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.
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.
