After a long time spent not getting myself involved in geeky projects I got myself a SonyEricsson Satio and somehow reminded myself of how much I miss them.
So far my impression of the Satio is that it’s a Symbian phone and, like any other, if you’ve never used Symbian you will struggle to now. It’s a real shame because I see this phone as one that should at least bark a few insults at the iPhone, but aside from the hardware advantages it turns out to have as shit a software/GUI as every single Symbian predecessor and about as many applications as are available for a non-smartphone.
No doubt that, unless you bought your phone because a salesman told you, you’ll be straight into the menus (after checking out the camera) to see what lovely new features it has compared with your last. So be sure to set these when you get the chance.
- Settings -> Connectivity -> Network -> Network mode -> set to “GSM”. If you don’t do much video calling (who the hell does?) and don’t mind a slightly lesser GPRS speed (if you live in London, you’ll never experience maximum speed anyway), this will double/triple your battery life.
- Download a nice theme. The stock themes can sometimes be confusing and clunky. mobile9 have a large collection from which to choose.
- Get an Invisible Shield. Although technically not a trick and turns out to be quite pricey, they’re apparently indestructible. I haven’t tried gouging mine with a key yet, but it’s not got a single mark on it after a week’s use. It does make finger use difficult by increasing traction, so you end up squeaking up and down your phone, but it’s a small price to pay to keep your shiny tech bling in tip top condition.
The Satio, when it comes to applications, is an epic fail (must read) without question.
- The PlayNow Arena is a half-arsed collection of applications developed by third parties which may or may not work. The best part of this is that you can’t try before you buy, so you’re stuck if it doesn’t work. nUnlock is a prime example: I paid £3 for an iPhone-like slider, but when active it doesn’t display network signal or battery life. PlayNow haven’t bothered to reply to my complaint either.
- I’ve not yet come across an application that can use the camera, they all error with “Feature not supported”.
- PyS60 (Python for S60) has been developed and signed by Nokia. Samsung developed a port for their devices, but SonyEricsson are, as above, showing no signs of life. Python applications seem plenty and this is a major downfall. Symbian phones will never stand up to the iPhone until these stupid problems get sorted out.
- Qt could have been the saviour. Granted I haven’t tried to install this as hard as I did Python and I got further than I did with Python: it actually installs successfully! But none of the sample applications will start.
Among the applications that are available and do work, check out Facebook, Symabook (not quite the best Facebook app but will be soon), Snaptu, Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Search(now with location-based voice-search!), Water level, Youtube, ZXReader (must have for eBooks! Also try the Gutenberg Project)
Please let me clear up a few things before I sign off: I will not buy an iPhone for a few reasons (tied to iTunes, App Store, no multitasking, no replaceable battery, to name a few), but when I compare the functionality of an app-loaded iPhone considering its underpowered hardware to the Satio and its unused potential, it makes me sad.
Come on Symbian. Sort it out.
