The Xperia X10 is a pretty large smartphone, primarily because of its sizeable four-inch screen. This benefits web surfing, watching movies and using all of the other on-screen features, but it also rules out using the phone with one hand - even for most big-handed individuals. Its price tag is slightly above average, thanks in part to the screen, but also because of the high-end processor - a Snapdragon working at 1GHz.
Compared to the rest of the phone, the three front buttons are rather flaccid and cheap-looking. While the handset feels reasonably solid, the plastic shell loses some points in comparison with some of the more robust competitors from HTC, which cost about the same and have exceptional build quality.
The UX Interface: Timescape, Mediascape
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One aspect that sets the X10 apart from other Android phones is the user interface that sits on top of the original Android UI. It's been dubbed UX and consists of Timescape and Mediascape - the latter taking care of the interface and Timescape handling the rest. Mediascape does a pretty good job of showing your videos, music files and photos. Timescape is instead intended to catch everything going on in your phone; Twitter, Facebook, emails, contacts, and the rest is unified under a single "app" that handles the details.
Timescape and Mediascape are two separate apps and together they bear some slight resemblance to HTC's Sense UI, although less integrated with the Android backdrop. It all looks very nice and shows off the hardware capabilities of the phone, but at the same time it is all somewhat superfluous.
Media Features
An often overlooked detail is the camera, and this is where the Xperia X10 shines. Sony Ericsson may well have the best mobile phone cameras, and the eight megapixel variant sitting in the X10 is definitely the best so far among the Android lineup.
The music player offers nothing out of the ordinary, but neither is it worse than average. The Sony Walkman brand should assure us an awesome music player, and it's good, but Android still doesn't feel like the best choice for music. There's not even a graphical equalizer present, which is something of a disappointment.
Speaking of Android - the initial version of Sony Ericsson's X10 comes with Android version 1.6. While 1.6 now allows most if the same Google features like Google Maps, a lot of new features from version 2.0 are absent.
Some Issues to Work Out
In many cases the X10 is a pleasant acquaintance, but the interface is somewhat disappointing. While in most cases faster than the older HTC Android phones it feels much slower than other snapdragon phones, such as the Google Nexus One and HTC HD2. Given that the X10 is a direct competitor to them, it has a hard time to keep up.
We note also that the screen is overly sensitive at times. It often reacts too eagerly when just scrolling up or down. On the other hand, the overall speed of the menu system is good. The X10's 1GHz processor ensures that most features respond quickly, but not all. Timescape is sometimes a bit sluggish and so are some of the other menu items.
Xperia X10 is nevertheless a good start for Sony Ericsson's move to the Android camp. Clearly, worse attempts have been made. It is also easily one of the best Android-powered business phones. But the competition is very strong, and there are alternatives that are more appealing at the moment, including the Nexus One, Samsung's Galaxy and the HTC Desire, which is right around the corner. HTC's Sense interface does a better job of integrating social networks than Timescape for example.
On the multimedia and camera side, the X10 performs admirably, and if these are things that mean a lot to you this is still a phone to consider. In all, we are hoping for some updates to the Xperia X10, and perhaps then it could get our full endorsement. For now, there are other smartphones that beat the X10 in most aspects.
Specifications:
Sony Ericsson X10
Dimensions: 119 x 63 x 13mm
Weight: 135g
Bands: Quad-band GSM, WCDMA (HSDPA)
Screen: 4 inch, 480x854 pixels, capacitive touch
Talk Time: 10h
Standby time: 425h
Memory: 1 GB, 16GB memory card supplied
The camera: 8 megapixels, photo lamp, by
Others: GPS, WLAN
