Sony Ericsson Idou hands-on and video walkthrough
By Sean Cooper 
posted Feb 16th 2009 3:24PM
posted Feb 16th 2009 3:24PM
Sony Ericsson launched its 12.1 megapixel Idou at Mobile World Congress yesterday evening, and while not a finished device, we checked it out anyway. The Idou will eventually roll with the Symbian Foundation's OS, but the version we're seeing here is somewhere in between. The resistive touchscreen (essentially the same as found on the XpressMusic 5800) is immense, glossy, and already brilliant. The transitions and sweeping gestures (check them in the vid) are really responsive and quick, with no real lag. We checked it against its nearest neighbor in the C905 and it is slim in comparison. Top notch stuff, we are anxiously waiting for more. Video and gallery follow.
So...the OS is Symbian...there is no question about that. Version?
Now the question is: what's the UI? S60? UIQ (not)? Something new from SE to replace UIQ? Or is Symbian now going to refer to the OS AND the (S60) user interface?
S60 — the guy says so when going through the photos at 1:14. SE UI on top of S60
No.
S60 IS the UI
Symbian is the OS
So this is S60 (touch screen edition) over Symbian.
But thanks for listening. My sound wasn't that good!
SE has always done well with entertainment apps, I'm curious to see how it handles everything else, contacts, emails, etc... I'd like to see the interface for those stuff.
I was sure that SE was headed the way of Motorola after the huge failure of the X1, I really hope that this Idou means that SE learned something from their mistakes because it surely deserves to have at least one decent and desirable phone in their lineup , which is something they haven't had in the last 10/15 years.
Let's just hope that this Idou will not share the sorry destiny of the X1: from highly anticipated top performing novelty to ridicolously expensive unusable bad joke when it finally appeared one year after its time was due.
If SE f**** up this project too I think it's possible that the swedish-japanese alliance will come to an end
uh...did T610 ring any bell for you...
I didn't know the X1 was such a failure.
Sony...SE,
Why is this not WALKMAN branded.
This should be WALKMAN branded.
Would be a great addition to the WALKMAN brand & line-up.
Experia, Idou, give a break.
Quit wasting energy, resources trying to forge new model identities.
y on earth should this be in the Walkman line-up? Putting any phone in a music line-up instantly removes it from list of probables for any one even mildly inclined towards business apps.
Another thing is that its got an amazing camera (atleast on paper), so one could argue that this should be in the Cybershot line up. But again people want their phones to do-it-all.
I think SE has upped its game with this launch & if the UI is as smooth as it is claimed to be, I believe SE has a winner on its hands. The likes of OmniaHD, Diamond2, etc. have a tough competition.
Regarding the OS/UI: It says in the post that its going to run the Symbian Foundation OS, which is an open-source version of Symbian. It's basically an S60 version of Android...so I'm guessing it'll be somewhat different from the current S60/Symbian offerings. Sony Erricsson is a member of the Symbian Foundation (the group formed to develop and promote the OS), and they said they would be contributing UIQ to the project.
Regarding the WALKMAN branding: The first thing the guy says in the video is that this is part of their new "Entertainment Unlimited" project, which fuzes the Walkman and Cybershot brands together.
Entertainment Unlimited could very well save SE from being completely killed off by the recession. After all, even the king of the mobile phone industry: Nokia, is being affected by the worldwide economical collapse.
Blending together superior photography capabilities and some of the best music handlign features into a single, media-centered, touchscreen, Symbian handset could be one heck of an interesting concept. Of course, the pricing is bound to be a little more than your average handset, which could spoil things a little bit.
As for Nokia, well... the N97 is supposed to be their best media phone yet, but it's supposedly nowhere near as good as the Idou. You can see my take on a soon-to-be-updated mini-review on my blog. If you wanna take a peek, pop over to http://blog.stevewiilliams.me.uk/2009/02/05/the-n97/.
As for the Xperia, I had a quick go on it and wasn't particualrly impressed. It was a bit slow a lot of the time.
And that's my thoughts.
I have had 3 SE phones, including my current p990i which i have since 2yrs, I simply love the sheer quality of their instruments and will look forward to the IDOU - Hope SE does not make the mistake of overpricing it like they did Stupidly with the Neat X-peria.
I will hold my Breadth, Cross my Finger, say a Prayer and hope that Sony Ericsson will not delay it's Launch and get it's Pricing Right.
SONY ERICSSON IDOU..... Yes IDOUnt think this baby will make it in the market unless SE realizes that GREED will spoil it soon. OVER PRICED technology ( typical of SONY ) has no place on earth... in hell YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SONY ERICSSON IDOU..... Yes IDOUnt think this baby will make it in the market unless SE realizes that GREED will spoil it soon. OVER PRICED technology ( typical of SONY ) has no place on earth... in hell YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!