As we frequently mention on Symbian-Guru, Symbian isn’t only about Nokia, but also about Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and many others hopefully in the future. That being said, Sony Ericsson’s first entrance in the world of S60, after years of UIQ expertise, happened in Mobile World Congress, on February of 2009. The Idou was first announced as a concept device showing what you could get if you combined Sony’s multimedia prowess, Ericsson’s UI authority on top of the Symbian smartphone platform. Personally, the Idou left me impressed and excited to see much more competition in the Symbian arena, instead of having to watch Nokia rest on their laurels.
So it’s with great anticipation that I fired an email to Sony Ericsson France and hoped that they would have a trial unit of the Idou (later renamed to Satio) to (p)review on Symbian-Guru. Only a couple of hours later, the delivery guy arrived with a bright green bag in his hand and I was instantly propelled into geek-heaven. First things first, let’s start with an unboxing of the Satio. It’s not much of a true unboxing since I got a very early prototype in what seems to be a prototype box, but it feels even more special this way.
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My first thoughts when I held the Satio in my hands were that it felt really sturdy and very well finished for a prototype. It actually feels a lot better than many, many marketed Nokia handsets. The materials seem to be of very premium quality, with a lot of metallic accents, and there is no gap, no flimsy buttons, no light leaks. The Satio is also imposingly big, especially in terms of thickness where the camera cover adds at least 5mm to the bulge of the device.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a dedicated Picture/Photo switch button that allows you to quickly move between taking still images and videos, as well as a Photo Gallery key. What I wasn’t elated about was the use of a proprietary Sony Ericsson plug for charging and for the music headset. The world is moving into microUSB and 3.5mm standardization and Sony Ericsson is still hanging by a thread with their proprietary plugs. What surprised me more was to see a regular MicroSD slot instead of the proprietary M2 Sony Ericsson memory card. Go figure. I guess they’re taking standardization one step at a time.
Upon firing the Satio up for the first time, I was greated with a very nice homescreen that is a surprising departure from Nokia’s N97 or 5800 XpressMusic. It takes a page out of the Samsung Omnia HD’s book, but pushes it further to include not only a regular homescreen and contacts pane, but also a web bookmarks, pictures and application shortcuts panes. We’ll have a video walkthrough of this later on. The Satio definitely felt like Sony Ericsson had taken S60 5th and blown a fresh breath into it, and that shows in the pre-installed applications, as well as the Gallery (Photos, Videos and Music) and Camera UI. The overall impression is a very good one.
The last bit of first impressions about the Satio that I’d like to express is related to the camera. Of course, bringing a 12MP camera into a smartphone deserves to be applauded, but I was even more excited to see the inclusion of Smile Detection, Sony Ericsson’s patented BestPic technology, a Panorama mode as well as an option to set the picture focus on the touchscreen itself (à la iPhone if you want).
After only a couple of hours with the Satio, I was very convinced that Sony Ericsson aren’t taking Symbian slightly at all, and plan to bring their heavy artillery into the ecosystem. Stay tuned on Symbian-Guru as I bring you the rest of our Satio review throughout this week, with video walkthroughs, pictures, screenshots, and everything you may want. If you have any questions regarding the Satio, please feel free to ask them below, I’ll make sure to answer as much as I can.
