My Nokia Blog

When the N97 was launched, the 3.5″ 16:9 touchscreen, with S60 5th Edition were two features that I thought would remain unique to Nokia for a little while. I was certain it would be my next phone.

But so soon, we saw the Omnia HD (now i8910) from Samsung packing a bigger 3.7″ 16:9 AMOLED touchscreen, S60 5th edition with 720p HD video recording.

To make decision making worse, Sony Ericsson then informed us of the Idou (now Satio) with 3.5″ 16:9 TFT touchscreen, with Symbian Foundation (basically S60 5th edition) and 12MP with XENON flash.

Here’s GSM Arena’s preview of the Sony Ericsson Satio – (some key points below)

• Made entirely of plastic, but very high quality
• Screen has stunning picture quality and contrast (for a TFT)
• NO 3.5mm jack
• 1000mAh battery
• S60 5th Edtition UI with Sony Ericsson Tweaks

• Under the “stylish” lens cover are 12MP goodness with Xenon flash for stills and LED for video – Camera is nothing short of impressive

• You can capture photos in 16:9 (at 9MP)
• “Better” than the Samsung INNOV8 (though marginally) – there’s only two pairs of comparison shots though to judge it myself.
• VGA video is “Splendid” even though their test version could not handle the 30FPS frame rate. Not sure if it reords in 16:9 though.
• Improved browser in comparison to the 5800

For me, my only two options would really be down to the Satio or N97.

• Satio purely for the Xenon – it meets my low light photography needs – the only phone out of the three that could force my N82 into retirement – also the additional 7megapixels don’t hurt – definitely more useful when copying out chapters of a text book for Uni  (quicker than scanning – cheaper than photocopying)
• N97 for the form factor – I love the “flick” sliding screen that reveals that QWERTY keyboard, which for me, is preferable when entering text. There’s also that 32GB in built memory so it can immediately hold a  significant proportion of my music library with space for several movies to spare – and it’s further expandable with memory card. Finally the “homescreen” experience – I didn’t think much of this the first time I saw it, but now I see it has a lot of potential and usability.