The Sony Ericsson Yendo is still a couple of months away from launch and we hope the time is used wisely. There’s quite a few software-related things to polish. The sluggish user interface for one ruins the fun of having such a neat and good looking touch phone. There’re too many unknowns with the Yendo and perhaps the slow processor should not take all the blame. After all, this is a feature phone with a small low-res screen and few power-hungry apps. The software package is far from final, so we shouldn’t be too tough on the phone. But at this point it’s obvious there’s a lot of tweaking to do before launch.
Then, the Walkman branding is raising more questions than answers. Ease of use and good looks are key in a low-end touch phone but you can’t help but notice the media package here is just a bit too basic. The Yendo has no accelerometer, hence no fancy features such as Shake Control. There’s no integrated Media Menu to begin with. The poor file management is a letdown too.
Having repeatedly praised the interface of Sony Ericsson feature phones, we’re afraid we can’t hide our disappointment with the Yendo. What we miss the most is the Activity Menu – a quick way to access favorites and the event log – not to mention the Running Apps tab. In fact – smart dial and the multitasking ability were the great Sony Ericsson advantages in feature phones. None of them is enabled on the Yendo. And there’re no homescreen widgets either.
We’ll skip the unimpressive camera and the basic web browser - after all imaging and web aren’t meant to be Yendo’s full-time jobs.
We’ve been painting a rather bleak picture but these are all things users will be right to expect in a Walkman - albeit an entry-level phone. Not least, the Yendo isn’t exactly short of rivals in the basic touch phone segment.
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