Yesterday my dear friend hui xuan asked me what’s my take on the Satio, iPhone and N900. Well i can’t answer with absolute certainty as the N900 is still very new and i have not tested the Satio yet, but based on what i’ve read and seen, here’s what i think
Sony erricsson's Satio is more of a media phone if anything else. Like the iPhone, the Satio is completely touch based. The Satio runs on Symbian platform, so operation will be slightly similar to Nokia touch devices. If I'm not mistaken the Satio also has a 12meg cam and picture quality is pretty good! The Satio will be backed up by Sony’s new PlayArena, where users can go and download games and other content to their phone. Sony is pretty dedicated to bringing quality games and media content to the Satio with the Arena, further enhancing this device’s media capabilities. As with SE phones, the Satio’s speaker quality is good.
Next, the iPhone. I feel the iPhone will definitely please Mac fans or users who want a "fun phone" to show off and share with friends. The iPhone’s user interface is sleek, clean, and very attractive. iPhone's diverse array of games and apps can definitely entertain for hours, and the iTunes player is just superb. With proper headphones and large built in memory, watching movies and listening to music on the iPhone is a pleasure.
However i’ve always been put off by the iPhone because you cannot multitask or share files via bluetooth easily. The only application you can run in the background is the music player. So you can’t.. let say IM with your friends while having the browser or calculator app open. You have to Close this – open that – close this – open that… you get the idea ;) Also battery cannot be changed, Mac accessories are pricey and the camera quality is iffish. With that said, getting an iPhone will get you noticed and it’s always fun to play games on the iPhone with your friends. It’s capacitive touchscreen is still one of the best on the market!
Now we have the N900. A multitasking behemoth that functions as a mobile computer. You can run as many tasks as you want with the 500Mhz processor and 1GB of RAM so if you're always on the move and want to get things done, the N900 will deliver. The N900 will always keep you connected. Contacts and chat, GPS- positioning, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, photos, texts, emails you can have all of that on your N900 – and if you want, keep them all running at once.
The qwerty keypad makes typing a breeze. However the N900's camera is just good, not outstanding as i would hope for. Currently, most applications can only run in landscape mode but this might be fixed soon. The N900 is based on linux so customization and availability of apps will not be a problem. In fact we’re already seeing loads of applications being ported to the N900. I can’t say too much on the N900 in terms of reliability as it’s just been released.
So, to sum it up
Satio - Excellent Multimedia phone, good imaging device, good sound quality.
iPhone - Fun phone, good media features but can't multitask and sound quality from speakers is utter crap.
N900 - Powerful multitasking mobile computer. (In fact the "phone" feature for calling is actually an app.) Might be a bit much to operate if all you want is to make calls and listen to songs on your mobile device.