Sony Ericsson is back. No it isn't. Yes it is. Well, almost. If that sounds confusing it's because this is the impression you would most probably get if you used SE's latest assault on the smartphone market – the 12 megapixel Satio.

A few decades ago, new products that you couldn't even imagine had already been thought up by Sony Chairman Akio Morita. After a while, though, being "Sony" got to their heads. Even their mobile phone joint venture, SonyEricsson, followed the same pattern.

The Satio, though, seeks to change all that by taking the two categories that SE has not ceded ground in – the Cybershot camera phone and Walkman music phone – run them through the blender and whip up a superphone to mount a three-pronged assault at the camera, music and smartphone markets.

However, it remains a case of so near yet so far. For, pairing up with every great feature of the phone is an antithesis: The quality of its music output is exemplary, only to be let down by the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack; while the camera – with the highest image resolution in a mobile phone and a great array of features – is a point of elation, the resistive touchscreen is a sheer disappointment.

The camera was the one outstanding feature in the package and is, by a long shot, the best we have ever seen in a mobile. It simply wipes the floor with Samsung's Pixon12 – the only comparable product in the market. Sliding open the lens cover activates it in a jiffy and then the speedy and accurate autofocus, the LED photo light, Xenon flash and excellent optics take over. There is hardly a lag between pressing the shutter and image capture, and day or night, low light or bright, the images returned a uniformly high depth and sharpness and realistic colour. Although not HD capable, it even performs superbly in video mode.

You can hardly say the same about the touchscreen interface, though. Being of the resistive variety, it requires nothing less than firm fingernail pressure, and that, too, fails occasionally in the case of small widgets and the on-screen Qwerty. For this purpose, the phone comes with a stylus, a disappointng external one that you tie with an included thread to the bottom of the phone, from where it dangles like a dongle. Or like the hideous tail of a squished mouse.

Not only does the dangling stylus destroy all the looks of this otherwise smartly-finished device, it is easy to lose by virtue of there being no slot for it. And once you do lose it, you will have to use… maybe your pen. Your fingers will just not do and this stylus is not offered by SE in its accessories list.

If you're looking for the best camera phone, look nowhere else. For anything else look elsewhere.

- The Sony Ericsson Satio is available at all major retailers for Dh2,499