For the last week Sony Ericsson made one of my wishes come true and lent me one of their first production model new Xperia X10 touch phones. I last wrote about this phone when it was announced last November and finally its here.
This in my view is the best phone Sony Ericsson have come up with yet. The basics are that its a full touch screen Google android based phone, with a host of clever custom SE software such as Timescape™ and Mediascape. The main gist of these software enhancements are to bring all your social networks together and make them work together in harmony, saving you time and keeping you up to date with what’s happening. With this I can say they have succeeded, in no small way thanks to the built in 1ghz processor (only a few years ago that was great for a PC !). Go to the X10’s home page to check out a demo for yourself here.
My highlights have been the following:
- Twitter and Facebook aggregating to phone contacts (i.e. When I look up a contact it shows me all their status updates, photo’s and events in one place)
- The 8.1mp Camera: This is a great camera, as well as taking great pictures it also picks up peoples faces and allows you to tag them to contacts right away
- Android marketplace: Much better that I expected, tones of games and other tools and gadgets to keep me happy.
- The design and screen: The phone’s screen looks great, and with the rubber textured back it’s very ergonomically friendly.
- USB charging, and easy syncing with your computer works great. Contacts can be backed up online and synced with facebook, Google, and outlook.
- Battery life is good for a handset of this type, think 2 days of normal use and 1 day of heavy online use (WiFi, bluetooth, & 3G data transfers drain it).
- Contrary to what I have read on other sites the touch keyboard works great (with the feedback enabled it makes it even better). I can only assume the other test handsets had pre-production software.
To sum it up if you’re in the market for a new intelligent phone handset that does it all, the X10 is worth a serious look. Email, photos, social networking, and lest we forget making calls are all a pleasure with the new Sony Ericsson X10.
For full specs go to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 page here.
This is a problem for me. This is the only sensible alternative to the iPhone, which means I would have to decide. Good choice to make though.
I would say its a real alternative dear chap, they seem to have caught up, think other chaps will do too now, some nice new sets coming from HTC and with Win7 mobile around the corner its going to blow this fight wide open again
This HAS to be my next phone – unless the Win7 one comes out first.
Had the X1 for over a year now and love it.
When does this come out in SA?
The X10 should be shipping across SA next week, ask in stores now, best bet in South Africa is Cellucity, they have first digs on pretty much all new handsets.
UK and other major European countries have stock already.