Sony Ericsson Satio: Idou no more
The Sony Ericsson Idou is now the Satio, a 12.1-megapixel touchscreen phone that's gunning for the iPhone. We can't wait to say 'I do' and see if the Satio satisfies us
If all the talk of the Sony Ericsson Yari and Aino hasn't left you sated, here's a big, fat cherry to top it all off: Sony Ericsson has renamed its megapixel-busting media phone from Idou to Satio.
For you Latin lovers out there, Satio means 'I satisfy', so this phone is making big promises. It plans to back them up with a 12.1-megapixel camera -- yes, the biggest ever -- a xenon flash, and an 89mm (3.5-inch) touchscreen that displays your vids in 16:9 widescreen. It'll also have GPS, turn-by-turn navigation and an FM radio... be still, our beating hearts.
The Satio will be running the Symbian S60 operating system, which means you can install the thousands of great apps that are already out there for Symbian, if you can figure out how. Sony Ericsson hinted at an app store coming later this year, so that should help.
Sony Ericsson says that the Satio will combine the best of its well-loved Cybershot camera phones and its Walkman music phones, and if it pulls off the task, this will be one helluva handset.
We got our hands on a pre-production model at the launch, and it has huge potential. It's a great-looking phone, and with the camera's sliding lens cover it almost looks like a very compact camera from the back. The screen is bright and the user interface looks smartly designed.
Touchscreens like the Satio live or die on their speed and responsiveness -- hence the rise of the iPhone, which is winner and still champeen on those measures. So we can't wait to try out the final version of the Satio so that we can put it through its paces and see how it measures up to its potential.