Sony Ericsson makes Idou official; announces Yari and Aino phones

Kent German | May 29, 2009

Sony Ericsson Satio, Yari and Aino.

Remember Sony Ericsson's Idou? That was the flashy "concept phone" that the company announced earlier this year at GSMA. Well, after a long wait, Sony Ericsson on Wednesday finally made the elusive device official in London.

Now billed as the Sony Ericsson Satio, the candy bar handset shows no changes from its original incarnation. It still offers a gorgeous 3.5-inch touchscreen as your primary interface, and the few physical controls below the display and on the spines remain. You'll also find the sliding camera lens cover on the rear face. It will come in three colors: Black, silver, and bordeaux.

As a reminder, its features include a 12.1-megapixel camera, a music player, email and messaging, a speakerphone, Bluetooth, PC syncing, USB mass storage, a personal organizer, assisted GPS, Wi-Fi, an FM radio, YouTube and Facebook applications, handwriting recognition, and a Symbian operating system. The quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone also supports 3G networks (UMTS/HSDPA 850/900/2100), which makes it fully functional in most markets. It should be available later this year, though pricing was not announced.

Sony Ericsson also announced two brand-new handsets. The Yari is a slider phone in black or cranberry white (that seems like two colors, but no matter). Inside you'll find gesture control, a 5-megapixel camera, messaging and email, Bluetooth, a personal organizer, an FM radio, assisted GPS, USB mass storage, a speakerphone, stereo speakers, and a music player. Though the quad-band world phone is a 3G device, it does not support high-speed networks in the US. The Yari should see a late-2009 release.

The Aino takes a focus on gaming by including Remote Play for controlling and accessing your Sony PlayStation 3. Otherwise, the Aino is well-stocked. It promises an 8.1-megapixel camera, a music player, stereo speakers, a speakerphone, messaging and email, Facebook and YouTube applications, assisted GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a personal organizer, and a voice recorder. The Aino supports the same bands as the Satio. It should be out in the fourth quarter of this year. The slider phone comes in white and black.

Via CNET Crave

Filed under: Mobile Phones
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Devlin

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Devlin says...
While the Yari and Aino seem to be your typical Sony Ericsson (feature-packed with only slight variations to differentiate them), I do hope Sony does something special with these to make them standout. After having jumped ship from my iPhone to a BlackBerry to an E71 I'm honestly a little hesitant about experimenting with new phones, but if the Satio proves to be intuitive and easy to use it might just make my list. That or Aino.

May 29, 2009 16:34

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RiGoRmOrTiS

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RiGoRmOrTiS says...
I hate the fact that they disregard placing any 3.5mm audio jacks on any of these phones..the plug-in port they have on most of their models are terrible (most, not all, since they managed to put a 3.5mm audio jack on about two phones..Xperia included)!They wear out easily..causing detection of the accessory to be quite a burden (e.g. when you try to charge the phone, the phone fails to recognize it and you'd have to try to wiggle it or detach and reattach the accessory before the phone detects it; same thing goes for their headsets since they're plugged in to the same port as the charger - of course, this symptom usually begin to occur after awhile, say somewhere around 6 months). I'm also wondering why they couldn't have increased the internal memory of their mobiles.. even though their new mobiles have begun to "stress" on entertainment. I heard the term "resistive touchscreen." What is that? It's supposed to be what's on the Satio..and as claimed by the source, it was a bad move. I'm also worried as to how responsive this gadget will actually be because all of the new Sony Ericsson phones i've handled with are kinda slow to react..maybe the processor or something is not good enough to handle its features.

Jun 01, 2009 23:38

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