• No.9 – Sony Ericsson Satio: a bug-infected SE handset with a great camera that sometimes appeared to have more issues than features.
• No.8 – Nokia 5800XM: i already got a lot of response to this decision, keep in mind that this is based on my personal tastes and experiences, my choices might not go along with your thoughts, and they’re not supposed to do that. anyways, the 5800XM, despite having the best stereo speakers i’ve ever heard gave me a world of troubles, spanning from damaged speakers and display to a totally useless homescreen (unless you get some 3rd party app help).
• No.7 – HTC/T-Mobile G1: The first ever google phone has sparked this Android love in me really well, resulting in eventually abandoning Symbian OS. But unfortunately the G1 was relatively unspectacular. Camera, Speakers, Battery Life .. nothing to really write a book about.
• No.6 – Nokia N97: a feature-packed mobile computer, which some hate to death and some praise as Nokia’s savior. i’m kinda stuck in the middle. while i liked the form factor with its extremely solid slider hinge and the overall features, i found the keyboard to be extremely annoying, resistive touchscreen is a matter of taste (i’m clearly against it) and RAM/phone memory issues that shouldn’t be found on a flagship device, right?

So much for the End of my List, but now let’s find out who’s on top, shall we!?

I’ll open my Top 5 with the Nokia E75, the red business-hotness i was lucky enough to trial in 2009. I reviewed this Handset in german for the first time, over at Sybo’s Symbian Mobile Blog, which was a lot of fun to write down! The positives were taking over on this Device, i absolutely loved the 4-row slide-out keyboard, the actual working Nokia E-mail (or however its called at the moment), the customizable quick-start buttons, the e-series active standby and much more all left a very positive impression of the E75. Scoring some negative Points are the rather bad, more N-Series like Build quality and minor Stuff like still a QVGA screen and only a Mono Speaker. Although i’m hoping the Build Quality was a rare blooper, The experience with the E75 has been overly great.

okay, to be honest, the Sony Ericsson X10 was in my Hands for roughly 10-15 Minutes on this Sony Ericsson Press Event i was invited to, back in November 2009. And i know its not even available yet, so my impressions are entirely based on Prototypes. So what gives the X10 the Rank No. 4? I guess it’s the high Expectations i have in this Device. It’s Sony Ericsson’s possible saving grace in the  smartphone world and although the Software was pretty buggy when i used it, Sony Ericsson is up to something and it could be good. Sony’s impressive X10, running on Android with a major overhaul including the brand new Timescape and Mediascape Applications, 8 Megapixel Camera for decent Snapshots, this HUGE 4 inch capacitive Touchscreen (no multi-touch though) and of course the Power of the 1 Ghz Snapdragon Processor have the Abilities to pull SE out of the Dirt and make this Wheel spinning again. i’m looking forward to get my Hands on this bad boy!

On Position No. 3 – my HTC Hero: No, this is not on Top of my List of Phones 2009. It’s close but it didn’t make it. I bought the Hero in June this Year, marking my Step away from Nokia and all it’s Problems, to something brand new, exciting. I knew Android already from my time with the G1 before and the Sense UI added this extra bit of spice to the overall experience. The Phone feels perfect in the hand, the materials are well-chosen with a bit rubber-like back plate so the phone always feels secure in your Hand. The capacitive, multi-touch Screen responds great and Software Updates made the Phone a lot faster than we experienced it at the Release – by the Way, HTC, you fancy giving us 2.0 or 2.1 goodness soon please? come ooon! But, the Hero is also not untroubled by some Downers, such as a weak Batter, a REALLY bad 5MP Camera and a slow 528 MHz Processor. We’ll see what the Android People has in store for 2010, cause one thing is for sure:  As much as i love my Hero, it will be replaced – but it’s still not decided which future Device will make it!

HA Gotcha! I bet some of you believed the Nokia N900 will lead my Top 5, after the awesome Time i had with it. But no, it’s not. Nokia’s Maemo Monster was a close Contender but was ultimately beaten only to it’s Newness. Yes, that pretty much gets it on Point. While the overall Experience with Maemo has been amazing, i was missing several Apps a lot. Twitter was a pain to use on a Device without Gravity and the bugging Mail Application reminded me a lot why i love Profimail so much. A slight Miss was also the 3-row keyboard, but at least this time the Button Feedback was a lot better than on the N97. Apart from that, the N900 offered sheer Power and huge Amounts of RAM to work with, the great to use Maemo OS with all its Widgets and extremely customizable Homescreen, a good 5MP CZ Cam, a VERY good resistive Touchscreen and so much more! The N900 has been one of the most satisfying, exciting Nokia Experiences i had in quite some Time and i’m really looking forward to try Maemo 6 in 2010! But as much as i loved the N900, it could not be beaten by ..

..my beloved Nokia N82! (The Picture shows the Trial Device i used, i have the black Edition) Yes even in 2009 the Nokia N82 has the Power to lead my Top of the Pops or so List. After trialing it, i decided to buy the black Edition Handset back in June 2008 and the N82 is still up and rocking. No Matter if it’s used as main Handset, or as a reliable backup Device on the road, it’s always there for me. No matter, where i go, what i’m doing, the N82 is always there. I’ve so much great Memories with this Device, i went through all ups and downs for the past 1 1/2 years, but at the end of the day always getting back up. Some messages stored on my N82 bring tears to my eyes, some pictures let me smile and lighten up my day. While some first SW Bugs have been terminated with Firmware Updates and is now running stabile, the Hardware has always been Money. The 5 MP Carl Zeiss Camera with Xenon Flash still produces Pictures that can easily go against all Kinds of Camera Phones and beat them down. Well, not all, but most of them Sure, the N82 may not be on top of the current tech standing anymore, but it’s consistency and reliability has proven time and time again why its not only my, but a lot of people’s favourite device, and that’s almost 2 years after it’s release. The Buttons was a bit of a headscratcher, but after a week i was used to it in such a nice way, typing was going like a breath. The D-Pad didn’t really attract me either, but it’s still solid and easy to use like on day 1. A Spec List that still reads along nicely, all that packed in a very handy Body are clearly making the N82 the Top Phone of my 2009 List. Oh btw, the N82 is the first Device i have ever bought a new Battery for, delivered just today. If that is no Indication how much this Phone still means to me, then i don’t know what is!

So there you have it, my Top Phones of 2009, i hope you enjoyed reading along – but tell us, whats YOUR Phone of 2009!?

2 Days before the end of 2009, Friend of the Site, James Whatley has published a new Post over on the highly recommendable The Really Mobile Project-Blog called “My Phone of the Year“. The result of his thoughts were very interesting and surprised a lot of us, but at the same time, James’ points were very reasonable and actually gave the feeling he was right – if you wanna find out which Phone rocked James the most in 2009, head over to the Really Mobile Project and read on! Parts of this Post are taken from my Reply i did on TRMP, but i felt like doing a list on my own, and additionally tweaking it a bit. my list will be about Phones i have used in 2009, not judging by their actual Sales Dates! Ready? Let’s go..

Placed at No. 9 and no surprise: The Sony Ericsson Satio! I was really looking forward to trial the Satio. Pictures posted on the net looked promising, even the UI looked nice, i was happy to see that the S60 homescreen was finally appearing to be usable. Got it in my hands, and first impressions have been overall positive. a device, well-made with a kickass camera, finally micro-sd support and some more goodies. until the bugs came, and they came big time. the SE homescreen was very nice, giving several shortcuts, latest pictures and more – cool if you consider the fact that it was the ONLY working homescreen option. none of the nokia-ones was working. several restarts a day, that gotten more and more and a not exactly hyper-responsive touchscreen left this whole Satio Experience with a sour Taste in the Mouth. Don’t get this wrong, SE even confirmed that they were sleeping in the last years and have now finally woken up, and the Satio is a nice Step in a good direction, but this device didn’t get a proper testing from the SE Developers. I hope future SW Updates will fix those Problems, unfortunately i had to give the Device back to Sony Ericsson before i was able to find out.

Rank No. 8 goes to the Nokia 5800XM here on the left (Picture courtesy of www.fony.sk). After seeing this Handset in action, the spark for touchscreen phones was flame on in me. The Size of the Device felt just right, the 3 MP Camera seemed so-so but okay, all needed Features were inside – i was basically ready to go! I received this Device (as a gift from my friend teo bartulovic aka Apocalypso, founder of www.symbian-freak.com) and used it for almost 3 weeks until i realized that i was lucky enough to score one with a damaged Speaker – the volume while calls was dropping and increasing repeatedly, making it almost impossible to do normal calls. if that wasn’t all, i had huge problems with my screen as well. My 5800XM basically refused to come back of the standby mode, resulting in an unusable phone. This, combined with a very buggy S60 OS (that again is not made for Touchscreen Phones without giving it a huge overhaul first) and a useless Homescreen has made the Nokia 5800XM a Handset i love to hate – despite the absolute best Stereo Speakers i have ever heard.

The T-Mobile G1, which i had in early 2009. To be honest, i’m not sure why this is only on the 7th Rank on my personal Hitlist. There was nothing majorly wrong with this one. I fell in heavy love with the form factor and found that the G1 keyboard is still one of the best (if not the best) i have ever used, in terms of spacing and layout. its no secret that i dont like the Nokia 3-row keyboards at all and some people complained about the misplaced ..ermm.. trackball part that gets in your way, but i didnt have a problem with it and loved using it. The G1 also marked the beginning of Android and my love for it, with Android eventually replacing Symbian as my Main OS. I guess it’s the unspectacularness of the G1 that left it behind in my personal Ranks. There’s nothing mindblowing on this Device, some things like the Speaker, Camera, Battery were not exactly satisfying. The rather cheap Build quality did also not contribute to a memorable Experience. But still, it was nice to use and the Time with it was great

Ah yeah, the Nokia N97, No. 6 in my ranking. Another phone i had a Love/Hate Relationship with. I can remember a lot of Symbian Freak Users praising this Device as the holy Grail, the Savior of Nokia.. I have to admit, it does sound attractive. 32 GB in-built memory + microSD support for up to 16GB of additional Space, new Widget Homescreen, full-qwerty with a new angle-positioned Screen position if opened, 5 MP CZ Cam, 1500 mAh Battery… it sounds like the perfect Package, THE all in one Device. And it gave me a hard Time finding Mistakes. The whole Device was built like a Tank (except the plastic backplate), the slide-mechanism was picture perfect, with zero .. and i mean ZERO space in both, opened and closed positions. When closed, the N97 felt like a candybar Handset and i have never felt this before. But again, Nokia has effed up big time in the Software. Some Apps simply not opening from the Homescreen Widgets, multiple restarts and the same basic S60 OS hiding under the widgetized (is that a word by the way? lol) have destroyed this nice first Impressions. Hardwarewise, the Keyboard debuted this stupid 3-row Design, with some of the Buttons giving a very bad Feedback. I really felt split-minded about the Nokia N97. The form factor was all me, but in the course of 2009 i realized that the OS was/is not the way i wanna go any more. sure, the OS is always something that can be fixed or improved via Software Updates, but i’m afraid my Needs can be fullfilled with that..

… are you curious for the TOP 5? Check back tomorrow, when i return with Part 2 of my Phone of the Year 2009 Hitlist!

There is a Lot of Features being present the first Time, Lots of Stuff to try out. I used this Device as my daily Main Device, in Order to find out if the Promises are fullfilled, how this Phone behaves in daily Usage, finding out the Do’s and Don’t of the Sony Ericsson Satio. I’m going to start off my final Report with an Overview of the Hardware, so grab a Cup of Coffee and read on!

I must confess i was excited to get the Sony Ericsson Satio, yes i truly was. Given the bad so-so Experiences i had with S60 5th Edition, it wasn’t so much about the Software, it was rather the Hardware that got me drooling. Being a huge Fan of mobile Photography since i had the N73, 12 Megapixel sounded like sweet Cream. Sure, Megapixel does not count a Thing, but watching the Pics i have seen from friends of the Site, Rita El Khoury and Dan Carter, i really wanted to lay my Hand on it! Then, after some Months of waiting, i finally got Notice from Sony Ericsson, that they have review Units in Store for me and this is where my Story starts:

Opening the Box and i already fell in Love with it. I usually prefer black Devices, but this red Satio is super-hot and immediately gathered my Colleagues at Work around me – If i would go for a Satio, it would be definitely the “bordeaux” coloured one! And a Lot of Guys who got their Hands on my Satio agreed, its just georgeous. The black Front is dominated by the 3,5″ resistive Touchscreen, with the 360 x 640 Resolution we know from the Nokia 5800XM and N97. The Display is crisp, clear but unfortunately not as responsive as the N97 i recently had from WOM World. I still have a hard Time with resistive Screens, most of you might know that i prefer capacitive Screens all day long. This started with the G1 i trialed before and continues with my Hero. I kinda handle this like an unwritten law, that my Phones won’t be resistive Ones. Technology on that Matter is improving, but i just don’t get along with resistive Screens. In the Satio’s Case, the Screen needs a good Push, or a slight Add of your Fingernails to work properly – not how i want my Screen to work. Above the Screen are the Front Camera, a Light Sensor and LED, which blinks whenever an Event is occuring, which i definitely like! Located underneath the Screen are the Menu Button in the Middle, red and green Call Key on each Side of the Menu Button. Totally misplaced in my Opinion, how great would it be to have them touch sensitive, so the Front is a completely Flat-Surface!

Looking at the right Side of the of the Phone reveals a Slide-Screenlock and yes, there is this effed up Sony Ericsoson Connector for Data and Headset Usage. SE, you know that its 2009 already, do you? Thumbs down, really. At least they’ve learned from the Past and replaced the Sony Memory Stick Slots with microSD Card-Expansion Slots. This was about Time. It’s not only cheaper for us Consumers, but also for you Guys in Production, so its a win-win Situation for everyone, dont you think? But this Connector .. Geez!
While the bottom of the Satio is a handfull of nothing, the right Side is the most interesting one! Here’s the Camera Key, which is illuminated in blue Light once the Camera App is fired up – cool Touch! Up next is a Button to switch between Picture and Video Mode, a Gallery Button and the Volume/Zoom-Keys! As usual: the wi-fi and gps signs! The Top of the SE Satio is Home of the on/off button and also, the mono speaker of the device. yes, there is only one speaker and i have seen/heard far better speaker(s). I could rant about this for Days.. i mean the device is pretty thick already for a full touch device – sure it houses a bombastic 12 Megapixel Cam, but no one could tell me, there wasn’t enough Space for a decent Pair of Stereo Speakers!?

The Back of the Device is almost entirely covered in this very hot looking bordeaux Colour Tone. The Thickness of the Device is dominated by the Camera Slider Part, that is completely made of Steel. This feels definitely nice and is made for Eternity, opening and closing the Cam Slider happens with a noticable Snap and of course, fires up the Camera Application! I will have more to say about the Camera in the upcoming Camera Part of the Satio Review, so have your Eyes opened for that Opening the Battery Cover happens by just pressing the Cover and sliding it down. Unfortunately the Cover is also made in the same glossy Materials, the whole Phone is covered in, no rubber Surfaces this Time. This is a Shame, as the whole Device can easily slip out of your Hands, but then again, it keeps up the Phone Design, so i guess it’s up to everyone else what to think about that. Opening the Backdoor reveals the 1.000 mAh Battery of the SE Satio .. no, i am not kidding, 1.000 mAh!! I don’t know which funny Cigarettes some of the SE Developers were enjoying while hitting the Release Button here.

But guess whats the funny Thing about it: The Battery lasts! No Joke, with a full Charge i got almost 1 1/2 Days of Usage with the Satio in my “Standard” Mode (3G switched off, Bluetooth permanently running, Display set to 3/4 Illumination, WLAN Usage whenever available and around 2 Hours of Calls, and 30-50 txts a day. Profimail on IMAP Idle, Gravity running most of the Time, around 2-3 Hours of Internet Browsing). I have this Kind of Usage on every Phone i play with, and while my Hero dies after 12-13 Hours, i was easily able to get through whole 24 Hours with the Satio, even more with lighter Usage. This has extremely impressed me, and showed that the Guys at SE did a Lot to improve the Battery Usage on the Symbian Software. While the N97 was also shutting down after 10 Hours or so, the Satio went on and on – great Work there! The Sim Card Holder is rather unusual, sitting underneath the Cam Shutter, and needs to be pulled on a tiny little plastic Slider – it does not look very solid at all, i smell angry Customers there!

Conclusion:

Overall i must say the Device feels pretty solid and looks very elegant. The black Screen Part on the Front is not surrounded by any Boarders, like on the N900 for Example, so the Device is very easy to clean and doesn’t leave those dirty Boarders after whiping! The Thickness of the Device leaves Space for Questions – Why only 1000 mAh? Why no Stereo Speakers!? .. no 3,5mm Jack, but still the Sony Ericsson Connector is something i would call unexcusable, the resistive Screen needs some further Improvements, or even better, throw it off and simply slap a nice capacitive Display on it! Apart from that, i have to say that the Satio looks like it was MADE to be red! Bordeaux, how it’s officially called is Love at first Sight, the Satio is meant to be made in bordeaux! Sony Ericsson has finally learned that microSD should be the Future, as well as making the absolute most out of the Battery. Imagine the Satio with a 1500 mAh Battery – Mugen Power Batteries, are you reading!? To conclude, the Hardware of the Sony Ericsson Satio is a good average classed, full-touch Device, with a big Camera Part and good Materials – will the Camera keep up!? Can the Software bring back Users to Symbian or is it doomed to fail!? Keep your Eyes opened for more!

Yes it has finally arrived!  My new best Friend, the Post Man has delivedered this small Package today including a 12 Megapixel Camera, a Camcorder, a Touch Screen, a MP3 Player, a Video Player, an Internet Browser, a Navigation Device… and a Phone! I will put this sexy red Bad Boy through it’s Paces the Best i can, so make sure to watch this Space for more