Sony Ericsson's 'Aino' is almost a PSP phone ... but not really

by Ben Gilbert 

The long rumored PSP phone may still be far away (or never coming, for that matter), but at least Sony Ericsson plans on bringing some of the PSP's functionality to its "Aino" phone. Though the Aino won't feature UMD support (where have we heard that before?), it will allow for Remote Play functionality, essentially granting the phone remote, limited access to a linked PlayStation 3.

Sony Ericsson's Lisa Canning told the Euro PS blog that the first Aino will be arriving "early October in the UK, with the rest of Europe to follow," though no release Stateside has been announced yet. Aside from the missing UMD playback ability, no indication is given whether or not it will support PSP Minis, but unfortunately no games can be played through the Aino's Remote Play functionality. We're still not sure if a PSP phone is ever going to come out -- we are sure, however, that we stopped holding our breath for one a long, long time ago.

So, basically you can watch on your phone movies stored on your PS3 hard drive?

^Correct, it uses remote play so you can watch the movie/view pictures/listen to music that is on your PS3. When I first heard about this I wanted it so bad, but there was no word on the release date. I completely forgot about it until now.. I wonder how much it will cost..

If it supports PSP Minis, this will most likely sell well.

Why cant verizon get something like this, I would love it!!

i thought Sony Ericsson would have been bankrupt by now?

Samsung + Iphone >>> any other phone brand

I like the design, looks really nice. But its not an iPhone! :D This is great and all if you plan on using it to the fullest, but there's other phones out there that is better. If the iPhone hadnt been out there, i might have picked this up.. but the iPhone is just soo great. Did you noticed that i like the iPhone? :D

No it doesn't anymore. It uses MicroSD Transflash memory sticks. But it does have a 12 Mega Pixel cam and a 3.5 inch touchscreen. Its a great phone with an $800.00 Price tag launching in Sept 28 09. The Aino is horrible. The touchscreen is limited to JUST the media aspects of the phone with the keypad taking care of the rest of the phone's features. Honestly if your going to bother putting touchscreen AND a keypad on a phone at least do it properly. Allow the touch screen to be used for everything and the same for the keypad give the consumer a choice so they can see better value for the huge amount of money this thing is going to cost.

PS This shit is ugly.

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=2810&idPhone1=2683