Close-up: Sony Ericsson Satio

We’ve known about Idou … I mean Satio, for some time now, but today we get our first in-depth look at what is undoubtedly Sony Ericsson’s centrepiece for 2009. Of course we are all aware of the main focus (pardon the pun) of this handset, its 12.1 MP camera, which will be the highest megapixel camera outside of South Korea this year. However, Satio packs in a hell of a lot of other features too so let’s take a look at what this handset will bring to the market…

Since the camera is the main selling point of the device it’s a good place to start. The 12.1 MP number is sure to impress the average consumer, but for those of us who know our camera phones we’ll be looking for a bit more right? Well Satio also brings a host of camera features to bear to support that 12.1 MP resolution such as an active lens cover, touch focus, face detection, an active lens cover, smile shutter, smart contrast, photo fix, Bestpic, geo-tagging, red-eye reduction, 12x digital zoom, web albums and of course a xenon flash. In other words this isn’t just a camerphone that trades on its megapixel count it also packs in the supporting features to make best use of the underlying camera. We managed to rustle up a few pictures taken by Satio and the quality does seem pretty good so it looks like Sony Ericsson is onto a winner here.

In terms of video Satio sports VGA resolution recording at 30fps and as the video we took shows they come out looking pretty damned stunning. Again this is good to see as often in the past the video recording side of Sony Ericsson’s cameraphones has been good, but not necessarily great.

Ok so we’ve got the camera side of things out of the way so let’s get into the handset itself. Looking at the handset the first thing that strikes you is the simply stunning 16 million colour 3-inch screen. The resolution is a bit curious in that it’s 640×360 (16:9). Given that Satio is being marketed as a media platform in line with Sony Ericsson’s new Entertainment Unlimited brand this is just the sort of screen that you want to watch videos or view pictures on. The only downside might be its affect on battery life, but we’ll see how that pans out once we get a chance to use one for an extended period.

Turning to the nitty gritty of the handsets specifications we are presented with a quad-band handset that supports GPRS and EDGE and tri-band HSDPA. Wi-Fi, aGPS and Bluetooth are also included. Coming in at 126g Satio is actually not that big a beast given its features. The 112×55x13.3mm dimensions are also not too shabby either.

The UI features standby panels, five in total, which can be changed instantaneously. The UI sits on top of Symbian 5th Edition so good news for app fans there given the availability of Symbian apps.

As mentioned Satio is being touted as a media platform and in keeping with that we see a true merger of the Cybershot and Walkman brands, which have, until now, been kept distinctly separate. Sound playback is helped by the likes of Clear Bass and Clear Stereo and of course there is support for A2DP so Bluetooth headphones will work just dandy. In a move that is sure to please fans of standardisation Satio supports MicroSD cards for storing music and other media. This is a major departure for Sony Ericsson as almost all their previous handsets have used Sony’s proprietary M2 card format. Sony Ericsson is throwing in an 8 Gb card with the handset too boot! TrackID, which has largely been standard in Sony Ericsson handsets, also makes a welcome appearance here. It’s something of an overlooked feature in our opinion, but oh so handy come time for an argument in the pub. Rounding things off we see an FM radio with the obligatory RDS support. The entertainment features are continued with the inclusion of HD and 3D gaming, which will apparently include non-Java based games. Facebook and Youtube apps are included for easy access to both services.

In terms of its placement in the market Satio is an 800 pound gorilla ready to sweep the competition to the side on one condition … if it’s released on time. Sony Ericsson have a rather poor history of getting handsets, especially their big hitters, out on time, just look at the W960 or the X1. If Satio comes out at the beginning of Q4 as scheduled then Sony Ericsson should have a bona fide success on their hands. The numbers are impressive, but more importantly the handset doesn’t just talk the talk, as far as we’ve seen, it walks the walk too. Bring it on!