Sony Ericsson Aino Review and Video

Sony Ericsson have been going through a bit of a sticky patch recently, with handsets that are not quite up to the mark hitting the shelves and leaving customers angry when their new shiny handset needs to go away for repair. For example, the C905 was a great handset, but the dodgy speaker was just poor quality control. We had a sneak preview of the sort of devices Sony Ericsson were looking to bring to market with the Idou, now renamed Satio. As well as confirming the new name of the Idou, Sony Ericsson also introduced us to two new phones, the Aino, and the Yari. Here we are going to look at the Sony Ericsson Aino in greater depth.

Designing a mobile phone isn’t all that easy; users want a small, compact phone, but also want a well sized keypad and a good sized screen, too. The two form factors that offer this are slide, and my own personal favourite, the flip. Sony Ericsson have chosen the former, and with the Aino have a device that is compact, yet has a large, clear, bright display and a good sized keypad. Just 15.5mm thick, the Aino weighs in at 134g, which is bordering on the heavy, in mobile phone terms. The TFT display measures in at 3 inches, and has a 240 x 432 pixel count. Equipped with an accelerometer for auto rotation, the display also offers limited touch functionality too.

Inside, the Aino is endowed with a stunning array of top technology, designed to launch Sony Ericsson back into the big time of phone manufacture. One of the stand-out features is the inclusion of an 8.0 Megapixel camera, with auto focus and an LED flash. The camera has touch screen operation enabled, and supports many extras to ensure your imaging results are the best they can be. These features include Geotagging, face detection, image stablisation, smart contrast and red eye reduction. And good news for those who like to record video on their phones, Sony Ericsson finally have introduced VGA video recording at 30 fps on the Aino.

Data connectivity is well supported on the Aino, with multi band HSDPA support included, plus WiFi with support for DLNA. Bluetooth 2.0 is there, for wireless audio streaming, and the Aino is designed to work around the world with quad band GSM connections included. Internal memory on the device is a bit low, with just 55MB of memory available; fortunately the handset will work with memory cards up to 16GB and comes supplied with an 8GB card in the box. One point worth mentioning is the fact that the Aino supports Micro SD cards, so no more worrying about different card technology. About time, too!

And, that is not even the half of it; the Aino truly is a handset that is set to reinforce the credentials of Sony Ericsson as a top handset manufacturer. Another feature of the Aino is the inclusion of remote play support for the PS3. With the Aino connected to a Playstation 3 you will be able to control the games console and move through the media content. The built in support for Blogger is retained, so you can update your blog on the move from the phone, and the Aino also has dedicated applications for accessing Facebook and YouTube.

The media player on the device is up to the standard of many recent Walkman branded devices, with the inclusion of the Walkman 3.0 player. Support is there for all the popular digital music formats, and the device offers some nice visual effects, with graphics of an old style tape player, cassette player, gramophone and CD player which can be used as backgrounds to the music player.

The Sony Ericsson Aino is an entertaining device, with many features packed into a handset that is not overly large. Almost unassuming in design, underneath the conservative look lays a handset that is absolutely heaving with the latest in communication technology. Sony Ericsson is aiming high with this device, and the Aino is more than equipped to deliver. Expected Q4 2009.

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