Vodafone's Sony Ericsson Satio to compete against iPhone?

The 12-megapixel smartphone, which combines the best of Sony Ericsson's Cybershot and Walkman series and runs on Symbian platform, can be had from Vodafone for free on a £35 a month, 24-month contract or £40 per month for 18 months contract. With these contracts, Vodafone is offering 900 minutes of talktime and unlimited texts, as well as free unlimited mobile Internet and landline calls.

The attractive pricing could make it Vodafone's best selling handset ever and it could even make up for the disappointment earlier felt by Vodafone customers when the company said it would not be able to sell the iconic iPhone this year unlike rival mobile operators like O2 and Orange.

But what is it that makes Satio, which bears an uncanny resemblance with its predecessor Sony Ericsson C905, so hot?

Well, to begin with, it has a high-grade camera (12-megapixel) with auto-focus, 12x digital zoom and flash, is loaded with features like anti-shake filter, direct camera key, picture mode selection and smile detection and also offers video recording at a decent frame rate.

While for the internet savvy on the move, Satio offers HSDPA support, Bluetooth, GPRS, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, the handset also doubles up as an entertainment center as it comes loaded with MP3 player, stereo FM radio and supports java games and applications.

Further, Satio is Mobile TV compatible which users can view via its 3.5-inch wide touchscreen display.

Its GPS navigation feature and expandable memory via a microSD card slot all add to its "must-have" status. So what if it does not have a Qwerty keyboard and infrared port?