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Is the Sony Ericsson Satio my N82 upgrade?

By Chippy. Filed in Tech Thoughts  |  
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I’m pretty much locked-in when it comes to mobile phone choices. 2 years ago I bought a Nokia N82 and the camera on that is so good that even today I’m having trouble finding an upgrade. I’m so used to taking good quality evening, home and low-light snaps with it that I rarely have any other camera with me. To me, camera, internet and mobile phone go together like bread and butter and if you’ve tasted Xenon flash before, there’s no going back. (It’s not just brightness BTW, the short period of flash helps to freeze movement and results in far sharper low-light captures of people and other moving objects.)

I took a brief look at the Sony Ericsson Satio a while back but it didn’t really register in my ‘want’ list because I didnt know about the CPU. When I found out that it’s got the same CPU in as the iPhone 3GS (AAS Review) I started to get interested again. Today I checked it out in the T-Mobile shop here in Bonn and sure enough, it’s got a lot of potential. The touchscreen is resistive but, like the Nokia N900, gives good haptic-assisted response. The slider-protected (essential) camera is 12MP and the pre-focus is quick and accurate. The only thing I found missing on the camera side (in my 10 minute test) was the ability to force the flash on (for fill-in.)

sonyEricssonSatio

A quick test with the browser (on the 360×640, 3.5” screen) showed it to be accurate although over EDGE, I couldn’t really test the speed out. WIth the OMAP 3430 platform at heart, it’s going to be reasonable although with multitasking capability, probably not as fast as the single-tasking iPhone 3GS.

Must-have GPS and MicroSD are also included although the lack of 3.5mm headphone jack is hard to accept. Included headphones look good and included adaptor helps.

Two questions remain though:

  • Am I happy with Series 60?
  • Will Nokia bring out a new high-end cameraphone at MWC (on Symbian^2)

Series 60 is something that a lot of people moan about. It’s NOT intuitive and there’s a tough learning curve BUT, once you’re over that (I’ve been using S60 for 2 years) there’s a lot to like about it. Being able to choose per-application internet connections, good memory and process management, stable operation and a level of software support that is up there with Apple’s iPhone. I’m also a big fan of Ovi Maps. The application is quick, smooth, allows me to buy daily walk/drive licenses via my carrier’s bill and it syncs well with the online Ovi service. Exchange support works well with Google, the Gravity twitter app is one of the best out there and Opera Mobile 10 beta for S60 is a fantastic browser. SIP is integrated, Do I need any more than that? The Ovi store isn’t that exciting but it’s coming along. Android would be better for me but Symbian S60 comes in at #2 above iPhone and WM6.5. (Maemo 5 needs work to become a 24/7 phone.)

Many of you know that I’m a two-mobile-device man. I don’t believe that convergence can bring me the quality I require from a fully onverged web, pmp, navi, phone, pim, microblogging, camera device (a-la N900) so the phone doesn’t have to have the fastest and best web experience in the world because I’ve got another device for that. My priority is that camera. Capturing life around me and sending it to the internet, keeping up with news and email, twitter, mp3,  organising my agenda and making phone calls and SMS are the most important features I need in a phone.

480 Euro’s is a lot to pay for a phone but it’s only 30 Euro more than I paid for the N82 and 02 are doing some good internet-focused tariffs. (50 Euro per month for 24 months should see me covered for the phone, 5GB Internet usage including tethering/laptop use along with my low-end voice and SMS use. Initial payment – 29.95Euro. TCO, phone and costs – 1200 Euros)

So why didn’t I buy one then? Simple. At my second visit to the 02 shop today the staff refused to let me try a working model despite having one in stock. T-Mobile had a working model on display but their tariffs are focused on a flat and equal mix of voice, SMS and internet. My final option is to buy one from the O2 online shop. The ‘remote purchase’ law in Germany at least allows me 14 days to return it. 

But then again, Mobile World Congress is coming in just over a week!

Sample 12mp Satio image below (click for full size and see how much you can zoom in. its stunning!)

 

20012010004

Note the widescreen form-factor of the image. Gives it a modern feel.

Any other N82 owners out there laboring over the same choice?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Tech Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • http://twitter.com/c_davies Chris Davies

    Having talked with Sony Ericsson at the XPERIA X10 launch, I’ve a sour feeling (on behalf of owners) in my mouth about the Satio. Asked whether it would get the Mediascape and Timescape apps debuting on the X10 – which they’d just been explaining to us were basically platform agnostic, and would run on Android, Symbian or other OSes – they rather sheepishly said no, that wouldn’t be happening. From the sound of it the Satio is already considered “old news” for SE; a step or two from abandoned as they focus on upcoming devices. Bear in mind that when this was happening, the Satio had been in stores for a couple of weeks at most.

    It’s probably a reasonable phone, but SE’s cavalier attitude to owners disappointed me.

  • http://carrypad.com/members/chippy/ Chippy

    Thanks Chris. The pace od development sometimes works against any purchase at all. Ill be waiting now. One good thing about Nokia is thay they have a nice long support process. I had a firmware update just 2 weeks ago on my 2 year old N82.

  • Dean

    Yes I have had a nokia N82 for nearly 18 months now and for the first time am finding it extremely difficult to choose an upgrade. I went to an orange shop and had a look at the satio.
    It just didn’t feel right though i’m still considering it but don’t want to rush it. you can’t just pick a phone just like that. The way i see a phone is it’s going to be your link to world world for the next 18-24 months. What i’m looking for in a phone is pretty much exactly the same as you. the Xperia X10 looks promising but we’ll have to wait and see. being patient is so difficult but it’s always worth it in the end.

  • http://phonecam365.blogspot.com/ AB

    Any other N82 owners out there laboring over the same choice?

    I am labouring over a similar choice: is the Sony Ericsson Satio my N95 upgrade? The dilemma is similar; the N95′s camera technology is the same as the N82′s without the Xenon flash.

    For over a year, I have published a photo a day from my phone on my blog. I would like to have an upgrade from the clunking old technology behind the N95, but naturally want to be certain that the new phone’s camera is as least as good as the olds’s. My pride as a blogger is at stake.

    I had assumed that the with all the high-powered Android-based phones springing up, at least one would try to stand out from the pack with a good camera. A bit of research showed that assumption to be false. So far, none have come up with a better camera than the ancient Nokia.

    The Xperia X10 may be the first Android phone to change that. However, its launch keeps being delayed — it is currently expected to arrive in Germany in April — and I imagine a lot of teething problems as Sony-Ericsson come to grips with the new OS and the swish new Timescape UI. Even then, its camera technology may not be as good as the Satio — 8MP, instead of 12MP, no sliding cover for the lens (as far as I can see from photos), and some software such as BestPic mode seems to missing.

    In short, my choice has been reduced to either going for the Satio now or waiting 6 months to a year for the Android camp to finally get its act together.

    The other joker in the pack is the Samsung M8920, which is a 12MP point and shoot camera with a mobile phone bolted on. But that is not released yet either, outside of Korea.

  • http://carrypad.com/members/chippy/ Chippy

    @AB. I checked out the Satio again yesterday. I really like it. If I could confirm that it’s able to get free Ovi Maps (turn-by-turn) then i’d probably go for it. Like you said, it could be the perfect stop-gap that bridges to the late 2010 phones with high-end CPUs and stable OS’

  • http://scrnch.me/wtg4d Angella Woodford

    superior good, this article deserves absolutely nothing hahaha merely joking :P nice posting

  • Pingback: Still looking for that N82 upgrade. | Chippy's Hiblue Lab

  • http://www.kosynus.com.br Christophe Trevisani Chavey

    Hi.

    First: sorry for my poor english, I’m Brazilian.

    I’ve bought a N82 +2 years ago too and I love this phone, it’s do everything I need, and I’m very exigent for selecting my phone. I’m looking for a substitute and it’s really very hard to find a good smartphone like N82 with a excellent camera with xenon flash.

    I need a phone with: good camera phone (minimum 8megapixels) with xenon flash, I must can install lot of new apps of my choices (MSN with file transfer & voice, like Nimbuzz, twitter integration, integration with MS Exchange and other business services), good processor & memory (ram) for open various browser’s windows simultaneous and keep running other programs, 3G, wifi, GPS etc…. to be “fast response” and easy to use! just it (lol)

    I’ve bought last week a Samsung M8910 Pixon12 but i’m very disappointed with it’s operating system (proprietary: very bad – i’ve forgotten to see that, assh…) & usability. It’s very hard to install new apps. (Only works Java ME & proprietary samsung’s system, really really terrible phone.) I’m trying to sell it and it’s not easy.

    I live in Brazil (belo horizonte) and good new phones here is very difficult to find in store, so I must import them by friends whose come from USA or Europe! So I can’t test the phone before buying it :(

    I’ve looked at Sony Ericsson Satio and it seems to be a good choice. But I read that some english’s (UKs) stores stop to sell it because the phone have some problems with some apps (?!). Ah, some reviews sites tell that the UI was slow in some cases.

    Someone have a good phone suggestion for the specifications I say above?

    Thanks! good posting

  • Pingback: Super Phone Cameras – My Choices and Tips | Carrypad

  • esw

    haha…about time i was about 2 buy satio but thks 2 u 4 this article,,,i reverse my decision n plan 2 wait 4 another 1 year…there is no better phone overall these days unlike my n82 of 2008…i skipped the n86 8mp bcoz i hate slide phone…now i hear nokia N2 12mp is coming out in few months time…so we shall wait n c how it will fare against my n82 overall…4 the 1st time ever,,,this my longest time ever in holding on 2 my existing phone…this is my pattern ever since i got my 1st ever camera phone n yeah its 2 much wasting money seriously in short period of time…lolz

    n6680>n70>n73>n82