Sony Ericsson Aino preview: First look

Design and construction (continued)

The Sony Ericsson Aino has its Fast Port on the left side much like the other handset we are previewing today.

Yet another FastPort from Sony Ericsson

The volume rocker (which also doubles as a zoom lever) and the camera button are on the opposite side. Those are both comfortable to use and do not spoil the user experience at all.

No complaints about this part of the phone

The microphone pinhole and (somewhat peculiarly) the loudspeaker grill are at the bottom of Sony Ericsson Aino. It's pretty strange that Sony Ericsson claim that the Aino is equipped with stereo speakers as we cannot figure out where that other speaker might be.

The loudspeaker is next to the microphone

The only control on top of the handset is the lock key. With the touchscreen operation so severely limited and all keys comfortably sliding behind the display the users are unlikely to need such a control at all.

There's only a single key at the top

The backside is neat and simple with the 8 megapixel camera and the LED flash at its top left corner the only thing of interest. The camera lens isn't protected with a lens cover, most probably in order to reduce the handset's thickness but that makes getting it scratched a pretty probable scenario.

The back panel of Sony Ericsson Aino: unassuming looks and a powerful shooter

The Sony Ericsson Aino draws its power from a 1000 mAh Li-Po battery. It does sound a bit too small to us but Sony Ericsson have a pretty good record as far a battery life is concerned so they might make the best out of it.

The relatively small battery better be taken good care of or it might become a problem

Along with the battery, under the back cover is the microSD (yay!) card slot, which is hot-swappable even though you will have to remove the back panel every time.

Sony Ericsson Aino held in hand