A few megapixels to much?

The Satio is Sony Ericsson’s first 12-megapixel cameraphone. You don’t actually need that many pixels in a stills camera – let alone a phone, but everyone else is making them, so is Sony Ericsson.

At 13mm deep the Satio feels solid and (thanks to the slide-back lens cover) a little chunky, but it’s comparable to smartphone rivals.

A highlight is the bright 3.5in 640×480 screen, which is fantastic for playing back photos (rotating automatically) and watching back programs via the iPlayer.

Running Symbian 5th edition, the Satio is frustrating to use. Unfortunately the touch screen is frustrating – it’s noticeably slower then the iPhone and you often have to jab the screen several times before getting a response. Some commands are hard to find and the tiny virtual keyboard takes getting used to before you’ll be typing smoothly. Wisely you get solid call and cancel buttons, as well as a volume control on the side.

The highlight of the phone is undeniably the 12-megapixel camera. Taking pictures with the Satio is a joy; the shutter is fast so you can even capture a moving subject. It’s quick at focusing too, with an accurate face-detection mode and you can even focus simply by tapping the screen. Skin tones are excellent, displaying tonal changes accurately and the Xenon flash works well too, easily illuminating indoor shots. However, indoors image noise creeps in, even when the sensitivity is as low as ISO 200.

Photos, music and video are accessed via the fantastic Xross Media Bar. View photos in a carousel which you can scroll through, although annoyingly instead of going smoothly from picture to picture, we accidentally opened a menu screen.

On-board memory is just 128Mb, but the phone comes with 8GB mini SD card – yes SE are finally conforming and including a card format people might actually already own. Unfortunately there’s no 3.5mm jack, so you’re stuck with Sony Ericsson’s propriety connector, although a 3.5mm jack is supplied. This is a massive oversight, especially considering SE’s pedigree with music phones.

Download games and apps from the Sony Ericsson PlayNow Arena. It’s intuitive enough to use, but currently choice is limited to around with only six free apps, including fring and GetJar. It pricier then the Android Marketplace or Apple App Store too – you’ll pay £5 for an RSS Reader, £8 for a Stephen King book and £2.50 for 99 Dumbest Jokes.

Connectivity is excellent, with WiFi, A2DP Bluetooth and HSDPA. You also get aGPS and Google Maps

If you’ve been hanging on for a well-featured smartphone with a camera, the Satio is the phone for you. Unfortunately, while multimedia features are good, in usability it lags behind rivals like the HTC Hero and Apple iPhone 3Gs, and the App Store really needs time to develop. But this is still a solid handset.

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