Sony Ericsson Satio : First Impressions

I have to admit that the Sony IDOU or SATIO was one of the handsets that I declared that I WILL BUY.

However, like many dreams in this world, reality shows its not all that its hyped up to be. Again like some dreams, it may have been better left as one.

I had the chance to see the mockup in the Sony Ericsson Shop in Trinoma. The sales people were certainly eager to please with their canned responses but once I started asking some slightly technical questions theirs eyes glazed over and they starting mumbling over and over again that they were not informed of the technical specs with nary a glance at their product catalog which I suspect had the information I needed.

Anyway here are my first impressions based on the mockup and the brochure:

GOOD:

- The phone looks really classy in person, it certainly can hold its own with the Iphone 3GS

- It feels good in my hands, it imparts a feeling of solid build and quality.

- The form factor is excellent for men but it may not be as comfortable for the women. It is significantly larger than my Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

BAD:

- The 12 megapixel lens juts out from the back. It may be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. For appearance, its a big no no because it looks bulky from the side. For handling purposes, the bulky thing rests the phone securely in your hands.

- Price, it costs much more than my Acer Core2 laptop. Essentially for the price you can buy an E71 and an Asus Netbook.

- The phone runs on the Symbian OS which is the same one used on the Xpress Music. Turn it on and several screens look so much like the Nokia. Which is not a bad thing except that you could buy two 5800's for the price of the Satio and have money left over to buy a good set of earphones and a bluetooth headset.


MY VERDICT:

The Satio is an undeniably good looking phone and it does have a 12 megapixel shooter. The form factor is better suited for men though women do tend to favor touch screens. As a touch screen phone, the appearance of this phone is top notch and oozed quality. In a way I could say that its a businessmans touchscreen phone. More business like than the Iphone.

However there are reports starting to crop up on the net about mass recalls and returns of the Satio due to unspecified software issues. It is a bit alarming considering that there were other SE phones that had software issues but were not returned by these outlets.

So based on the preliminary impressions and these reports, I would personally wait and see first. Beyond the bragging rights, it seldom pays to be an early adopter because you will actually be the beta tester of those products at a much steeper cost which will send you crying when you learn the market price 2 to 3 months after launch.

But if you have the dough and the courage and patience to handle latest and greatest with the aforementioned cons then go right ahead. You'll have a phone that will trump the Iphone on looks alone.

For myself, I'm sticking to my E71 / 5800 combo until the smoke clears and the bugs ironed out. Besides the X10 is starting to tickle my fancy too.

DISCLOSURE: To dispel notions of favoritism, let me share the following information. I personally carry 5 phones right now, 2 Nokias (e71 and 5800), 2 Sony Ericssons (p990 and k810) and a Samsung C5212.