Sony Ericsson has gone out of its usual conformity of using model numbers for mobiles and has just used a name for this handset - Aino (God knows what SE meant by it).
Form Factor
The Aino’s is a brilliantly crafted handset. It’s well balanced and very streamlined and the weight, although a little on the heavy side, gives the handset a definite feel good factor. The pop slider lives up to the term. It’s very smooth and can be opened or closed with a simply flick. Volume/Zoom keys are on the same side as the shutter release for the handset’s 8MP camera (with LED flash). Sony’s proprietary USB slot is located on the other side.
The Aino’s is a brilliantly crafted handset. It’s well balanced and very streamlined and the weight, although a little on the heavy side, gives the handset a definite feel good factor. The pop slider lives up to the term. It’s very smooth and can be opened or closed with a simply flick. Volume/Zoom keys are on the same side as the shutter release for the handset’s 8MP camera (with LED flash). Sony’s proprietary USB slot is located on the other side.
Aino comes with a Bluetooth enabled receptor that can be hooked up to a wired set of earphones. The Aino comes with the new chargers that have a secondary proprietary port built in so one could use a wired headset while charging though one isn’t included with the phone.
The Bluetooth adapter for the handsfree can also be charged when it’s placed in the bundled cradle. The Aino uses microSD cards to increase memory capacity and comes with an 8GB card. The slot is unfortunately located under the rear panel, but thankfully that’s quite easy to pop open.
The 3 inch display’s touch functionality can be accessed only in landscape mode for media. The resolution is 240 x 432 with 16million colors, but for some strange reason, I noticed, the resolution seemed a little askew in the media mode in terms of overall clarity. However I do like the idea of having the touchscreen specific to only one aspect of the handset's overall feature set although that does have a small measure of disadvantage as well. Read on.
Features and Performance
Interface
Sony Ericsson’s UI has, sadly, remained unchanged. It’s always been colorful and very animated, which also leads to a burden on the battery. I found a little bit of lag in the Aino’s UI, even when I selected the least animated theme. Refreshing new data in the media section was also a bit slow. In contrast though, the touchscreen media UI was quite responsive and well laid out thus making it very user friendly. While the handset does have an accelerometer to rotate web pages and the media gallery there’s no virtual keyboard as it does not activate the touch sensitive one so you’ll have to struggle to use the alphanumeric keypad in portrait mode. And there’s your disadvantage right there, since the browser can’t be accessed from the touch sensitive media menu.
Interface
Sony Ericsson’s UI has, sadly, remained unchanged. It’s always been colorful and very animated, which also leads to a burden on the battery. I found a little bit of lag in the Aino’s UI, even when I selected the least animated theme. Refreshing new data in the media section was also a bit slow. In contrast though, the touchscreen media UI was quite responsive and well laid out thus making it very user friendly. While the handset does have an accelerometer to rotate web pages and the media gallery there’s no virtual keyboard as it does not activate the touch sensitive one so you’ll have to struggle to use the alphanumeric keypad in portrait mode. And there’s your disadvantage right there, since the browser can’t be accessed from the touch sensitive media menu.
Media
I’m quite disappointed with the audio functionality that the Aino brings to the table. While the quality of playback is not in question the decibel level is just too low. Mumbai city is deafening most of the time and without a decently high volume level you’ll never be able to enjoy your audio with the Aino. The Bluetooth tether for the handsfree is also a little large with a rather ‘Disco-like’ indicator system. SE has included quite a few very visually attractive visualizations to the player and of course EQ presets and a customizable option.
I’m quite disappointed with the audio functionality that the Aino brings to the table. While the quality of playback is not in question the decibel level is just too low. Mumbai city is deafening most of the time and without a decently high volume level you’ll never be able to enjoy your audio with the Aino. The Bluetooth tether for the handsfree is also a little large with a rather ‘Disco-like’ indicator system. SE has included quite a few very visually attractive visualizations to the player and of course EQ presets and a customizable option.
Another disappointment is that the handset, although equipped with a GPS module only comes with apps like Wisepilot and Google Maps that are primarily A-GPS enabled so quite pointless if you have no reception. The Tracker application is quite handy for those who enjoy jogging or walking as recreation or sport.
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