Introduced as a concept phone at Mobile World Congress, the Sony Ericsson Satio is now available directly from SonyStyle for $649 unlocked. The Symbian-based phone is big on entertainment offers a 12.1-megapixel camera and a Walkman music player.
The Satio features a 3.5-inch resistive touch screen. It's not quite as sensitive as a capacitive display, so you'll need to apply a bit more pressure on the screen or use the included stylus.
Though you'll use the touch screen for most things, you do get some physical controls, including Talk and End keys and a menu button, below the display.
On the right side, you will find a number of buttons, including a volume rocker that doubles as zoom controls for the camera, a media gallery shortcut, a button to switch between camera and video mode, and a capture key.
Meanwhile, on the left, you'll find a lock switch, the microSD expansion slot, and Sony Ericsson's proprietary USB/headset port. The latter is quite annoying since it restricts you to using Sony Ericsson's own accessories or requires that you get adapters.
The Satio's highlight is its 12.1-megapixel camera. It offers a number of advanced options, such as red-eye reduction, a Xenon and LED flash, and smile detection, and can also record VGA video at 30 frames per second.
For a 12.1-megapixel camera, we were a little disappointed by the picture quality. It did well in some aspects but faltered in others. In this photo, the flash proved to be a little too much.
