Review of the Sony Ericsson Satio
First announced back at the Mobile World Congress event earlier in the year, the Sony Ericsson Satio was easily the star of the show. With a 3.5 inch touchscreen display and a new emphasis on all areas of multimedia, the Satio (or Idou as it was first pegged) refused to be pigeon holed as a Cybershot or Walkman phone and promised to bring the most complete package ever found on a smart phone. Everyone's attention was undoubtedly drawn to the staggering 12.1 Megapixel camera but how does the camera perform in real life situations? And is the Satio just a one trick horse? Read on for our full review of the phone that aims to turn around Sony Ericsson's fortunes…
With a 12.1 Megapixel camera and 3.5 inch touchscreen in tow, the Satio would find it difficult to be a compact device so it's little surprise that the finished article is slightly on the large side. The phone dimensions are ok in terms of height and width at a respectable 112 x 55mm and on the face of it the thickness is fairly impressive at a mere 13 mm. What is important to remember though is that this number is measured at the phones thinnest point. Due to the sliding camera lens (which we'll cover in more detail shortly) there is a raises aspect to the back which does make it slightly top heavy though it could be argued that the thinner bottom provides the perfect amount of space for your hand. Despite the larger dimensions of the body, the weight is a pleasant surprise at a mere 126 g ensuring the phone sits relatively unnoticed in a pocket or bag. The materials used are a combination of high quality plastics and a brushed metal used for the sliding lens cover which does deliver a premium feel that would feel more at home on one of Sony Ericsson's dedicated digital cameras.
On the front of the phone the Satio is, as you'd expect, dominated by the touchscreen display. Below the screen we find 3 physical buttons; call answer, end and a catch all menu button. On the top is one solitary button which powers on and off the phone. On the right side sit all the camera buttons which handle capturing photos, switching between still and videos, playing a recorded video and zooming. The buttons are nice and tactile made from a nice clickable plastic with a good level of feedback. On the left side we find a sliding screen/ phone lock key, the charging/ headphone point and a memory card slot. On the back we find a solitary Sony Ericsson logo and the metallic sliding lens cover that slides down with a nice smooth action to reveal the lens and flash. The phone also avoids the pitfalls of many of its rivals as it manages to avoid getting bogged down with too many finger prints and smudges. Despite being on the bigger side when compared to other touchscreens, the Satio strikes the right balance thanks to the use of quality materials and nice curved edges. Looking reminiscent of the LG Viewty, the Satio feels good in the hand; sturdy and well made yet surprisingly light.
When the Satio was first announced to the world (as the Idou), the feature that got everyone talking was unsurprisingly the 12.1 Megapixel camera. In a world where 8.0 Megapixel camera phones are still top of the range (and rightly so), Sony Ericsson have raised the bar considerably in what is fast becoming a Megapixels arms race. But, as any camera enthusiast will tell you, Megapixel count is only one aspect of what makes a good camera and this is just as true in the world of camera phones. Does the Satio live up to the hype? Can it compete with stand alone digital cameras? Well, this is much too bigger question for a simple yes or no so let's take a look at actually using the camera as well as the photos it produces.
The benefit of a good point and shoot camera is the speed and ease with which you can get a great photo. With the Satio, sliding down the lens cover on the rear of the phone automatically opens the camera (though it can also be activated through the menu as well). The inclusion of a lens cover is a must on a camera of this magnitude as it protects from scratches which can seriously damage the quality of your photos. Once open, the view finder is framed by settings on the left and right that border your potential photos. Selecting the top icon on the left lets you choose from multiple scenes to match the environment. All the usual suspects are present including portrait, landscape and sports letting you get the best from the situation. Next up is shoot mode. Here you can choose from normal, panorama which excellently and effortlessly stitches multiple photos together to create on panoramic photo. Best pic makes a return, taking multiple images at once and letting you choose the best, perfect when trying to capture the unpredictable such as animals and children. Smile detection will delay the capture of a photo until the subject smiles but the best of the bunch is easily touch capture. On the Satio the view finder will automatically focus on the centre of the screen. Activating touch capture lets you select the area you want to focus on by simply touching that area on the touchscreen. It works well, is easy to use and delivers excellent results.
The Satio features a Xenon flash which will come as music to the ears of camera phone fans as it is the flash of choice compared to an LED flash. The flash is set to automatic though can be switched off which is advisable when photographing highly reflective materials. The benefits of a Xenon flash over an LED are numerous. The Satio can cope with the darkest situations and also has a good range where your subject doesn't have to be right under your nose. Continuing in the settings, users can also tinker with the exposure settings and switch back to auto mode when you need quick results. Hitting the icon in the bottom right corner calls up a separate options menu where you can, amongst other things, set a timer, alter the picture size and change the focus from Infinite, Auto, Macro and Face Detection. In terms of usability, the camera on the Satio is excellent. Icons are big enough so that they're easy to select but not too big so that they obscure the viewfinder. The physical buttons on the side are tactile and let you switch quickly and easily between still and video capture and also check out previous photos in your gallery.
And the image quality itself? Breath taking. Standard photos taken with auto focus and the default settings look incredible. Images are crisp with the kind of detail that we've never seen before on a mobile phone, colours are vivid and at the same time appear natural and there's little in the way of noise. Macro mode maintains the detail when taking extreme close ups making it perfect for capturing nature in all its glory. Touch focus is another win as it gives you full control of what you're capturing. Face detection works well though it would have been nice if the Satio was able to detect multiple faces but apart from that, it produced some great family photos. Using the Satio in low light conditions is the same story. The powerful Xenon flash performs admirably keeping your subject illuminated at about three meters easily positioning it as the best in class when it comes to low light photography. Once an image is captured you're given a preview and the option to delete, send or save the photo and go back to the camera. It works well as it gives you instant feedback but doesn't intrude too much if you intend on taking multiple photos. In a quick summary of the camera alone, the Satio is easy to use, has a wealth of features and easily produces the best images we've ever seen on a camera phone.
As with any camera phone the Satio also supports video capture. Video is captured in VGA resolution with 640 x 480 pixels. The end results are videos that are fluid, without any choppiness or lag and that will look great on the phone. The quality is also good enough to upload to YouTube so sharing your videos with the world. In addition to the Xenon flash for photography, the Satio does include an LED flash which acts as a video light so videoing in low light conditions is a possibility. Whilst video quality does suffer to a certain degree, without an LED flash video capture is not really possible at night so it is a welcome inclusion. One slight gripe with the video capture arises when we look at the competition. With Samsung already proving it is possible to squeeze HD video capture into a camera phone, it would have been nice to see Sony Ericsson attempt this with the Satio. The Satio is first and foremost a camera phone. Alas it wasn't to be but that's not to take away from what is still an excellent video recorder.
With all the fanfare around the Camera, it's easy to forget that the Satio is also a phone. A touchscreen phone to be precise as the phone formerly known as the Idou sports a 3.5 inch display. The screen is capable of displaying up to 16m colours and sports a rather impressive resolution of 360 x 640 pixels which ensures everything looks sharp and crisp not to mention nice and bright. A built in accelerometer tells the phone when to switch the screen to landscape. The touchscreen is nice and responsive requiring minimum force to acknowledge your on screen commands and also keeps up with finger swipes when flicking through media in the gallery. The phone also lightly vibrates when you select an icon on screen which acts as a nice way of confirming your selection. One minor disappointment is that Sony have opted for a resistive screen rather than capacitive so you can rule out iPhone style multi-touch, pinch zooming and other nice touches. The benefit from using a resistive display is that the Satio can be used with a stylus (with one included in the box) which comes in handy in those instances when precision is key.
Like the N97 before it, the Satio runs on a version of the Symbian operating system specially optimised for touch screen phones. The main user interface is a specially designed Sony Ericsson skin with short cuts at the top for shortcuts to your favourite contacts, web pages and recent photos etc. and at the bottom we find an icon to open up the number pad, media gallery, messaging menu and a search tool letting you search the phone or the web. The menu is a typical honey comb menu with all the usual icons represented on one page. As the Satio runs Symbian you have access to a world of applications. The phone is compatible with selected N97 apps and will also be supported by the newly announced Symbian foundation app store. Here you can download all sorts of weird and wonderful applications that enhance the phone. The Satio also includes a powerful 600MHz processor so applications run smoothly and multitasking is handled effortlessly. The Satio is unlikely to enjoy the kind of App experience as the iPhone but with touchscreen Symbian gaining speed, it should be a well supported device.
The web browser on the Satio is a bit of a mixed bag. Selecting the web browser application in the main menu gives you a Sony Ericsson portal from which you can choose to search on Google, enter a specific URL and access a selection of different shortcuts. The problems arise when you're on a web page. On other phones, icons appear on screen telling you your options (back, save bookmark etc.) but on the Satio all you get is four icons without any sort of description as to what they might do. Ok, so the magnifying glass is a no brainer but how do you manage your history, refresh pages etc.? Hitting the settings button again then opens a more thorough settings toolbar but without an on screen prompt to do so, it can lead to a frustrating first couple of attempts hitting every button to get to the desired menu. A minor gripe as the actual web browser itself is clear and easy to use, handling most websites without incident.
The music player on the Satio is fairly straight forward and will be instantly recognisable to those who've used a recent Walkman phone. Plug your Satio into a PC or laptop and it will appear on your desktop as a mass storage device. From here, it's just a case of dragging and dropping your desired tracks from your desktop to the Satio and away you go. The 8GB card is more than enough storage to get you started and the option expand up to 32GB puts the Satio on a par with the highest capacity iPhone. Opening up the music player presents users with a vertical list letting you choose by track, artist, album and playlists. Once selected, you get cover art (if you've uploaded it that is) and the four way navigation keys handle skip back and forward, play and stop and the middle button pauses the current track whilst at the top of the display you get a counter showing you how far through the song you are. Sony Ericsson have also included SensMe which lets you sort your music by the mood so you can match your music to how you feel. The headphones included are also of exceptional quality producing good crisp sound with excellent bass. For those who like to customise though be warned, the Aino uses a proprietary headphone jack rather than a standard 3.5mm jack so you're limited to Sony Ericsson products.
The Satio is undoubtedly an incredible camera phone but there are some draw backs. The phone is rather on the large side of things when compared to the svelte iPhone and other touchscreen offerings. The touchscreen, whilst perfectly capable of keeping up with your actions would still have benefited from capacitive technology as multi-touch really does enhance the likes of Google maps and web browsing. Symbian in its touchscreen guise also takes a bit of getting used to though Sony Ericsson's own user interface does help, lowering you into the world of smartphones gently. Despite these flaws, the excellent camera makes you forgive and forget all the Satio's shortcomings. Couple this with a good sturdy build quality, powerful smartphone OS and a wealth of features and the Sony Ericsson puts itself head and shoulders above the rest of the camera phone world and manages to stand out in an ever more crowded touchscreen market. The tag line for the Satio is spark something and with the Satio, there are so many ways to do this, the camera is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Dan, Mobiles.co.uk
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