Better, but weirder, than the W995,
Let me start by saying that this is truly a unique mobile phone. It's 20% touch screen, and 80% slider.
I'll explain:
Before purchasing the Sony Ericsson Aino, I used the delightful Sony Ericsson W995. The latter is really an every-day run of the mill slider phone. It had a very good 8.1MP camera, decent video recording, 8GB of space, and a beautiful screen. After about 9 months, I wanted to upgrade and instead of going for the Nokia X6 (which I had been planning on getting), I purchased the Aino.
For starters, the phone has a significantly better 8.1MP camera than the W995. Also, (and ITS ABOUT TIME!) it's one of the very first SE phones to offer 30fps (DVD standard) video recording. The pictures are absolutely brilliant, and finally the videos look good!
It has a capacitive touch screen (like the iPhone...it relies on heat, NOT pressure) but this can be used only when the phone is closed. From here, you can access your pictures, videos, the camera, the radio, and all of your music. This is where the touch functionality ends. When you slide the phone open, it reveals the keypad (a rather uncomfortable one at that) and what may be the longest phone I've ever seen.
With the slider open, this is pure Sony Ericsson. If you know anything about SE, you'll be immediately put at ease. It has to be one of the very best feature phones on the market. Of course, like the W995, and unlike Symbian Nokia's, the UI really cannot be customized. But this is totally okay because its so perfectly laid out. The screen is GORGEOUS. SO MUCH MORE SO than the W995. It's fast (faster than the latter) and the interface is smooth. Everything is within intuitive reach.
Now, not everything is good. First, you can do absolutely nothing with the phone closed (except for access what I mentioned above). In other words, when you receive a text, you cannot even see who sent it, let alone what it says. The screen will only say "text message received." Essentially, this means that to do absolutely anything other than what I mentioned the touch functions are, you must slide the phone open. Kindof annoying when you only want to read the text and not respond.
But, the slider is firm and precise. No wobbling. The build quality is the very best that I have ever seen in a cell phone. Certainly on par with the iPhone.
Let me sum up the good and the bad.
THE GOOD:
1. Up to 32GB of memory with a micro SD (unlike 8GB with previous models).
2. The camera is now absolutely fantastic.
3. Video recording at 30fps. (This is so two-years-ago for the rest of the phone world, but this is SE).
4. Build quality is superb.
5. Sound quality is even better.
6. Comes with a blue tooth head set that lights up and looks great.
THE BAD
1. You have to slide the phone open to do anything, even just view a text.
2. The keypad will take some serious getting used to...its very very small and lacks good feedback.
3. You can only access a very limited amount of things with the touch screen (which offers perfect response though).
Hope this helps!!!
Oh and did I mention... you can turn on your PS3 from anywhere with a WI-FI or over-the-air connection. From there, you can stream your movies, songs, and tv-shows. Kinda cool, huh?
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