Sony Ericsson Aino Mobile Phone

[Xircal]

This is a typical example of buying sight unseen i.e. online. I'd read a few reviews of the Sony Ericsson Aino mobile phone and most were neutral. But on receiving it today, I'm appalled to discover so many design faults with it that I feel inclined right now to stamp on the dam_n thing with a very large pair of Doctor Martins. So here's a list of rants.

1. The earphones have a proprietary connector which means you have to buy Sony Ericsson specialist equipment if you want to swap those out for a different model. This design aberration means you're highly unlikely to find a different model anywhere in the shops and will have to buy online (if they're even available as a headphone type).
2. The speakers are way too big and tend to fall out of your ears at the slightest movement.
3. The navigation buttons are designed to be manipulated by someone whose fingers are about the size of a two year old. Any bigger than that and you'll be cursing every time you try to type something without pressing more than one key at a time.
4. Predition cannot be disabled. So you're continually having to hold down the * + key in order to erase the choice the phone makes for you. Sometimes, you'll get the Smilies menu when you try that too. Once that appears, there isn't anyway of disabling it. This means that if you want to type the word "Attack", it's quicker to accept the word "Attraction" and then jump to the end of the word and delete the letters you don''t want. But it's time consuming of course.
5. Trying to create a Playlist is nothing more than an exercise in futility. Once again, Predition will ruin your whole day as it tries desperately to outwit you.
6. Once you've got your desired Playlist, you're then faced with the prospect of adding tracks to it. Here you have to use the middle button coupled with the slightly raised up and down buttons. I say 'slightly raised' but the bump is barely perceptable which means if you don't hit it quite right, the cursor will jump to the top of the list again and you'll have to scroll down to wherever you were all over again grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....
7. The phone does not like being turned off and takes several minutes to shutdown.

Do I have anything good to say about it? Let me think......

I'm still thinking....ask me again tomorrow, there must be something, surely?

I used to like Sony, but they seem to be employing complete morons these days who have no idea how to design a product which is both attractive to look at and efficiently functional. Shame on you Sony!