Sony Ericsson Aino

Editor's Review of the Aino

Looking glamorous in an obsidian black casing or appearing delicate in a luminous white casing with glossy finish, the Sony Ericsson Aino offers the luxury and practicality that characterise the Sony Ericsson Yari. Sony Ericsson Aino has a compact yet solid design that weighs 134 grams inclusive of fitted battery and measures 104 x 50 x 15.5 millimetres.

This mobile phone is a 3G mobile phone with a touch-sensitive screen that measures 76.2 millimetres and displays animated or picture wallpapers, photos and other images in 16 million colours on 432 x 240 pixels. It is made even more personalised and attractive with its array of ringtones in MP3 and ACC audio formats.

As a quad band mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson Aino works on GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900, as well as UMTS 900 and 2100. Its wide network reach, however, is dependent on its user's service provider. This mobile phone also comes with the Flight Mode selection, which makes it an ideal companion for users who frequently travel.

With this handset, going online using a computer has become a thing of the past.
Users WAP of the Sony Ericsson Aino may explore the World Wide Web using a pre-installed 2.0 XHTML Internet browser. With its Wi-Fi capability, this handset allows users to go online in designated nearby hotspots. It also works on wireless Bluetooth and USB technologies which enable users to readily transfer or share files with other compatible devices, including other handsets, printers, computers or laptops. Given its EDGE support, the Sony Ericsson Aino promises fast file transfer and download rates. This handset is also known for its dependability when it comes to multi-tasking, because it is 3G HSDPA-enabled.

This mobile phone offers customary text or SMS messaging with Predictive Text, as well as multimedia messaging or MMS. It also enables users to chat with their contacts via the instant messaging feature. Moreover, this handset also allows users to access their e-mail accounts. It also supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

Getting organised is fairly easy with this handset's planning and scheduling tools. This mobile phone comes with a phone book, a timer, a calendar, a calculator, a tasks option, a stopwatch and an alarm clock. Moreover, this handset doubles as a Walk Mate gadget which counts its users steps to aid users to stay in good shape. It also serves as a direction guide in various applicable locations with its A-GPS navigation application that supports Google Maps.

This handset's built-in 8.1-Megapixel camera will keep photo buffs busy. This powerful camera comes with 16x digital zoom, auto focus, auto flash, face detection and red eye reduction features that create better photo outputs. It also has an image stabiliser feature to get rid of those unwanted blurs in pictures. Tweaking pictures to perfection is easy with the Photo Fix feature that is integrated in this camera. In addition, it is equipped with the BestPic tool through which users can take a sequence of photos and select the best take among them all. Aside from taking photos, this pre-installed camera also records videos, complete with the video stabiliser feature. It also plays and streams footages in widely accepted video formats. The Sony Ericsson Aino also supports 3G video calls.

This mobile phone also brings music to life with its powerful music player with MegaBass option which offers clear bass and clear stereo sound with stereo speakers. It also has Album Art and TrackID features that enable users to identify the track that they are listening to, as well as the album which the song is part of. An FM Radio also offers an alternative music listening experience to its users. Besides being able to listen to tracks on-air, users can receive news, sports, weather and other information from their favourite radio stations through the RDS support. The Sony Ericsson Aino never fails to entertain its users with a set of games in Java and 3D formats with Motion Gaming option for a more realistic gaming experience.

Users can store up to 55 Megabytes of data in this handset. This memory capacity, however, may be expanded using the MicroSD memory card. This mobile phone offers 13 hours of GSM talk time or an equivalent of 380 hours of standby time on a fully charged battery.

Unhappy users have criticised this handset for its touch screen that exclusively works for the multimedia menu. Others have also found its fingerprint-magnet casing to be a turn off. Nevertheless, this handset is gaining praises for powerful camera and video recorder that reportedly works as expected. Some happy users are also fond of the Sony Ericsson Aino's set of features that fit a user's busy lifestyle without compromising the equally important element of fun.