Sony Ericsson Experia X10
The highly anticipated Sony Ericson X10 has finally arrived. The big question is was it worth the wait? We know that Ericson have certainly had a rough ride lately with some terribly flawed handsets. The X10 is the first Sony Ericson to come with Google’s OS Android. All Sony Ericson’s eggs seem to be in one basket with this flagship device so let’s see how it fairs!
Construction and Build:
One of the most striking things about the X10 is despite it’s size it’s a very light weight handset. It’s very deceiving and a very pleasant surprise. However the downside to this is that the handset does feel exceptionally fragile unlike competitors such as the HD2 which feels very solid. The whole fascia appears to be made form plastic and rubber with no metal at all. Great for weight, a nightmare for drops.
Despite the fragile feel of the handset, the X10 certainly looks the part. It’s a very smart looking phone and a pleasure to hold. The rubberised back adds a good grip and will stop the handset sliding all over the place. The screen is absolutely beautiful. It’s wonderfully large and the display is out of this world.
The handset is a little on the large size making one handed use exceptionally difficult. The lock key on the top of the handset is a little out of reach for those of you with smaller hands.
You’’ find dedicated camera keys and volume keys on the right hand side of the handset. The one major let down in my opinion is the lack of any lens cover which means your lovely 8.1 mega pixel camera is bound to end up scuffed!
US & OS
The X10 ships with Android 1.6 and Sony Ericson promise it will be fully upgradable to Android 2.1 at a later date. The software performs fairly well but there are some rather annoying issues.
Texting is great to use with the full qwerty keyboard spaced out nicely. However when tilting the handset to landscape the accelerometer seems to struggle and sluggishly switches. It’s not major but it’s noticeable, especially when you consider how powerful this handset is meant to be!
The Android software is very easy to use. The overall feel is very responsive, shown exceptionally well through the kinetic scrolling which flowed magnificently. The home screen is simple with a notification bar at the top which you can drag down to view any calls or text messages.
I was quite excited to give the browser a good test as this is a feature I use frequently on my current phone. The pages display very well and the huge screen really helps to show off this feature. However the lack of any multi touch techniques was soon to drive me crazy. No pinch to zoom, the phone doesn’t even have double tap! What a nightmare. This really diminished the user experience in my opinion. What I did find very nice was the view finder icon on the bottom left of the browser which allows you to scroll around the page and zoom to a selected area.
Camera:
After feeling a little let down by the X10’s browser I decided to check out the camera. One thing that you have to admire about Sony Ericson is that even when their phones are falling apart they still make some brilliant cameras and the X10 is no exception!
The 8.1 mega pixel camera really holds it’s own. The face detection works wonderfully and the auto focus is brilliant. Even the flash was impressive for an LED. The dedicated hardware keys are a welcome feature and the over all camera experience is very impressive. This is one area where the X10 does not disappoint.
However the video capture is a slightly different story. The quality itself is very impressive but when capturing video there is a slight lag in the view finder. As you move the phone from side to side you will notice the phone takes about a second to catch up. It’s definitely not a deal breaker but once again it’s a noticeable flaw and is a let down considering the power of this beast!
Media:
The MP3 audio quality is great, especially when played through the phones speakers. It’s loud and there is no real loss of quality even at the highest volumes.
Playing video through the X10 is an absolute delight on it’s massive screen which has some amazing quality.
However despite the great performance the media display all just seems a little plain. It’s basic with just a couple of boring menus here and there. Nothing flashy, nothing catchy. Hopefully with the later build of the software we might see a little improvement here. Come on guys, show off that screen with some great menu’s!
Conclusion:
Overall this is a very impressive handset and I believe the X10 will be a strong seller. The problem is it just doesn’t do enough to compete with some of the top end handset’s that are already widely established in the market. The X10 just seems to lack that “wow” factor which is a real shame because it has great potential. Hopefully we will see the handsets full potential shown of when Android 1.6 hit’s it.
However, if you are a camera fanatic and don’t want to lose all those other lovely features that you are used to having from a smartphone then the X10 is worth looking at. To be honest if you’re in the market for a smartphone full stop then the X10 is worth considering. Just a word of advice, don’t be drawn into the hype and the amazing specifications, this phone isn’t as amazing as we’d have liked it to be.
Advantages:
- Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
- 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
- 4" capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 854 pixel) resolution and scratch-resistant surface
- 16M-color ready (65K effective colors under Android OS v1.6)
- Android OS v1.6 with complete Sony Ericsson UI customization
- Timescape and Mediascape UI
- Excellent social networking integration
- Excellent build quality
- Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz CPU, OpenGL ES 2.0 support; 384 MB of RAM
- 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, touch focus, image stabilization, geotagging, face and smile detection
- WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) video recording @ 30fps
- Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS
- 1GB storage, microSD slot, bundled with an 8GB card
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
- Document viewer
- Li-Po 1500 mAh (BST-41) battery
Disadvantages
- No DivX and XviD video playback
- No smart and voice dialing
- No secondary video-call camera (or videocalling whatsoever)
- No free GPS navigation solution
- No Flash support for the web browser
- No FM radio
- No Xenon Flash
- Feeble loudspeaker