Sony Ericsson seems to be constantly hitting the mark with its recent smartphone launches and the Aino appears to be another great launch from the Japan-Sweden alliance. A sleek and good-looking phone, the Aino features some nifty extras, including acting as a remote to control a PlayStation 3, but there are areas where the Aino falls short of its potential.
With a subtle matte finish and a gliding function, the Aino certainly hits the right notes in terms of aesthetics. The sliding layer of the phone’s surface is commanded by a bright, colorful and detailed 3 “screen that shows media shortcuts in case the phone is closed. These shortcuts include photo view, camera mode, playback music and video or FM radio, which makes us think this is more of a multimedia phone than an internet phone. This screen displays high-quality video and images and when the phone is placed on its side, the speakers sound great, perfect for viewing. Episodes of your favorite TV shows on the go. At home, the charging dock allows you to tilt your phone to watch videos and the BBC iPlayer app is pre-installed to watch BBC shows over an internet connection. So yeah, the Aino seems to want to be used to watch videos.
The sliding keyboard feels pretty good when you use it, because after all these years of using an on-screen touch keyboard, we long for the simpler times of feeling the keys under our fingers. The glide is fluid and the grip is excellent, making it quite easy to use.
When you close the lid, the phone also goes into watch mode and displays the usual Sony Ericsson specialties that we love, including FM radio and TrackID to identify songs you don’t know when they’re playing.
The camera that Sony Ericsson has included is an 8.1 megapixel resolution and LED flash, which is much more impressive than other camera phones in its price range. The images taken are of astonishing quality both in daylight and at night, but we have come to expect little more from the considered kings of the mobile phone camera.
Unfortunately, despite Sony Ericsson’s achievements in some areas, there are some familiar issues that seem to crop up on all phones. The main one is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. With a phone of this caliber and sound quality, we decided that the phone would be much better if we could use our normal headphones, as the ones provided in the box are simply not enough. The Bluetooth adapter allows you to connect your best headphones and stream music to them without being connected to the phone, but this is tricky and complicated, so we would have preferred the normal connector.
When you use the phone closed, the touchscreen is in full effect and easy to use, however when you open the phone, the touchscreen turns off, a feature that we found strange. To be honest, when you are making a call, it is quite a nifty feature as you are not activating additional features with your ear, but otherwise we find it quite confusing.
We found that the onboard memory is quite minimal, which makes the microSD card storage have to intervene for media support. Fortunately, Sony Ericsson included an 8GB card in the box, which provides ample storage space.
To conclude, the Aino is a great phone that has all the basic functions in a small space. The camera, touchscreen, and features are excellent and far exceeded our expectations, however we are still a bit disappointed in the Aino. It seems that Sony Ericsson has created a Marmite phone – you’ll either love it or hate it.