Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 - user opinions and reviews
- Anonymous
- NaW
Hmm . . . I STILL have the bitter taste in my mouth remembering the P990i. Enough of SE 'cutting edge'. TyTN 3 - here I come .
- Anonymous
- 04{
I hope Se would change the 65k to 16million color for this beautiful SE XPERIA X1 phone.
- Anonymous
- nnP
Obviously SE had a big say on hardware and design.If it wasn't for SE htc would have produced another tytn or hermes lookalike and no doubt it would be missing 3d3 drivers.Big up to SE and htc for combining to make a terrific device
- Anonymous
- M@T
oh come off it tsepz SE had ALOT more input than that.Hell even HTC are clearly praising SE
- Anonymous
- M@T
Se want to take the credit for designing it :( The Htc fans are aware of that. The thing is SE only developed the 'panels' interface ! And that is the only problem the device has,otherwise one could have buy it right now. Don't worry though, in just over 2weeks HTC will announce 3 new devices which overshadow just about everything, one of them incidentally will be very similar in size and features to xperia (minus the 'panels' interface). HTC rules :)
- Anonymous
- M@T
When it comes to really high end devices SE have been in the shadow of other manufacturers for far too long.SE had the all conquering p910 but since then nothing, that is until now!Face it chaps this is a barnstorming product The BMW m5 of the cellphone market..Nokia N-series will continue to register record sales but akin to the car world ford sell more Mondeo's than BMW sell m5's..dosen't make a Mondeo better
- Anonymous
- pKd
On Sony Getting Into the Windows Mobile Game
A couple of details that I learned from talking to various people at the Sony Ericsson booth that might be of interest:
They took care to emphasize that HTC didn't have a large hand in developing the hardware. “We designed it, HTC is just the ODM” was a phrase I heard twice. SE is (rightfully) very proud of this hardware and though they're utilizing HTC to do the manufacturing, they really want to make sure that they get the credit.
As for using HTC to manufacture it, my personal opinion is still mixed. HTC is very good at making great hardware and clearly has much more experience at this sort of thing than Sony Ericsson. Likely that's why SE made the decision to go with them. It's still surprising to me, however, as SE makes all sorts of phones and consumer devices and thus they likely had a lot of options. If nothing else, I see it as a testament to HTC's incredibly ability to crank out Windows Mobile devices as a manufacturer that they could beat out the other ODMs that Sony uses for their other products.
The other interesting bit is that SE developed the X1 as a “North American Device.” Most of the design and development work was done in San Diego and has a “North American mindset.” If there was any doubt that Sony Ericsson is aiming this device primarily at the US market, that doubt can now be laid to rest. SE has traditionally done much better in the Asian and European markets with their high-end phones, the Xperia X1 is clearly intended to reverse that trend.
- Anonymous
- pKd
The Panels
Winkler (who we interviewed about the X1) spent quite a bit of time talking to us and answering our questions about the infamous panels. The panel interface is actually the thing that kept me from giving you a hands-on video -- it's still a little buggy and in “debug mode” and so nowhere near as fast and snappy as it ought to be or (hopefully) will be at release.
The main purpose of the panels seems to be threefold:
Give consumers ways to customize their device
Integrate disparate functions of the smartphone onto a single screen
Make Sony Ericsson some money.
We're pretty much just assuming the third part, by the way, but it's a safe assumption that Sony would 'get a piece' if AT&T made a music store panel. You can scroll through panels (and download new ones) fairly easily. Some examples of panels they showed me:
A Google search page
A clock that showed time, appointments, weather (they said they were thinking of adding GPS coordinates)
A “mini aquarium” where you could feed the fish and pester them. Even better - the different fish reflected the state of the phone. One fish changed colors if you had voicemail, another if you had email, and yet another told you whether or not the phone was on silent or vibrate or LOUD or whatnot. This panel was super fun.
As far as developing panels, Winkler said that it's relatively easy though not identical to developing a Windows Mobile app. Programmers can use stuff as simple as XML (to make a web-like panel) to C++. Sony will be vetting all the panels they'll offer through their panel update interface, though they don't have plans to try to “lock out” people from creating and loading their own panels that aren't “Sony approved.”
Ok ok. Panels are neat. You can choose from lots of different panels. Some of them are innovative and clever. There's a business case to panels. All of this we sort of knew. What we didn't know though, was this: What the hell are they? Do they sit on top of Windows Mobile? Is it a completely new OS? What?
Panels are Today Screen Replacements. That's it. You choose a panel and it replaces your today screen. That's why SE said that “one of the panels is Windows Mobile.” What they meant was one of the “panels” is just the default WinMo today screen. The rest of them replace it.
- Anonymous
- pKd
Hardware
The X1 has a “curved slide” that angles the screen up, banana-style, when you slide out the keyboard. The hinge feels very sturdy without being difficult to use (go hinge nerds!), and overall the brushed metal to be found throughout the device is just beautiful. Moving around the device, the peripheral buttons are decent enough and there's no floppy rubber doors over ports or the MicroSD card slot to ruin the feel of the device. That feel, in case I haven't made it clear yet, is great.
The physical keyboard is pretty good, though perhaps not quite up to HTC's standard on the Mogul or the Tilt. There is more horizontal separation between keys, which helps reduce incorrect key presses. That's great if you're a fan of two-handed use, but it basically guarantees that if you want to use this one-handed, you'll use it with the slider closed.
The main buttons have this “X” theme to them, 4 laid out on either side of the way in an inverted diamond shape that I'm not particularly fond of, but it works. The 5 way is a great combination of a touch-mouse (like the Samsung SCH-i780) and a typical D-Pad surrounding it (where the i780 falls on its face). The touch mouse is really great for scrolling quickly, the 5 way lets you do more discrete movements.
The screen. Good god, the screen is really beautiful. Flush, bright, and very high resolution.
So yes, the hardware delivers. The software is Windows Mobile 6.1, so there's not much to say there (we'll get to these “Panels” in just a minute). If you like horizontal sliders, you will covet this device. If you don't like them, you might well covet it anyway.
Under the Hood
Here are the specs, in case you're wondering:
HSDPA/HSUPA (Quad Band, too)
WiFi and Bluetooth
aGPS
3.2 Megapixel Camera
110 x 53 x 16.7 mm
145 grams
1500 mAH Battery
Qualcomm's MSM7200A CPU, 528Mhz (confirmed)
800x480 resolution Touchscreen (flush)
MicroSD for expansion
MiniUSB for data and chargin
3.5mm headset jack for music
They are, in short, nothing less than top of the line.
According to the folks at Sony Ericsson, the battery life is supposed to be stupendous (think over 6 hours of talk time or browsing time), though of course that's not finalized yet. As far as Windows Mobile's performance goes, it's as snappy as I've seen. Screen switching isn't instantaneous, but it is a sight faster than on the Tilt. That's likely because the X1 does utilize quite a bit of hardware acceleration, according to Winkler they are taking full advantage of the necessary drivers to do hardware acceleration.
Excepting the new panels interface (seriously, more on that below), the built-in software looks pretty standard. Of course, it's not finalized, but I don't expect that Sony has any plans to include Opera as the default browser.
- Sone
- mAI
Guys
Again this is what i dont get
When you looking at the side where you can put the memorycard in, i cant see that plastic cover
Like on the w850i, k750i or tha others
So i think that the memorycard slot doesnt have a cover
Can somebody help ?
- Anonymous
- M@T
Swedish testers pmpl Author of pocketpcmag,wmexperts and a few other guys have had it in there hands for ages..you should read what they say
- Anonymous
- 04{
I hope Se would change the 65k to 16million color for this beautiful SE XPERIA X1 phone.
- Joe
- Nxn
This phone has awesome features. If it only had 5MP camera, it will definitly dethrone the top Nokia N Series.
- Anonymous
- pJs
lol erm you will find a dedicated x1 topic at xda-developers.Think again htc is the ODM but SE has had a fair bit of input
- Tsepz
- M@T
Finaly!! Some REAL HTC USERS saying the same thing i said a few pages ago!
Maca
I thought as much, HTC would NEVER build such a brilliant device for another manufacturer and not do the same for themselves, im sure a "TyTN-III" is in the works thats obvious i gues.
And M@T2 user thats so true! Hopefully SE don't mess this up.
@ All
Seems like the guys at Esato have been able to get hold of some Swedish testers or something: http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=164743&start=1530
So if the guys at Esato are "numpties" i'd hate to see the people who are smart lol.
- maca2406
- Pt2
Guys forget it. Wait for the new htc phones. HTC new QWERTY slider keyboard (patented) looks great. Check it: http://gizmodo.com/368310/htcs-patent-shows-new-type-of-qwerty-slider
Xperia X1 naaaa, Wait for TyTN-III from HTC, I suppose with this new keyboard built-in and with superior especifications according to TyTN series reputation (yeah maybe the same like Xperia in many aspects).
SE software, naaa, check for software on www.handango.com, lots of applications for any purpose.
Best navigation software = NetFront from Access company v3.5 (http://www.access-company.com/) or ThunderHawk. Only problem, you need pay for it.
- Anonymous
- M@T
@N7$E Don't worry about him. Must be a SE fanboy having a go at Nokia. Just in case you don't know the SE and Nokia fans 'hate' each other to the bitter end. What the SE fans don't realise is that more and more of us HTC fans are in here :). Nice to see Se having to 'bow' to HTC. Se is a 'small gun' thou. I would have liked Samsung or Nokia to have done this. Either way Htc will make a killing if this device sells well. I hope SE won't f....up to much the user interface. Looking at their past hi end devices, they are 'masters' at that. Go xperia Go - HTC rules - Resistance is futile :)
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