Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X10: Review

Finally, Sony Ericsson’s Rachael has become official. The amount of speculation and expectation that this phone had behind it, I was almost apprehensive about the entire thing. It might’ve been a huge let down. But thankfully, the leaks have been pretty accurate and now we are looking at a stunner of a phone.

Yes people, say hello to Sony Ericsson’s first ever Android phone – the XPERIA X10. Not named X3 after all and thankfully not Rachael, the X10 is exactly what we have all been hoping for. And since this is Sony, you can expect stellar aesthetics and build quality.

Update: Found a hands on video. Embedded below.

Update 2: UK Unlocked price - £460 on pre order. [read]

When I refreshed the page today, I knew the X10 was here because it started redirecting me to a complicated URL that looked like a product page. Sure enough, I saw the X10’s name pop up on the title bar moments before the page became visible. The photos that we have been showing you so far have been absolutely accurate, down to the last details. It looks like Sony has been sitting on the finalized version for quite some time now.

So what is it like in person? I wouldn’t know because I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet but on the surface of it, the thing’s a stunner. The screen is 480x854 pixels (WVGA) but for some reason, it displays only only16,536 colors.

As for the form factor, the thing is pretty thin – only half an inch. The dimensions are 4.7”x2.5”x0.5”. So you can imagine how large the phone is. It is almost like an MID in your pocket. A rather slim one at that. The actual screen size has not been provided individually but according to my calculations it should be around 4.0"-4.1”. The online stores are listing this as a 4" screen. Now that is a large screen!

Features include a capacitive touchscreen, the impressive Mediascape media browser that reminds us of the Zune HD’s UI and face recognition in photos integrated with your contacts. It has an 8.1-megapixel camera with auto focus, face recognition, flash, smile-detection and video recording with video light. Most of the Sony Ericsson phones that I have seen and reviewed have had above average image quality when came to the camera. So I would bet on this one being a pretty good camera as well.

As we had been informed by the rumor mill, the infinity symbol is part of the X10’s UI. It signifies the Timescape feature. Timescape is a feature that consolidates your conversations and communications with a person. Be it on Facebook, text, phone or email, you can view them all in one place per person using Timescape. I personally like this feature because it sounds like something we all need. I hope it has threaded SMS conversations. Given the myriad communication platforms we use today, features like this one are fast becoming necessities. Although, I am not sure of how well Timescape works. If you have tried it out, let me know in the comments section below.

For those of you who were hoping for a physical QWERTY keypad – sorry to disappoint you. As I had mentioned in my X10 round up some time back, there is no way this thing is hiding a QWERTY keypad in that slim a profile. And the images would’ve shown it off anyway, given the amount of excitement that surrounded this phone.

As for the overall performance of the phone, I will be betting on the side of great rather than just good. That is my confidence in Android, which this phone is running beneath all that custom UI.

The Internal memory is 1GB minus whatever the software is taking up (not announced yet). You can put in a MicroSD card, which come in a maximum of 16GB right now. They include a 8GB card when you purchase it.

Networks supported are – GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900,            UMTS/HSPA 900/1700/2100. It has aGPS, Bluetooth A2DP, Google Maps and WiFi. No word on the processor, although we are pretty sure that it is the Qualcomm Snapdragon. The clock speed is unknown at this point though.

As for price, I could find only one website through Google. It has the X10 listed at $799. Check out the search right here. the official product page is here.

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