Video preview of the Sony Ericsson Idou

A new video of the Sony Ericsson Idou has been released from Russian site Mobile Mail. Quite why the Russians seem to get advanced previews of the latest phones I’m not sure, but they do seem to get a heads up before the rest of us.

Whatever, the Idou is looking like one tasty new phone. Its main claim to fame is that it’s a 12 megapixel camera phone with a plethora of camera-oriented features. Not only will it be the best camera phone on the market in terms of megapixellage, it should also take the best pictures, and will certainly give the low-end dedicated digital cameras a run for their money.

What the specs don’t reveal, though, is what the phone is like up close – its overall size, usability and all round user experience. Fortunately, the video gives us some idea of what we can expect when the Idou is released in the second half of 2009.

More details, plus the video after the jump.


Looking at the video, the first thing to notice is that despite its advanced features, the Idou isn’t a heffer. As you can see when compared to the Nokia 5800 (which isn’t what you’d call a huge phone), it’s not going to be a pocket buster.

You’ll also notice the user interface. The Idou is naturally a touchscreen phone, but with a whizzy new user interface. It seems to be responsive enough and certainly looks the part, but it does seem to be lacking a crucial feature – gesture control. Phones such as the iPhone, Android and LG’s S-Class user interface phones (such as the LG Arena and LG Viewty Smart) all let you slide your finger across the screen to control things such as image galleries, where sliding your finger across the screen scrolls the image that you see.

You don’t seem to get this on the Idou. Rather, it’s very much a replacement for keys, letting you touch at various user interface elements, but not allowing you to drag them or slide them. I’m not sure if the final release model will let you do this, but if not, it’s a sign that Sony Ericsson isn’t exactly keeping pace with the competition, as even Nokia now have a gesture controlled touchscreen on sale.

Despite this, Sony Ericsson is set to become the standard for camera phones out there. It’ll be the first of a new range of multimedia phones that Sony Ericsson are calling Entertainment Unlimited – and better still, there’s a new Entertainment Unlimited phone coming out that no-one’s yet seen, which will be revealed on May 28th. Stay tuned for more details!

[Source: Mobile Mail via Sense.net]