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I, like many of you, was hugely impressed when Satio was announced and I really wanted this to be the next great handset. The design is aesthetically fantastic and now that it’s here I still think it is as good looking as any phone available today, however, perhaps being something to look at is Satio’s best quality!

Let Me Hold It:

The Satio box is thoroughly unremarkable but the bundled accessories are impressive. The stylus is stylish, the headset is excellent and there’s a pretty substantial video out cable in there too.

Satio Accessories

The device itself has been made with Sony’s special brand of super glossy plastic which attracts finger prints and smudges from passers-by, let alone the actual user. Don’t expect to be able to admire that black sheen AND hold the phone at the same time unless you’re a snooker referee. Perhaps that’s why they chose a resistive touch screen, so you can handle the phone with pristine white gloves. The device also looks like it may be vulnerable to scratches but only time will tell as I’m not about to break out the sandpaper.

There’s a good compliment of hardware buttons including call/end, menu, camera shutter, camera modes, playback, volume and a very handy keylock slider but as with several other touch based devices there’s no direction input keys. As pretty as Satio may be, the straight sided construction of the device quickly becomes uncomfortable and it struggles to sit nicely for single handed use. This is made several times worse should you attempt to use the phone while charging. Once again Sony Ericsson has endeavoured to place the fastport in the worst possible position, here being on the left side just below centre. This means the charger protrudes annoyingly to obstruct either the right-hand fingers or left-hand palm preventing any comfortable hold.

Let Me Use It:

First boot provides a minor tutorial and the antiquated process of calibrating the resistive touch screen. This is a drag at the best of times but here it was a nightmare as the device repeatedly claims “too far from point x”, even when using the stylus smack-bang in the centre of each throbbing dot. I don’t know if this is common to all Satio’s but I experienced this on first use and again after another factory reset. Recalibration via the later menus runs without such issues but the accuracy and responsiveness of the screen remain questionable!

Once reaching the home screen things look good with the “Sony Ericsson” standby theme in use. Swiping left and right changes between the five predefined tabs while lists or pictures on these support the kinetic scrolling method everyone is used to, albeit nowhere near as responsive as that on an iPhone or Android device. Instead the scrolling often either fails or overshoots, at least until you get used to using slow and positive gestures…casual flicks are not welcome here. Customisation, meanwhile, is limited to say the least…you get to set the list of shortcuts and that’s it. Other Standby Themes are available but these are dull, offering nothing other than three static icons and custom shortcuts varying only the quantity or location.

Entering the main menu reveals a typical 4 x 3 icon grid and a single press on each continues to the next screen but this is where things start to get messy. Selecting contacts, for example, pops up a bland list of names (with no contact pictures other than the one currently selected) but inexplicably this list doesn’t scroll in the same kinetic manner as the (thumbnail rich) contact shortcuts list on the home screen. No, instead it is now completely the opposite! Trying to “throw” the list up only succeeds in making a selection bar go nuts while the list remains stationary. This selection bar must be grabbed and pushed to the bottom of the list in order to move down…I can only describe this as idiotic and un-natural and it makes accurate navigation of any list a virtual impossibility. The only acceptable solution is to pull out the stylus and drag the bar on the right of the screen, just like using Windows way back before the invention of scroll wheels. At this point the seemingly negligible omission of any direction buttons becomes a critical flaw.

But wait, it gets worse! In case the experience wasn’t yet uncomfortable enough things make a baffling change from single click to double click selection!?! On first encountering this I simply thought the phone was experiencing huge lag, in fact the device is fast, but it soon dawned that the UI was just suffering another irritating inconsistency.

Looking for any opportunity to escape this nightmare I fired up the camera with a satisfying snap of the lens cover. This is good, really good in fact, the 12MP camera doesn’t disappoint and the xenon flash makes indoor snaps easy. There’s an impressive feature set including Smile Shutter, Touch Capture, image stabilisation and BestPic making the camera probably the best thing about this device.

Satio Camera Sample

Of course Satio is Sony Ericsson’s “entertainment unlimited” flagship device so surely the other media features are up to scratch to? Thankfully they are thanks to the familiar, XMB-style Media menu which remains intuitive and benefits from convenient YouTube integration. Kinetic scrolling makes a return here which would ordinarily be great but on Satio it really just adds further confusion to a terribly mixed up control system.

Eventually I had to leave the camera and Media to try other essential components such as messaging and web browsing. Messaging is as disjointed as the rest of the UI! The standard messaging app doesn’t display conversation lists, a separate “Conversations” app is required for such a view. New message notifications ignore this app and lead to the default messaging view while also failing to even preview who the message is from. Upon replying to a text the on screen keyboard does not even appear, making you jab at the screen until it responds and selects the text input area before displaying your selected input method. On screen keyboards leave plenty to be desired too, all feeling a little too unresponsive and inaccurate for fast typing which leads to frequent mistakes. The mini qwerty is laughable and while the full screen qwerty is better there is annoyingly no auto-rotation to change between them. Handwriting recognition is reminiscent of that on UIQ, I like this but many will not.

Web browsing is adequate but the lack of kinetic scrolling again becomes painful while added irritation is provided by the fact that the device cannot automatically switch between network coverage and WiFi. One or the other is exclusively selected and if you want to save entering more menus the only option is to have “Always Ask” activated so that you must choose the connection accessible to you when starting browsing.

I’ve come to realise that Satio is a mongrel, an impure mix of Nokia and Sony Ericsson and with rather more Nokia than I’d have liked (just look at the screen below). Virtually all of my dislikes are due to the S60 OS and the poor execution of it on touch screen devices:

Satio Nokia Nokia Nokia Nokia Nokia

I was yet to use S60 5^th Edition properly until now and perhaps was naïve to think that it would be better than this or that SE would have made better use of it. Unfortunately this device encapsulates the convoluted awkwardness of S60 and compounds it with the worst points of touch screen devices. There is nice hardware here, splashed with a couple of good software elements but there is no consistency and ultimately the user experience is confusing and annoying.

Let Me Get Rid Of It:

I’m bitterly disappointed with Satio, too much of the experience is uncomfortable and while the camera and Media are a saving grace, these are not enough to make me tolerate daily use of this device. If you want an intuitive and responsive touch screen phone, keep looking…and I suggest towards Android and iPhone.

If, however, you bizarrely enjoy the general unpleasantness of S60 5^th Edition and require each of your UI screens to operate completely differently, go ahead, you should at least end up with some decent photos!

Mik

Mik’s Previous Opinions:

• HTC Magic
• Introduction

Filed under: Idou, Opinion, Satio, Symbian, impressions
Tags: Idou, Mik's Opinions, Review, Satio, Symbian

(12 votes, average: 2.83 out of 5)

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Good day to you all and welcome to my first full article in this series. Sadly it’s not the Satio article you’re hoping for, that’s been delayed because my girlfriend has gone away for a few days and taken the phone along with her, anyone would think I bought it for her….well I did actually but still, how dare she, it’s just inconsiderate!

Don’t worry though I have the HTC Magic and my new little green robot friend to talk about instead. Incidentally I do mean Android and not some sort of new hi-tech, eco-friendly mechanical helper….sadly.

Let Me Hold It:

Device boxes are often uninteresting and this is no exception aside from the fact that it’s surprisingly small. The device is presented to you on removing the lid, as is the fashion these days, while the headset (which I’ll come back to), charger, leather pouch and boring printed things lie beneath.

The Magic’s predecessor, the HTC Dream/G1, was irretrievably ugly and really not suitable for anyone with eyes so thankfully new designers appear to have been employed to make an Android device you wouldn’t be embarrassed to hold. They’ve done a good job and the Magic, in white, is a good looking device, just avoid the highly questionable MyTouch 3G version in merlot from T-Mobile! The dimensions are good and materials feel solid but not quite as weighty as an iPhone. Also unlike the iPhone, it isn’t as wide as a broadsheet newspaper and as a result is pleasant to hold for either one or two handed operation. The 3.2” capacitive touchscreen is bright and responsive while the Android related hardware buttons reside beneath. The trackball works ok but it largely redundant beyond moving around individual letters in text.

Let Me Use It:

As you’d expect the device runs through some setup screens upon first use, though you’ll be wanting a Google account to make full use of this. From here on in it’s a standard Android experience and there’s Donut in store depending where you live or if you take the sensible option of getting rooted and install the latest Cyanogen ROM.

With Android you’ll immediately notice the simplicity and user friendliness. Flicking between the various horizontally arranged home screens is enjoyable, particularly when you see that the wallpaper moves along with it. Perhaps the most compelling thing is to drag up the application drawer from the tab at the bottom of any home screen. It’s pleasing to use and can be smoothly dragged back and forth or simply thrown open or closed with a quick swipe. The drawer gives you a grid of icons and if you need telling what to do from there I suggest you turn off your computer, give all your electronics to the charity shop and move away somewhere to drink out of coconuts!

Less apparent at first but equally, if not more useful is the notification bar. This appears at the top of the screen showing the usual standby details as well as notifications of new events, active downloads, application updates etc. It behaves similarly to the drawer being dragged down smoothly to show you notification info which can then be dismissed or used as a shortcut to the relevant content. The usefulness of this became apparent when I received an SMS while in the middle of something else. Upon receipt, the SMS text is scrolled once across the notification bar like a news ticker, if you miss it just drag the bar down to read it again all without leaving what you’re doing. Never again do you need to quit something just to read “wuu2” from that friend you’d really rather just ignore.

Customisation is at the forefront of any Android experience because who wants to stare at screen after screen of icons on a black background? Well apparently quite a lot of people do but iDon’t (thanks for the pun Verizon) and it’s as easy as a long press on the home screen to mix things up. Long press an empty area to see a menu of shortcuts, folders and widgets you can add there. Long press an existing home screen item to move or dispose of it. Things got even easier once I realised application shortcuts could be dragged straight from the drawer to the home screen using the same long press method. The danger is in the widgets, they’re addictive and I soon found myself downloading as many as possible to try them all…..and then deleting the vast majority again! Apps are plentiful too via the Android Market, thankfully the majority are free and there are some really great pieces of work.

So it’s all plain sailing for the Magic then? Well, not quite. Media capabilities are good but nothing new, the camera is really not that great, especially in low light, and music playback is certainly nothing special not least because of the supplied headset. Headsets are a frequent HTC failing and this one is inexcusable unless they’re perhaps targeting the Ferengi market. The earphones are too big, not comfortable to wear and seem to manage not to block out any background noise…perhaps to distract from the lacking audio quality. What’s worse is the lack of a 3.5mm jack so you’ll be looking towards Bluetooth for a better experience.

Finally I can’t help but feel that this device is in infancy. Android is moving along fast and improving all the time but the internal hardware here is still first generation. The 528MHz Qualcomm processor is outdated and my particular Magic is short on RAM being a Google branded (32B) device. This results in performance hits when trying to get clever with the phone. It can multi-task but the price is a bit of lag which can be annoying at times.

Let Me Keep It:

Overall the HTC Magic is a great phone, I’m happy to use it every day and Android is definitely here to stay. The hardware can just about cut it for now but it will be blown away when the imminent 800MHz and 1GHz Snapdragon devices land along with Android 2.0. To that end I say this device is a good introduction to Android and a better experience than most other touch screen phones (let’s all laugh at WinMo) but not as speedy as an iPhone.

Definitely happy to keep it.

Cheers,

Mik

Filed under: Android, Article, Opinion, impressions
Tags: Android, HTC Magic, Mik's Opinion

(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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Hi guys and girls,

I’d like to introduce something new for you, it’s “Mik’s Impatient Opinions”. Think of this as a review source but in a rather different way to the normal, in depth reviews you’re used to. After all there’s plenty of other people already doing that and I neither see the point or can really be bothered doing the same thing!

So instead I’m going to give you something a little more personal. I’m typically short on patience, quick to form opinions and quick to condemn. I think in this way I can cut to the chase and tell you what you really need to know in an efficient and possibly entertaining way though I expect some things I write may not be what fanboys want to hear.

I won’t be doing detailed comparisons, I don’t intend on spending hours taking photographs and I won’t be covering massive amounts of handsets but I will try to use my own style to highlight things that will affect your every day user experience with a device or application etc.

So keep a look out for my first article, especially if you’re considering a Satio, and I hope you enjoy what I write for you.

Cheers,

Mik

Filed under: Announcement, Article, Opinion, Rants, impressions
Tags: Mik's Opinion

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Sony Ericsson have hinted that there may be a possibility, probably very slight though, that Rachael may not be alone in the Android stakes when announced next month. Commenting to British mobile magazine ‘Mobile Today’, Sony Ericsson mentioned that there would be ‘at least one’ Android’ handset announced by the end of this year. Of course that statement doesn’t tie Sony Ericsson to actually announcing a second Android handset alongside Rachael, but it would actually make a good bit of sense if they did so.

So far Rachael has appeared on the tubes a number of times through various ‘leaks’. By the time the announcement date rolls around, probably sometime next month, it will already be a handset that the digerati are acquainted with. How much more impact would they have if they also decided to slip in another Android handset on the side, maybe nothing as flash as Rachael, but still something to catch the eye. Indeed, if it were a non-touchscreen Android handset, as some have speculated Susan may be, then it would actually be, in some ways, more newsworthy than Rachael herself.

Of course this could all be pie in the sky, but we’ll just have to wait to find out … Let us know what side your money is on in the comments.

Filed under: Android, New phone, Opinion

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Two weeks ago we published an open letter to Sony Ericsson highlighting some of the problems we believe the company faces and calling on them to take action to address those problems. We have been running polls to gauge our users’ reaction to the letter and so far the response is overwhelmingly in agreement with the letter. Given that we’ve looked at what’s holding the company back let’s now take a look at what Sony Ericsson are doing to change and move forwards, and also ask whether it is enough to actually bring lasting change.

Perhaps the most apparent change has been the introduction of the ‘Entertainment Unlimited’ brand. This is a new brand of Sony Ericsson hardware that some see as combining the old Cybershot and Walkman brands. Whilst that’s true Entertainment Unlimited (EU) is actually quite a bit more, or at least it is trying to be. The idea isn’t just to release all-in-one handsets you see, it’s to completely re-focus the company as a whole; instead of being just another manufacturer Sony Ericsson wants to be an ‘entertainment company’. There’s that word again: entertainment.

What’s so important about entertainment then? Well quite a lot according to Sony Ericsson. Consumers are increasingly doing more with their handsets, whether it’s watching films, playing games, or accessing the web. To put it simply, Sony Ericsson wants a piece of that action. Now you might be thinking ‘haven’t people been doing those things for years?’. Well yes, and no. Take games, for instance, they’ve been on handsets for years, but it’s only in the last couple of years that they’ve grown significantly beyond relatively simple Java games and reached a mass audience that isn’t largely confined to children and teenagers. In other words mobiles are becoming, and in some cases have become, true games platforms in their own right. The same can be said for films as memory sizes have increased and screen resolutions have gotten better.

As slow as Sony Ericsson seems to be at times in catching on to trends they do recognise that consumers expect ever more from their devices and that we are living in an ever more connected world. Someone with a good cameraphone wants a good music player too, and why should they have to carry around a separate device because the manufacturer has decided to skimp on the media features in their phone in favour of the camera? That’s essentially the ethos behind EU, an all-in-one media device that not only does a good job of playing that media, whether it be a game, a film or a song, but also does a good job of sharing that content and in allowing the user to create content himself.

We can see that ethos played out through some of the features that have been built into Aino, Satio and Yari. For example, Yari features in-call music, which allows the user to play a song whilst in a call so the person on the other end can hear it. Aino of course allows the user to connect with his PS3 and access content. Satio’s main selling point is its camera, but it also acts as a pretty good media player to boot and has enough connectivity options to make sharing it pretty easy.

The handsets are only one part of it though because SE are also trying hard to tie in their PlayNow service, which has seen a huge expansion since its beginnings as a portal for Java games, wallpapers and ringtones. It now offers millions of songs for download as well as films. Sony Ericsson have also released an updated version of their handset sync software, which basically acts as their own version of iTunes. All in all it’s an attempt at creating their own content cycle.

It’s too early to say whether this will be successful or not, however, Sony Ericsson needs to expand on this vision a lot more and tie it all together much tighter if it’s going to run in the long-term. Consumers increasingly expect a lot more from a handset than what’s in the box and what’s pre-loaded on the phone. They want access to content and they want to tie that in with the rest of their digital lives. In that respect these are good first steps we’re seeing, but they’re still fragmented and they’re still small steps. As we’ve said previously, we need to see some risk taking and some bold moves.

Filed under: Entertainment, Entertainment Unlimited, Opinion

(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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