Sony Ericsson SATIO, good or not?

[RubyBooBerry]

Seen it in Carphone warehouse etc, think I might have a crush on it.... is it any good?

[angelene]

I saw the ad last night and despite only just having bought a W995 I got serious phone envy. It looks stunning.

[squashedfrogsandeyeofnewt]

I have had mine a week and love love love it! I had a nokia N95 before and have been very attached to that, this is similar in many ways as they have the same operating system but has better features. I've found myself not really using the qwerty touchpad facility and still use the alphanumeric option for texts and notes etc. The camera is really good as is the video (although the sound quality on video playback isn't as good as the N95).

Only things that I'm a bit disappointed about are that 1) it doesn't do smileys like many phones do and they end up being ;-) etc and 2) the stylus that comes with the carphone warehouse phones seems to almost scratch the screen so I just use my finger or nail.

Hope this helps

[RubyBooBerry]

Helps lots, thanks!! Now.... do I go for 24 month contract at £30 a month (ends up being £720!!! eek!!) or buy it for £450... I know it's obvious but the stores near me are saying they only have them in stock for people who are going to get a contract...gits ...

[squashedfrogsandeyeofnewt]

I got a 24 month at £30 per month contract - it really pained me to sign up for 2 years! But for that I get unlimited texts & internet and loads of minutes for calls. For a phone like this I think you need unlimited internet as there's loads of internet based features.

I now need to work out whether to get insurance or not, the super cautious bit of me says yes but I've rarely (touch wood) needed it in the past.....

[RubyBooBerry]

Who's that contract with? The unlimited internet sounds good.

[squashedfrogsandeyeofnewt]

I got it with Orange from the Carphone Warehouse. Apparently they have the exclusive on the silver handset so you can choose black or silver. I was with Orange anyway but it was done as an upgrade which I don't think Orange would necessarily have done.

I signed up with the Carphone Warehouse insurance at the time but that's quite expensive at £13.99 a month so I'm currently looking for cheaper alternatives and if you cancel it within 2 weeks then you don't have to pay.

[RubyBooBerry]

Did you have to take out the Insurance? was that part of the deal?

[squashedfrogsandeyeofnewt]

I didn't have to have the insurance, although they do try the hard sell, it is entirely optional. I took it cos I'm a paranoid scaredy cat and tend to be of the view that the one time I don't have insurance then that's exactly the time that my phone will break/get lost/stolen!

I've been looking online and there are alternatives for only £4.99 a month so probably won't be keeping it past the initial 2 weeks (after which you have to pay for it).

[RubyBooBerry]

Would it be covered on your home insurance?

[squashedfrogsandeyeofnewt]

The loss of the handset might be covered but I don't think that you normally get unauthorised calls covered. For various reasons I can't check mine at the moment but in the past I know I've been better off with separate mobile insurance.

[akhems]

I know nothing about the phone but I get free insurance included with my bank account, might be worth a look if you have something similar. I've had to claim twice on it and they've been brilliant and I had a new phone within 48 hours each time.

[nappyaddict]

I'm thinking about getting this or the Samsung M8910

[WebDude]

Being curious, how "unlimited" are some of these internet offers?

I only ask because in some small print they really only offer 1 GB a month (which could work out very low if you happened to stream music a lot of the day, every day, for a month, or watched YouTube etc video clips).

If it says "unlimited" but has a "fair usage" clause then it may well be not quite so good as it looks.