Sony Ericsson Aino

Sony Ericsson’s Aino is their newest touchscreen mobile phone, a very slim offering that manages to cram a lot into a little space, even including a pull-put keypad to give even more options.

With a three inch screen it’s very good for video, and with the keypad in, there are screen shortcuts to several items, The 8.1 megapixel camera is a dream, and very strong, and the LED flash puts it light years ahead of most of the competition. In terms of music, there’s an FM radio and an 8GB storage card included, ample to store a lot of songs, while TrackID helps you hear music that’s playing but you can’t identify, a lovely little extra touch that shows a depth of thought. However, it lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack – why? That said, there is a Bluetooth headphone adapter, and the speakers are surprisingly good. There’s also an app for BBC iPlayer, something that’s becoming more common on the newest mobile phones.

With the keypad pulled out, the touchscreen becomes useless for some reason – that’s a feature that could be rectified, and it’s a shame that it is set up that way, since the touchscreen itself is one of the better ones around, responsive and easy to use.

With the features this has, it’s one of the better touchscreen mobile phones around, packing a lot of punch into a tiny space. The pull out keypad can be a handy feature, but better design would have made it more useful. Still, this phone is definitely worth investigating.