7 reasons why the Sony Ericsson Satio can challenge the iPhone

The Sony Ericsson Satio (or you can call it Idou if you're nostalgic for the last three months) is the phone everyone has been waiting for from Sony Ericsson, the one to put the company back on the map and halt its slide down the worldwide sales charts.

However, UK and Ireland MD Nathan Vautier has claimed that the Phone can even outstrip the iPhone, so after spending a great deal of time with the phone to bring you our in-depth hands on with the Sony Ericsson Satio, we had a sit down and tried to work out his reasoning.

1. The camera

Oh, we know what you're going to say. "Who needs a 12MP camera on a phone? Nobody needs one that good". Well, you might be right, be we have to tell you, it's a stonkingly good one. In fact, it's the kind of feature that makes you want to get the phone out because it's so good. And let's face it, the less we say about Apple's 2MP failure the better.

2. The Symbian-based OS

If you're like us, you're bored of the same tired interface it seems Sony Ericsson has been rocking for the last umpteen years, so to see a new one really is a breath of fresh air. It adds a whole level of functionality to the device by popping the media at the bottom, navigation at the top and scrollable screens to move between different options. It's almost like the way you interact with the iPhone, but without having to rumble through hoards of Apps.

3. Movies... lots of Movies

Although not available yet, the Play Now Arena with Movies will give users 15 free downloads out the box for the handset, and five more free per month according to our sources. That's pretty much all the on-the-go movie downloading you could ever want, and while it's not the all you can eat stylings of Nokia's Comes with Music, it's still a great deal for no more money.

4. Cheap as chips

Well, chips that cost £35 per month that is. But the main difference in terms of cost between the Satio and the iPhone is that the new effort from Sony Ericsson will be free on contract, compared to having to pay upwards of £50 for Apple's mobile on some packages, which still leaves a bitter taste in our mouths when we think about it.

5. Messaging is easier... and prettier

While it might not have the intuitive word recognition that the iPhone sports for the ham-fisted among us, the Satio has a nice keypad in both QWERTY and alphanumeric modes, with the retro 80s stylings just adding to the mix. The iPhone can't even text in landscape mode yet, with the much-vaunted 3.0 update still waiting to hit our pockets.

6. One handed action

You could accuse us of being a little bit picky here, but what makes a touchscreen a good phone as well is being able to easily operate it with one hand, and that's something you can do pretty easily with the Satio, with most icons in easy swiping range.

We know there are a lot of iPhone power users out there that are going to show exactly how dextrous they are at using their Apple phone with one hand, but we're sick of seeing people with the 'iPhone Hunch', that is people peering at their Apple device, holding it in one hand and jabbing at it in the other, like a flea is taunting them by leaping all over the surface.

7. Memory expansion

One of the real failings of the iPhone in the eyes of some is its lack of expandable memory, and we can't see this option changing soon. Sony Ericsson has bundled an 8GB microSD card into the box for the Satio, which puts it automatically on a par with the lower range iPhone.

But with a 32GB microSD card on the very near horizon, users will be able to pop in some massive storage (which they'll need for all those movies) and have a hot-swappable media library, whereas iPhone users will have to keep tethering back to their computer and iTunes. Read More 7 reasons why the Sony Ericsson Satio can challenge the iPhone