The Battle of the 12-MP Giants: The Sony Ericsson Satio vs. the Samsung Pixon 12

Samsung was officially the first manufacturer to release a 12-Megapixel mobile phone in the market when they launched the M8910 Pixon 12 last August. Around a month later, Sony Ericsson is set to unleash its response which comes in the form of the Sony Ericsson Satio (formerly known as the Idou). These devices are definitely pioneers in their own right, but for the sake of evaluation, we have pitted the two against each other.

Snapper Power

Obviously, both mobiles have the same caliber camera, in terms of Megapixel ratio at least. This means the both share the same maximum 4000 x 3000-pixel resolution. Both cameras also have the same basic slew of features including autofocus, dual flash (LED and Xenon), geo-tagging, smile & face detection, etc. However, what takes the Pixon 12’s camera a cut above that of the Satio’s is its wide 28 mm lens. This is probably as wide as it gets in the world of mobile phone photography. This added feature translates to a twenty percent increase in the viewing angle of the shot.

Video capture also goes to the Pixon 12 as it is able to shoot D1-quality videos at an amazing 30 fps and QVGA videos at a rate of 120fps. The Satio’s 30-fps VGA video capture capability is definitely a far cry.

Feature-Wise

First and foremost, the Pixon 12 is not a Smartphone. This in itself is already enough to give this entire category to the Sony Ericsson as it is definitely able to outdo the Pixon 12 in terms of features.

While the Pixon 12 does not have a recognizable OS on board, the Satio will be running the latest Symbian operating system over a 600 MHz ARM processor. Although the Pixon 12 already has a number of pre-installed applications such as a Document Viewer (for Microsoft Office files), the fact that you can easily download and install thousands of new apps on the Satio is another advantage in its favour.

The Pixon 12 may have a case if it claims to have the best camera installed in a mobile phone. If you’re looking for a mobile solely for the purpose of snapping photos then you might opt for the Pixon 12 (or perhaps a digital camera instead?).

But then again, the Sony Ericsson Satio’s camera is not that far behind. If all things were put into consideration, then we would have to say that the Satio still remains to be the more viable option.

Make sure you keep your eyes open for all the Sony Ericsson Satio deals as they arise, as this is surely going to be one beast of a phone.