Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Review
Written on 10/22/2008 08:38:00 AM by poison_ivy
With all the mobile phones that these mobile phone manufacturers have been releasing lately, it's really hard to find the perfect phone, let alone stay with only one phone. Take me for example, I was happy to settle with my Samsung i780 and convinced myself that this phone will probably last me six months before the Xperia X1 gets released (which was then my dream phone), then I got wind of the Samsung Omnia and the i780 was history only after four months. I LOVE my Samsung Omnia and my only complaint was the lack of a physical keyboard. Anyways, new phones started coming right after the release of the Samsung Omnia and upcoming ones have been announced. As a gadget fanatic with limited budget, naturally, I'm frustrated. While I'm happy with the Omnia, I can't help but miss the keyboard of the HTC Touch Pro which I got hold of for a few days, or dream of the upcoming Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Blackberry Storm. And since wireless carriers such as O2 and Vodaphone have announced that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will now be available, it's taking all my strength not to put up a post on eBay for my Omnia.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1's Strengths
I have to admit, there's a lot to love about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. First off, just the design alone oozes class and sexiness. A brushed metal finish shames the plastic silvery lining of my Omnia. Also, the high resolution 65,000 color screen of the Xperia X1 is definitely something to watch out for. Another strength of the Xperia X1 is its revolutionary panels interface which are running background applications. Honestly, the only thing I like about Sony Ericsson's panels is the fact that Sony has released an SDK kit for it so that developers would be able to build applications that will enable it to use the SE X1's panels. It's actually a souped up version of Samsung Omnia's widgets but I like the latter more because of its user-friendliness and for a girl, the widgets are a lot more “cute” to look at. The only problem with the Omnia is Samsung refuses to release an SDK kit that will allow developers to make custom widgets since as of this day, you can't add your own custom widgets to the Samsung Omnia widgets sidebar. A lot of Samsung Omnia users (especially the male users) hate the Samsung Omnia's widgets and they use the secondary homescreen than the Omnia widget since they find it too “mind-numbingly simple” (*rolls eyes*, Men, go figure).
I guess that's why the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 would appeal more to the male windows mobile fans. It offers them a lot more chance to tinker with the device. Before it was released, Sony Ericsson announced that the Xperia X1 will only have just about the same RAM as the HTC Touch PRO, around 256MB, however, a firmware upgrade has upped the RAM to a whopping 384MB! Now THAT's a lot of power and could hopefully make this device as fast as the iPhone, right? Well, right, since screen rotation when opening up the keyboard and some of the touch optimized applications were known to run smoothly according to the reviews.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1's weaknesses / disadvantages (yes, it has one)
First off, since this device's main competitor will be the iPhone, you would have thought that Sony would make this a touch-friendly device. The addition of a beveled screen doesn't really scream “touch friendly”, plus you'll find yourself using the included stylus more often than your fingers. The optical D-Pad,which Sony Ericsson might have taken from Samsung's pages, is also not that useful.
The XPERIA X1's other competitor is the HTC Touch Pro, which incidentally came from the same manufacturer, HTC, so of course a little bit of comparison is highly likely. As to the keyboard, a lot of owners prefer using the HTC Touch Pro's keyboard against the X1's. Also, the HTC Touch Pro is more touch friendly, thanks to its TouchFLO 3D interface and a raised screen which allows for a lot of finger “sweeping”. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 also does not have a built-in accelerometer so those thinking of modding the ROM to make HTC's G-sensor games work on the device can forget about it.
The 3.2 megapixel camera is disappointingly HTC. You would have thought that Sony would want to put in some of their Cyber-shot technology on this device but I guess that's asking to much and would probably drive up the price of the Sony Ericsson X1 to £800 (currently, it has an average price of £500, without a contract). Going back to the camera, expect to take good pictures on a clear, bright day but crap ones on average lighting conditions. Check out some of the sample pics by bengalboy.
Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is a beautiful and powerful device. The fact that it's made by HTC, means you'll have a dedicated team of developers over at XDA-developers.com to come up with a lot of goodies and cooked ROM for this device that would further enhance its features. For those who're torn between buying the Xperia X1 or the HTC Touch Pro, I would suggest that if you're going for the whole touchscreen experience, I'd vote in favor of the HTC Touch Pro, but if you just want a really good looking smartphone with powerful features and don't mind using a stylus every once in a while, then definitely buy the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. Though I'm REALLY tempted to go and get the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, I think I'll pass up on this one and just wait for the next thing that they come up with (probably within two months).
You can ask more about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 here.
How much SE paid for this review?
X1 known to have bugs, the reception is weak, Wifi drops common.
Many people complain about battery problems, since the battery looks good as far as specs some sort of leakage or manufacturing oproblem must be in the unit.
If you keep up with this you will loose all you crediability.
If Sony Ericsson or other manufacturers pay for my reviews, heck, I wouldn't be piggy backing on my richer friends to review their phones since I would have owned ALL the phones I've reviewed here so far. But unfortunately, that's not the case. Though I would love for Samsung to pay me for loving my Omnia by sending me their new T*Omnia.
Anyways, If you read the whole review, you'd know that I haven't actually got the phone but I have just compiled all the existing reviews of the Xperia X1 as I want to compare the pros and cons of the device before ditching my Omnia. I would love to own this device but since my wallet is also currently in recession, all I can do is give my readers a quick once over of the pros and cons of the device. But thanks for your input, if X1 does have those problems then it would certainly help those who're thinking of buying this.
Well folks, I have had this phone for over a moth now and will get rid of it soon. It is cumbersome, has very small letters on the display, (hard to see), is very slow, but what really frustrates me is the fact that the bluetooth radio switches off frequently by itself! I called SE support, they say that it is a power saving feature that the user cannot disable. Holy cow! I make a lot of cals in my car using hands free. Guess what, most of the time I cannot use the hands free because the stupid phone has switched off the bluetooth radio!!! Really a terrible design, not worth spending any money on it.
Weird, I've not encountered any of the problems such as those with bluetooth, WiFi etc. I can agree that reception os a little bit too weak sometimes though but I'v got FAR less dropped calls with X1 than with my good old p990. Small letters? Perhaps you need glasses, I have no problems and besides I think you can change font size. Slow? I think it feels really FAST. Maybe you people have received bad units or need to upgrade firmware. The qwerty keyboard was the only big disappointment. It is almost unusable due to the screen being to close to the top row and the keys being wobbly. All in all I think this is the greatest phone I've used but I have high demands on Office functionality due to my work. If I wanted just a cool phone with multimedia I would have got an iPhone... /Erik