screen brightness, video call camera, proximity sensor and LED indicator are aligned around the earpiece. 
Both microSD card slot and standard, for the manufacturer, charger port (instead of microUSB) are on the left hand side, while camera shutter, mode switcher and gallery access buttons are clearly visible on the opposite side. Volume rocker is used to zoom in and out on things as well. Completely in character of Sony Ericsson, you really get the feeling as if operating digital camera while taking pictures with the phone upright in your hand. We would have liked to see a 3.5mm jack on the device, but again and in character of the brand, we will have to make do with a converter. 
The upper back of the phone is slightly bulging, because the 12 megapixel, xenon flash camera is hidden under a sliding cover right there. Aside from the flash, there is LED light to help camera focus objects more easily. We need to point out the second you slide the cover open, both a small indicator right below the camera and the shutter itself start blinking in bright blue, which reminds us of the Cyber-shot lineup again. Naturally, we couldn’t help taking several pictures and you can see them under the camera and multimedia section of this preview. Before we get there, let´s first take a look at the interface that powers the Sony Ericsson Satio. 
Interface and Software
As we mentioned at the beginning, the Sony Ericsson Satio is the first device of the manufacturer to run Symbian S60 OS. Well, it is virtually the same as the one powering the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 and Samsung OMNIA HD i8910. Similarly, the standard interface has been modified to more closely resemble other phones of the company.. 
Let´s get started with what you see when you power the phone. You will find yourself on the home screen, which has been personalized with a new theme. However, the standard ones for the operating system are here as well – Basic, Shortcuts bar in two varieties, with 4 and 6 icons respectively and Vertical Icon bar. We are not going to review these anyway, since they sport no changes whatsoever. 
Let´s take a closer look at the Sony Ericsson´s personalization: You have 5 tabs, at the upper part of the screen, that allow access to different functions. They can be switched between by sliding a finger or simply pressing them. • The first one allows you to visualize your favorite contacts in a vertical scroll list. Another list of options pops up when you select an entry that allows you to give the person a call, send them a message or edit the entry. • The next tab contains up to 8 of your favorite internet pages. • The middle tab is, by default, the home screen and pressing the end button gets you back there automatically. The interesting thing is that there is shortcut at the bottom of the screen that leads to the Sony Ericsson´s audio Flash menu. Even if you leave the audio player working in the background, you will still be able to see the song name and all necessary playback controls. There are four other shortcuts at the bottom that get you directly to the dialing menu, multimedia Flash Menu, messages or Phone search.
• The fourth tab is gallery of pictures taken with the 12-megapixel camera of the Sony Ericsson Satio. They are all visualized in huge size on the large 3.5-inch display and can be scrolled by sliding your finger up or downwards. If you spot a picture you like, you can as easily as several clicks set it as wallpaper, send it in a message, share it on the Internet or see it in the fully functional Gallery app. • The last shortcut leads to a vertical menu where you can place up to 8 shortcuts to applications and functions of your own choosing. As a whole, the rest of the interface is not different from what we have seen on other makes running the same operating system (you can take a look at our reviews of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Samsung OMNIA HD i8910). The theme changes both icon color and design, but everything else remains pretty much the same. Selecting things in vertical menus is again implemented by double clicking on items. 
You wouldn’t see anything new in either Organizer or Contacts. Messages are typed away just like on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – through handwriting recognition, small but fully fledged QWERTY keyboard that can be moved around on the screen, full QWERTY keyboard on the whole screen when in portrait mode or standard numeric keypad. 
Internet browser is the standard one that comes along with the operating system – a Webkit based software that supports JAVA and Flash content. We have never had any problems using it on other devices, so we figure it is as good as ever. Still, there is quite some time until the Sony Ericsson Satio is finally released, so it is not unlikely to see changes in its interface. Media center The Sony Ericsson Satio Media center is a replica of what you usually find on the company's feature phones - an attractive and convenient way of accessing the media content on your phone. Sony Ericsson decided to minimize the Media shortcuts (at least at this stage) and there are only three of the usual suspects, which build the main media center menu - Photo, Music and Video. As you may already guessed the first one will lead you to the main gallery with various options available, the second give access to all playlist and the Walkman and finally the third one will show you all video clips stored in the Satio. 
The photo gallery is definitely among the best we've seen with great customization capabilities and features. Some of those options include: one-click access to the latest snapshot you've taken, timeline view for your images and tags. Tags are a very helpful feature offering better ways to make albums - one photo can belong to more than one tag, which you can't do with folders. 
Viewing photos is a joy with the Satio, especially when browsing images fullscreen. When you want to go to the next in line, it doesn't simply pop up but instead slides in from left or right. Selecting a photo zooms it in to fill the screen. Tapping on the screen reveals the full list of available options - delete, edit, use as, assign to contact, slideshow, print tag, rotate, information, etc. 
Walkman player The Sony Ericsson Satio comes with the Walkman music player with all its extras and eye-candy. Much like the rest of the media menu, the accelerometer is used here for automatic rotation of the display. 
Naturally the music player also offers step-by-step filtering of the tracks you want to hear. The "Now playing" screen is simple but offers all the needed controls and information. The tracks are controlled by comfortably large and thumbable on-screen keys at the bottom. Above them is the current track info such as album art, running time, track name, performer and album. 
Strangely enough the Satio offered neither equalizers nor alternative visualizations. Those are however quite likely to appear in the final version of the handset. Video player The video player on the Sony Ericsson Satio has pretty limited functionality compared to the one found on the company's features phones. It has neither slow-mo playback nor screenshot capabilities. Our real grudge with the video player however is that there's no DivX and XviD support - what can we say, LG and Samsung handsets have definitely spoiled us. 
Missing support for the extremely popular codecs means that all the videos need to be converted for watching on the excellent widescreen display. We suppose MediaGo will fill in that purpose with all the imposed limitations of course. When it comes to the watching experience itself, the Satio is nothing short of flawless. High resolution, excellent image quality and 16:9 aspect ratio make for a really nice video combo indeed. 12 megapixel camera The Sony Ericsson Satio packs the first 12 megapixel camera we have seen on a mobile phone. With maximum image resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels, both xenon and LED flash, it truly is exciting news for cameraphone imaging. 
However everyone with a basic idea of photography will tell you that image quality is not all about the pixel count. It will be the general performance (things like amount of resolved detail, noise levels, color reproduction, and lens quality) that will be decisive for the Satio's imaging success or failure. 
The Satio camera interface is decently comfortable with the viewfinder occupying only the central part of the screen when regular 4:3 aspect ratio photo resolution is selected. When shooting in 16:9 aspect ratio (9MP) however the whole display is put to use from side to side. 
On the right side of the viewfinder there are five shortcuts. Those include Scenes, Shoot mode, Flash settings, Exposure compensation and Auto mode. When Auto mode is selected all the other icons disappear leaving only the bottom one for switching it back off. The handset then takes care to select the most proper scene mode for each of your photos and apply the proper settings. 
Opening the settings menu gives you a real load of customizable options. Those include focus mode, white balance, effects, image stabilizer and self-timer. You can also choose whether a preview of every shot captured should appear and if the image orientation should be recorded in the EXIF info. The camcorder part of the camera supports a very similar set of customizable settings. 
A heavily camera-oriented high-end handset, the Sony Ericsson Satio naturally comes with image geo-tagging too. There is also face and smile-detection onboard, as well as panorama mode and Touch capture. As the name suggests, Touch capture allows you to focus any particular subject in the frame by simply clicking on it in the viewfinder. The Satio will automatically focus on it and take a shot. Final words Our brief experience with Sony Ericsson Satio left us happy and waiting for more - we really hope to get a second glimpse of it in a more detailed review once it hits the market. Our first impressions are downright positive and competitors will have to go to extra lengths for a shot at beating it. However, there are at least 4 months to go before the Satio is actually retail ready. In a dynamic market that may just be too long - the competition has plenty of time to react accordingly. Samsung i8910 Omnia HD is already set for market launch and Samsung Pixon12 won't be too late either. At this stage Sony Ericsson Satio is not a finished product and getting all the little buggy bits straight will make all the difference between success and failure. Timing the launch right is equally important and we hope Sony Ericsson don't let us down on that one either. The Satio horizon is wide open but Sony Ericsson must know that this handset's success might be just the right thing to turn the tide for the troubled company. |
