Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 – need a speedy 3G carrier
For:
Good call quality; fast performance; generous features; sharp and brilliant display.
Against:
Landscape keyboard is not enabled in messaging application. You have to use Moxier – third party application for Outlook sync. The data performance via AT&T service was spotty.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is powered with 1GHz Snapdragon processor. It is basesd on WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM technology and supports quad band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900. The operating system is Google Android 1.6 OS.
The smartphone has 1GB internal memory and micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 16GB cards. It also ships with an 8GB card for external storage. Supported wireless interfaces are IEEE 802.11g and Bluetooth.
The additional features are A-GPS, EDGE, GPRS, USB, speakerphone, RSS feeds, Mobile blog, Android market, video call, HSDPS, and T9 Intelligent Typing.
4-inch touch screen LCD display has 854×480 pixels resolution that supports 24-bit (16.7 million) colors. 8.1-megapixel camera features flash, 16x digital zoom, image stabilizer, video recording, face detection, smile shutter, and geo-tagging.
Supported audio formats are eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, MP3, and WMA. In addition, the Xperia X10 supports RealMedia, WMV, H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG4, and H.264.
Razzle Dazzle:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is 4.7 inches tall, 2.5 inches wide, and 0.5 inch deep and weighs 4.8 ounces. It has curved face to match natural curve of hands. It feels comfortable while taking in hand. Due to the curved back, the X10 will wobble on tapping when it rests on flat surface.
Inside Dope:
Most of the cell manufacturers are adopting Google Android as their mobile operating system. Now, Sony Ericsson has released its first Android smartphone – the Xperia X10. It features large, sharp and gorgeous display, excellent multimedia features, easy-to-use interface, and virtual keyboard. However, the onscreen keyboard does not work in all applications. The Timescape application is very useful, but has a complicated interface. The X10 provides good call quality and fast internal speed. On the contrary, Timescape updates do not complete successfully and data connection strength is variable. We hope that these issues are due to the carrier and other service provider may fix these issues. You can purchase the unlocked version of Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 for $700. You may have to use third party application for synchronizing Outlook calendar. If you can afford an expensive price tag for a fast and good looking smartphone and can get an U.S. 3G carrier to overcome above problem, then you can buy new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
Design
You will find physical controls – Menu control, back button and Home key located beneath the display. Camera shutter and volume rocker buttons are located on the left spine. Combined micro-USB port for cable/charger, power button, and 3.5mm headset jack sits on the top. You will find the micro-SD card slot behind the battery cover at the back.
Display
4 inches touch screen display of Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has 854×480 pixels resolution that supports 65,536 colors. It exhibits vibrant and sharp colors, photos and graphics. This is clearly visible even in direct sunlight. The touch screen is quick responsive and accurate while swiping and tapping icons even at extreme edges.
There are three home screens that you can personalize with widgets, folders and shortcuts. You can customize the backlight, brightness, and wallpaper. It features inbuilt accelerometer and Android notification bar, but does not have proximity sensor.
Keyboard
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has virtual QWERTY keyboard that is quite similar to Android standard design. You will get enough space for typing in the landscape mode. There is separate keyboard for numbers, symbols and punctuation and the normal keyboard has three rows of punctuation/alphabetic keys. There is other pop-up keyboard for smileys and few symbols located above alphabetic keys. The space bar is in the center of bottom row. You will also get benefits of dictionary and auto-complete function. Noteworthy that landscape keyboard will not work in messaging application and portrait keyboard does not have auto-complete function.
User Interface
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 runs on Google Android 1.6 OS, whereas Motorola Droid works on 2.0. However, Sony Ericsson has better user interface due to its UXP (User Experience Platform) that sits on Android OS. Like MotoBlur, the UXP combines all the contacts, alerts, and messages into a steady communication stream called as Timescape.
While using the phone very first time, you will get an auto-wizard to register your social networking and email accounts. After completing this wizard, the Timescape will show all the social media updates, text messages, and emails in “deck of cards” view. Timescape will display the social networking Web sites updates on home screen.
Phonebook and PIM features
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 can store the contacts limited to available memory. Each entry can store multiple phone numbers, email addresses, instant messenger handle, URLs, nickname, notes, work information, and street address. You can pair the contacts with photo for caller ID and set to view Facebook/Twitter updates. You can view the call history and recent text messages while viewing any contact.
The messaging features include support for POP3 accounts, usual multimedia and text messaging, and Gmail. It also has standard application for configuring corporate Exchange – Outlook Web Access (OWA) accounts. On the contrary, the smartphone does not work for direct sync of contacts, notes, and calendar. For compensating this problem, the Xperia X10 comes with preinstalled Moxier application. The direct push feature of Moxier worked perfectly while testing.
Camera
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has 8.1-megapixel camera that features flash, geo-tagging, smile detection and digital zoom. It can capture pictures in four different resolutions with various scene modes including landscape, portrait and night etc. The other options are brightness meter, image stabilizer, spot metering, four white-balance options, self timer, macro setting, auto-focus, and face detection. We like that there is no shutter lag on firmly pressing the button.
We captured some photos for testing. The overall photo quality was good. We will recommend you to use flash in case of dim lighting. There is a filmstrip view available while viewing the photos. You can save the pictures on internal memory and on micro-SD card also.
Camcorder
The camcorder of Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 records videos in five resolution including YouTube format and wide VGA. You can shoot long videos in standard videos and capture MMS clips for 14 seconds also. The video editing options are quite similar to camera. The overall video quality was also good.
Music Player
You can use Mediascape application to use the music player of Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The Mediascape will display music tracks, videos and photos in a single place. It shows the videos and photos captured on same day and separately list the music tracks by same artist. The music player features option to set track as ring-tone, send track via messages, set favorites, repeat and shuffle modes, and album art. There is also a Sony Ericsson TrackID application and PlayNow feature. The overall music quality was good on both headphones and speakers.
Applications
The other features are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo profile, voice dialing, full duplex speakerphone, and calculator. Additional highlights are OfficeSuite file manager, Android Web browser, electronic user guide, Facebook app, Google Talk, Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube. Google Maps features several map layers including transit lines, traffic etc., Google Latitude and URL to Wikipedia. Google Maps will provide real time directions, and for real time voice guided directions, you can use Wisepilot application.
Call Quality
We made few calls through the Xperia X10 via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was good. We received natural, loud and clear sound at our end with strong signal strength. The callers also received good sound at their end, but could tell that we were calling via cell phone.
Battery Life
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has battery life of 8 hours talk time in 3G and 10 hours in 2G. The idle standby time is 17.7 days. The digital SAR is 1.43 watts per kg as per FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
If you can afford expensive cost for a good looking and fast smartphone and get a good carrier with better speed options, then you can buy – Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
