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

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 1st 2009 at 9:00PM }

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.

Tags: aino, lisa-canning, psp-go, psp-minis, psp-phone, remote-play, scee, sony, sony-ericsson

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

sony teen man @ Sep 1st 2009 9:03PM

that would feel terrible. just look how cramped the controls are.

SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Sep 1st 2009 9:05PM

Your new name makes me think "teenybopper".

Jinsenken @ Sep 1st 2009 9:28PM

Teeny bopper makes me think of a bad website.

iluvmyzune @ Sep 1st 2009 9:31PM

microsoft needs to make sum crazy good apps like a call of duty mobile for zune hd and make it compatible with some arcade games that can run on the tegra

SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Sep 1st 2009 9:03PM

I'm going to be brutally honest, and most likely get down-voted to Hell for it.
Very few people will care about this (or any phone) after Sept 9th when Apple announces whatever hardware remake they have up their sleeve.

You can say "No I hate Apple", but you can't deny their impact on the mobile market.

Longhorn Slim @ Sep 1st 2009 9:05PM

thanks to them the Palm Pre was made :)

SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Sep 1st 2009 9:07PM

I've been interested in the Palm Pre but unfortunately it is Canadian tradition to have terrible, half-assed cell-phone providers who enjoy overcharging clients.

Maybe when I move.

Longhorn Slim @ Sep 1st 2009 9:09PM

great phone but lacking apps

Premature ejaculation man @ Sep 1st 2009 9:37PM

Their marketing team must be paid so much now.

Levi @ Sep 1st 2009 9:41PM

September is for the iPod refresh, unfortunately, I bet it will have nothing to do with the iPhone. They're going to add a camera and the faster processor/graphics chip to the 'Pods. Though it would be REALLY nice if they took that time to announce the $100 8GB 3GaSpeed...

I'm waiting for a year or more on WebOS for more apps and a nicer hardware revision. I'm not digging the Pre's keyboard. Rather have landscape if I'm going hardware. Plus, it sounds like WebOS suffers a bit from what iPhone did when it first came out - it lacks some simple functionality. Although it's probably a much better device than the first iPhone during 1.0 (the Pre has copy & paste out of the box...), there are some things that would annoy me, like not being able to select more than one e-mail at a time. It looks reaaally nice though. Gestures look awesome.

Remember when Joystiq turned into Engadget there for a sec?

Slyphon Filter @ Sep 1st 2009 10:09PM

a 64GB touch with the upgrades of the 3GS would be amazing to me.

protofunc @ Sep 2nd 2009 4:16PM

@SpyderTaco

I had a Sony Ericsson before and i was VERY pleased with its performance. I have also personally been waiting for them to come out with a touch screen at which when it is released, i will try to get my hands on it.

I am also a consumer who refuses to get an iphone. It's a great phone. Don't get me wrong. Best on the touchscreen market. However, i'm not thrilled by its status quo.. and the fact that everybody has one. My personal preference.

So no sir, you are wrong. People will care about this phone and i will be one of them.

No Kill Tayler @ Sep 1st 2009 9:07PM

If I kept holding my breath any longer, i'd be unconscious by now.

Shadow_Modder @ Sep 1st 2009 9:12PM

I'm surprised after reading its features that it will use SD cards...well instead of Memory Sticks. Though, I wonder why they didn't go with microSD or even the M2 sticks.

sRc @ Sep 1st 2009 9:23PM

Sony's been moving away from Memory Stick for Sony Ericsson phones, actually. a lot of their recent phones, like mine, support both M2 and microSD

glitched @ Sep 1st 2009 9:24PM

um, thanks for the reminder post!

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/28/access-your-ps3-anywhere-with-the-sony-aino-cell-phone/

Luisanman @ Sep 1st 2009 9:30PM

Am i the only one who thinks Aino sounds like that other word... the one that ends with an L

SpiderMike @ Sep 1st 2009 9:34PM

Got one of these bad boys on pre-order with Play.com. Never had a problem with the Ericsson brand and switched up to an iPhone early last year, had nothing but problems. Corrupting software, apps which fail to initialise, then 3.0 messes mine up and made it overheat. Had 4 replacements in over 8 months. Put me off any further attempts they want to force feed to the market. Gonna go back to Ericsson.

Levi @ Sep 1st 2009 9:44PM

Remote Play might be nice for streaming music and maybe video from your PS3, but I've had terrible performance from it for trying to play games. I was in the same wireless network as the PS3, tried out Remote Play with Bionic Commando Rearmed on my PSP Phat, and it had a good 1 second input delay. Put Killzone 2 to shame. It was unplayable by far.

Anybody have better luck with Remote Play? Is it just BC:R that sucks with it?

Slyphon Filter @ Sep 1st 2009 10:09PM

pixeljunk monsters was decent enough.

html99 @ Sep 1st 2009 10:35PM

If you press Home while using remote play you can change the settings for response time and image quality. If you set response time to its highest and quality to the lowest setting, there is almost no lag. The image quality is still good though, its just a little "fuzzy".

Levi @ Sep 2nd 2009 12:09AM

thanks for the tips. I don't have Wi-Fi at work right now, but I might try it again just for kicks. I'd play BC:R and the Pixeljunk games on the go if I had my PSP and a wireless connection if I knew they worked.

The other thing, though, is that I never got it to remotely turn on with the PSP. I checked the settings... I may have to go to Playstation forums for an answer if I can't figure it out I guess. But for now, anybody else have any troubles turning the PS3 on with the PSP via Remote Play?

jaaaaaaaaaaames @ Sep 1st 2009 10:10PM

ipod touch should have the remote play thing or the zune HD when its out :)

craigw08 @ Sep 1st 2009 10:10PM

any one know how much this will cost. ive got games to buy 2 ya know

Special Agent Steve @ Sep 1st 2009 10:19PM

Eh, I doubt it's going to be any good. Ericssons are never extremely innovative. Practical maybe, but not innovative. Buy something else, iphone if you want.

Levi @ Sep 2nd 2009 12:15AM

actually, before iPhone, Sony Ericsson phones were very top-notch devices. They were by far the best music playing phones. They destroyed my RAZR V3i with iTunes that I had imported from EU for $300 (wow).

They also make the best camera phones, only, the phones with awesome cameras tend to do cameras best and everything else mediocre.

They do have 1 Windows Mobile smartphone out, the X1, and another on the way, X2. The X3 is their WIP Android phone, and although it lacks a hardware keyboard, its custom UI is looking really really impressive. Check the vid for their "Rachel" custom Android UI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UwcVlF5EUM

Pat @ Sep 2nd 2009 4:05AM

I agree with you Levi. I have used Sony Ericsson phones and had nothing but excellent results. It had everything you wouldn't expect from a cell phone (before Iphone and the smart phone explosion), including copy/paste and media transfer which have just now been included in the iPhone. Sony Ericsson have good products. They have been trying to catch up in terms of smart phone competition, but their products are top quality. I would have loved to get the Experia X1 but at the time it was almost twice as much as a PS3.