Liza Lambert

The new Sony Ericsson Aino that was announced recently really can lay claim to being called a true multimedia computer (to use Nokia’s hackneyed term).

The Aino is designed from the outset around multimedia, and can seamlessly connect to your PC or your PS3 and stream content from either device anywhere in the world.

Actually, this is worth repeating. You can stream your music, videos, even live TV (with the ability to pause, rewind and record, just like Sky+), anywhere in the world straight to your Aino over an Internet connection.

Effectively, the Aino is a tiny SlingPlayer in a phone – but one which also comes with an 8 megapixel camera, MP3 player, GPS and pretty much everything else you’d expect from a top end mobile phone.

In other words, it’s one seriously cool phone!

Read the full Sony Ericsson Aino review after the jump.

The Aino is a difficult phone to categorize. With its 8 megapixel camera, autofocus, face detection and 3″ screen capable of showing 16 million colours, it seems at first that it’s a high end camera phone.

Add GPS, WiFi, HSDPA, video recording and Google Maps into the mix, and it seems more like a feature phone.

In fact, though, it’s none of these things, yet all of them at the same time. It combines all of these features in one neat package, yet its focus is firmly on media in all its formats, no matter where you, or your media, are.

The Aino’s form factor is a touchscreen slider phone with a large 3″ display and the camera on the back. It looks smart, but doesn’t look too different from every other touchscreen phone out there.

The Aino’s MP3 player and media gallery have been given a revamp over previous Sony Ericsson phones, and they look stunning. Navigating your content is extremely easy, and the sound and visualizations from the new Walkman Media Player 3.0 software are excellent.

One feature that’s missing that really shouldn’t be for a media phone, though, is a 3.5mm jack. You can use the supplied earbuds, which fortunately are of good quality, but you can’t use your own headphones. This is simply unforgivable, as every other manufacturer as moved over to the standard 3.5mm headphone jack design by now.

It’s a real departure for Sony Ericsson, combining the best of both its Walkman phones and CyberShot camera phones and adding media streaming and PS3/PC connectivity into the mix. As such, it’s great to see Sony Ericsson finally getting back on form, even though the Aino does have a few quirks.

Summary

The Sony Ericsson Aino is an intriguing concept. Part touchscreen, part normal slider, with all the features you’d want from a top phone plus some glorious multimedia connectivity features that aren’t available on other phones.