SONY ERICSSON AINO

Specifications

www.sonyericsson.com

Dimensions (WxHxD): 50mm x 104mm x 15.5mm;

Weight : 134 g;

Display: 3-inch touchscreen, 240x432 pixels;

Memory: 55 MB;

Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth;

Camera: 8 MP auto-focus;

Battery life: 13 hours

Rs 28,950

If you’re wondering what the name Aino means, then let me translate it to you and what I have concluded is that it is in Finnish it can be a person’s name that means ‘The Only One’, in Japanese it’s the native name of ‘Man’ and a race of people that came before the earliest Japanese settlers. The handset is obviously neither. Sony Ericsson has moved out of its usual pattern of using model numbers for mobiles and gone with just a single name.

As unique as the name may be, we were curious to see how unique the handset would turn out and here’s my experience.

• The Aino comes with the chargers that have a secondary port built in so one could use a wired headset while charging (though one isn’t included with the phone).
• Sony Ericsson’s UI has, sadly, remained the same. It’s always been colorful and very animated, but this becomes a load on the battery. I found a bit of lag in the Aino’s UI even when I selected the least animated theme.
• I was very disappointed with the audio functionality that the Aino has. While the quality of playback is not in question the sound level is just too low. Without a decently high volume level one would never be able to enjoy audio with the Aino.
• The FM radio worked well enough and managed to scan and store all the available stations tuned in record time.
• One will have to spend a little time converting videos to 3GP or MPEG4. The videos that did convert were easy to watch on the 3-inch display.
• A Facebook application is provided for the social networker in you to quickly access and update your status, check up friend’s activities
• The 8-megapixel camera is equipped with touch focus which didn’t work out as well as the Satio’s as it was unresponsive and pretty much focused on only what it wanted.

So if you’re looking for a trendy handset with great battery life and high resolution camera with plenty of connectivity, the Aino is the one out there. However, wait till the price drops.

Verdict: A feature-rich handset with room for improvement.