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When is a phone more than a phone? Jason Mountney looks at one handset with extras. Does it pass muster?
The ugly duckling of the phone world, Sony Ericsson has been responsible for some of the plainest-looking handsets on the market. Which is a pity, as their phones usually come packed with user-friendly features such as easy-todial phone memory and a predictive-text format you don’t have to be 14 years old to understand. Add Sony’s Walkman music-playing technology and you have some great phones – it’s just a pity they’re so ugly that owners lock them in the basement with bread and water when guests drop by.
The brick-like Satio upholds the “plain Jane” design mantra. But, as your mum always told you, beauty is only skin-deep. Unless your mum was a supermodel, that is.
PICTURE THIS
The big talking point is a 12- megapixel camera that is so good you’ll be able to leave your point-and-shoot at home. Its lens lets in plenty of light, the camera is easy to use and the colour reproduction is quite vivid.
MUSIC TO OUR EARS
The music player is as good as you’d expect from Sony, the company that pretty much invented portable audio. The Satio comes with an eight-gigabyte microSD memory card, so you can pack in days of tunes. The iPhone-like touchscreen makes navigating through song lists so easy that you are marginally less likely to be mowed down by a bus as you walk to work with your headphones on. There’s also an FM receiver. However, why Sony Ericsson sticks to its proprietorial headphone jack, rather than giving its users the choice of a standard 3.5mm jack, is beyond me. And annoying.
CAUGHT IN THE WEB
You’ll have to wait until your plane lands to use the web browser, but it’s well worth the wait. Unlike the menus on other internetcapable handsets, the one here is intuitive and the phone’s quick processing speed means you spend less time watching pages slowly download.
Price: A$1,199/S$1,098 (without contract)
27 February
LANGKAWI
The Ironman Malaysia Triathlon is made tougher by the fact that temperatures on the resort island top out at around the 40-degree mark. As if the ordeal that the athletes put themselves through – a 3.86km swim, a 180.25km bike ride and a 42.2km marathon – wasn’t challenging enough. Ouch! www.ironmanmalaysia.com.my
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