Sony Ericsson will market Idou as "Satio"

Well the retail name of Idou is no longer a mystery – the Sony Ericsson Satio is how the 12 megapixel full touch phone will be marketed. Some updates about the handset also emerged such as its final OS.

Among the most interesting things about Satio, one of the most popular handsets this year, is that it is now confirmed it will run Symbian S60 5th edition OS - the same as on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic or Samsung Omnia HD. Obviously the Symbian Foundation will not be able to deliver their new OS in time for the Idou, eh, sorry, Satio release.The other new stuff about the Satio are the camera touch focus and the gesture controls (not really sure if its accelerometer or camera based).

The Sony Ericsson Satio will be available in Black, Silver and Bordeaux colors and will come with color-matching headphones and a 8GB microSD card in the retail package.
A US version of the Idou will also be available that will ship with tri-band UMTS/HSPA support (850/1900/2100 MHz) - it's supposed to hit the shelves from early Q4 2009.
Unfortunately, there is no word on the availability of the international version that we are so looking forward to.

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Sonia F2 beats Sony Ericsson's Idou to the shelves

Sony Ericsson's Idou is still a ways off -- possibly October according to some reports -- but if you're jonesing for the form factor now, or if you find the 12.1 megapixel camera somehow intimidating, Sonia's KIRF-tacular F2 might be right up your alley. The doppelganger eschews a Symbian-powered OS in favor of Android, shrinks the screen by about half an inch diagonally, and even though its camera only shoots at 1.3 megapixels, it still says 12.1 on the back, which should be just enough to convince your friends before you quickly hide it back in your pocket and slyly change the subject.

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New color for Sony Ericsson Idou, black turns to silver

Days after we wrote about a large photo gallery of the Sony Ericsson Idou we stumbled upon something interesting - a new color, namely silver. This isn't as exciting as, say... a final name for the phone but it's reassuring to see some progress to keep our interest.

According to a few lexicons on the Internet, "idou" roughly translates from Greek to "behold" or "see". Given the impressive 12 megapixel camera and large 3.5 inch touchscreen, it's quite a fitting name. So far, the XPERIA X1 is the only Sony Ericsson handset that breaks the letter plus number naming scheme but that may soon change.

Sony Ericsson Idou in silver and in black

As for the OS - there's nothing new aside from the UI tweaks visible in screenshots. Nonetheless, we're anxious to see what changes the Symbian OS will go through with its new open-source status.

Check out our overview of the Sony Ericsson Idou from the MWC, complete with a video of the UI.

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