Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 unboxed, played with on video

Oh yeah, you've seen Sony Ericsson's succulent XPERIA X1 unboxed in still image form, but there's just nothing like a little unpacking on video to really whet your appetite, right? Oh, and there's also some comparison action thrown in with the HTC Touch Pro, and of course, we get to see the OS in action. Hop on past the break to have a look, but we're warning you, those who covet easily will want to restrain themselves.

[Thanks, Oscar]

[Josh @ Oct 13th 2008 5:45AM]

First :) Yer I'm not really feeling the XPERIA X1. It's looking ok but the OS doesn't seem as refined as it could be, it seems a tad sluggish and could have done with a bit more work. Hopefully with updates they will improve the speed and function of the X1. It's definetly not a valid competitor to the iPhone though, even though I don't think that's really what they're trying to compete with.

[Techie @ Oct 13th 2008 7:05AM]

The OS is lagging quite a bit. This is a really big disappointment to me. I thought the X1 would surpass the HTC Touch Pro but I guess not.

[Kash @ Oct 13th 2008 7:33AM]

hey there dudes... please note the version in the video is not a final version of the firmware and is a early version sent out for testing that may have made it onto a batch, by the time the phone is released for the mass worldwide market you will get the new version of the firmware with a lot less lag, there are several videos on youtube that showcase this from the launch party.

also note... INDIAN ROCKS... cuz well.. ahem ahem. ^^^^^ done by indians... saving SE's arse as i like to call it...

[Levi @ Oct 13th 2008 9:42AM]

That's not true dude, they said this thing's pretty much finished in the last interview video they posted. Plus, when the phone gets to this point, they aren't looking to overhaul the OS code to make it run more smoothly - they already know how smoothly it runs; they are just looking for bug testers to find something they haven't found in their own tests.

I, for one, am also disappointed - I think these phones shouldn't be lagging at this point.. It's a full year after the iPhone, which has plenty of its own laggy moments, but a full year is like an eon in tech measurements. They should be able to cram twice the ram, video memory, etc., into these things to reduce the lag.

Then again, I don't know what the specs are on this phone. They could have upped the specs, and WinMo just might not have been optimized for what they were trying to do. The phone does sound very feature-packed though, and that one little bit of lag in the video is kind of a small thing to complain about.

Now, if the XPeria's sequel gets a Tegra chip, uuhghshhhghsdhghhgdrool

[Ruben @ Oct 13th 2008 10:48AM]

they said this thing's pretty much finished

[Ruben @ Oct 13th 2008 10:49AM]

Damn Opera's Magic Wand.

"they said this thing's pretty much finished"

They sped up the panels interface quite a bit before the actual Final release. It was one of the last things they did, so this might not be the "retail" firmware. And from other videos ive seen, it doesnt look like it is.

[kash @ Oct 14th 2008 3:47AM]

the software is older and since it is a beta handset the ram and rom in the phone is less then the ones that have started shipping. trust me, my best mate works for SE and is handling/keep a very good eye on... the X1 project.

[fairlight @ Oct 13th 2008 5:47AM]

want

[Chris @ Oct 13th 2008 5:52AM]

I loved it when it first come out, then i hated it when i saw the speed of it in the demo devices. But not they've fixed the speed issues i do quite like it again. Still not convinced by all these front-end's for windows mobile (including the touchflo interface).

[Rakar @ Oct 13th 2008 5:52AM]

OS needs a lot of refining; It's really laggy.

[Chris @ Oct 13th 2008 6:03AM]

Um, give me now. You better be fucking available for sprint or I'm destroying the crappy cellular company. :-)

[Archelium @ Oct 13th 2008 3:50PM]

Uh...this is a GSM phone....switch carriers...

[Bad Beaver @ Oct 13th 2008 5:58AM]

"Having three square-miles of screen estate available, we decided to bunch apps up into a fanned pile of miniature frames, just because we could"

Looks typically 1st Gen SE. Sluggish, jerky, a bit cluttered, with a hint of pointlessness sprinkled over. But sorta pretty. Ergo techno-lusty closet-nerd-type jocklings will love it to bits as it just doesn't say N-E-R-D as loudly as the competition so they can still look all business while spending their next 5 flights doing nothing but giggle over the animations.

[Tomas Holcik @ Oct 13th 2008 5:59AM]

It's great that you published our video, but the youtube version is a stolen one. the original is here:
http://www.mobilmania.cz/sc-21-sr-1-a-1120389-ch-1041245/

including tons of photos form our hands-on

Tomas Holcik
Video Editor, Cpress media

[haX0r @ Oct 13th 2008 9:42AM]

You really needed show the actual use of the OS when typing into a webpage, text messaging, making a call, etc. That would have shown more of the phone in action.

Also, as mentioned in a previous above, is that a "test" version OS?

[bu @ Oct 13th 2008 6:06AM]

The video is from mobilemania.cz, its part of their review and it's based on a prototype. We still can't be sure about xperia's performance...

[Tor Lindberg @ Oct 13th 2008 7:35AM]

What an amateur! Learn how to unpack a gadget properly before making it public! Unpacking means laying all the contents out on the table for everybody to see, not throwing the about in random. This video is just annoying!

[chefgon_ign @ Oct 13th 2008 6:04AM]

What exactly was laggy or sluggish about the OS? A couple of transition animations? Is that really such a big deal? It was running 8 programs at the same time, the fact that there was any smoothness at all should tell you something about how refined the interface is.

[Bad Beaver @ Oct 13th 2008 7:02AM]

You're kidding, right?

[Johan S @ Oct 13th 2008 7:12AM]

Sorry but that kind of jerkiness in a transition animation sucks. All transition animations on an iPhone are smooth and the UI more responsive than that -- even if 8 things are "running".
I think any iPhone owner will agree with me. If you don't have one, go look at the iPhone UI videos on youtube.

I'm still going to get one though -- but i really hope somebody gets them to fix that issue.

[Saad Rabia @ Oct 13th 2008 7:22AM]

Johan S, I would love to see an iPhone running 8 apps at once, or at least 3 apps. Futuristic my ass!

[TareX @ Oct 13th 2008 7:55AM]

Ummm... it wasn't running 8 apps at once. It never does. It freezes the apps (except for the clock maybe), and displays an image of it in the Panels view, then when clicked returns back to it. Guess what happens on ANY WM app when you "close" it, it freezes and is minimized to the background.

If you want to see 8,000 apps running smoothly, loading, playing videos while minimized and with widgets on top of them, wait for Tegra.

[Ruben @ Oct 13th 2008 10:46AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyiNnP_0bAQ

For some reason, this display of the X1 is substantially smoother. This is what i expect.

[PhilR8 @ Oct 13th 2008 11:49AM]

I really am puzzled by all the SE apologists out there - this phone looks incredibly slow, yet everyone who points that out in the comments is downvoted, or the concern is brushed aside as "not that big of a deal." The Touch Diamond for Sprint is always lambasted for being "sluggish," but on an SE device, speed doesn't matter?

Then there's the issue of the keyboard, which was poorly reviewed on early versions of this device. Has it changed? Also, the Panels interface is a failure in my eyes. Why have all those programs open? Why not just have icons that open the program when you want to use it, and close them when you're done?

[Bad Beaver @ Oct 13th 2008 12:09PM]

PhilR8, you mistake this for a place where people act or think reasonably. I, too, often succumb to that mistake.

[Ayle @ Oct 13th 2008 2:43PM]

@Taxel:

First I didn't see any slowness at all. Second, on any WM powered device when you press X you miminize the the App: it isn't frozen, it's still running in the background. If not how do you explain the fact that I can unzip things in the background in resco explorer?

[DS @ Oct 13th 2008 6:06AM]

This is not news, I saw this video two weeks ago. You should use Google News RSS feeds to stay on top of things.

I prefer the HTC Touch Pro or HD to the Xperia because of the GUI.
Xperia panels and software seem to be a mere skin for Winmo and its media player etc.
But HTC software is essentially a touch-friendly 1st-class OS running on top of Winmo.
HTC seems superior to me, check out the demos on their website.

[Tres @ Oct 13th 2008 6:24AM]

Hooray for another crappy Windows Mobile device!

The sad thing is I'm sure it would be quite nice if it was running Android.

[Nick @ Oct 13th 2008 8:39AM]

It does look very sexy but OS seems still a little slow for todays standard...
I still think a few things still need to be improved and can't help but think Xperia X2 will be so much better

[Brad @ Oct 13th 2008 6:31AM]

Typical HTC junk, I've been a HTC user for many years and people that think this interface isn't slow or sluggish, or can be fixed by a firmware upgrade are sorely mistaken.

As long as these things run WM6 there will never be any hope. Trying to build iPhone-esk interfaces on such a primitive operating system just proves embarassing for the company trying to implement it.

No phone will ever catch up to the iPhone.

[Rsaeire @ Oct 13th 2008 6:50AM]

Catch up to the iPhone? Please! Include a better camera, Bluetooth file transfer, the ability to send MMS, copy and paste functionality and a replaceable battery and you're already past what the iPhone can offer.

As good an OS as the iPhone has, it doesn't make up, in my opinion, for the lack of the aforementioned features, as well as the others I have left out.

The X1 looks great, not as good as I had originally thought, but great nonetheless. I'm glad that the video shows a comparison of the HTC Touch Pro too as there is a nice contrast between the two different styles.

[Azsori @ Oct 13th 2008 11:45AM]

Your spot on there Rsaeire,

All those aforementioned features plus the higher res screen, full keyboard, and potential to be more enterprise capable make this this a more featured phone than the iPhone IMO.

Seems like there is a few bumps software wise, but there is hope that it will be updated (but don't hold your breath).

A Smart phone does not have to be truly perfect to match/surpass the iPhone (since the iPhone is far from perfect itself). The true competitors are here, and more are on their way. Let's hope this drives prices down...

[Charles @ Oct 13th 2008 6:32AM]

Yawn... sure glad my T-Mobile G1 is about ready to ship :) The tiles are jerkily animated, and the screen takes forever to switch between portrait and landscape. MS better get going with WM7, this might generate buzz at an industry trade show, but it'll gather dust on the shelves of retail. It'll take more than that to get the average consumer to part with $1000.

[nottakingitpersonally @ Oct 13th 2008 7:08AM]

my confidence in this thing not totally sucking grows.....UI looks nice, particularly if you're a PSP user (i'm not, but the flicking through aero-like pageviews was cool) . didnt look like the frickin' brick it was made out to be in some of the early photos. the video really made me want a fuze, damn that black finish and less lag when you open it up looked awesome

[Togarth @ Oct 13th 2008 7:58AM]

Not only is Tor Lindberg 100% correct in his observation about the right and wrong way to make an un-boxing video.
BUT how slow is that thing!

No Wonder Sony Ericsson ran about telling everyone that they had increased the RAM to 384Mb the X1 clearly needs every single Meg it can lay its hands on!

Yet most of the units delivered so far in Sweden have only got 250Mb but ALL the lucky owners claim to be in possession of genuine retail units! personally I do not believe them to be anything other than Prototypes passed off as the genuine article to early adopters who were mug enough to pay god money for them.

The X1 clearly does NOT have the power to run nine applications at once, hence the pathetic jerky transition from Portrait to Landscape mode's, so why build in nine panels when your own eyes should tell you the X1 cant handle them Sony Ericsson? your simply repeating ALL the mistakes you made with the P990i!!!

If the device did that during an in store demo there is NO WAY I would shell out my hard earned cash on one, it is a complete joke WTF kind of planet are Sony Ericsson on? It is no wonder the company is hemorrhaging money if this is what they call a "landmark product" its a "landmark" alright, but for all the wrong reasons!

Sony Ericsson would have been better served spending the cash they wasted on that Johnny X crap and the ludicrous www.xperiancers.com Blog Site (another complete joke!) on employing some decent Software Engineers, and getting the product right before they palm yet another Turkey off on the Mobile phone world.

[Bad Beaver @ Oct 13th 2008 10:18AM]

Why would you low-rank this? Togarth is spot-on when he states that SE has a long tradition of expensive smartphones, starting with the P800 actually, that while being superbly high in potential would even not remotely live up to their promises, abusing their customers as beta-testers. If they have to cram in tons of expensive memory it means that their code is bloated and inefficient. Looking at this video also tells you that either no extra memory was present or nobody actually bothered to improve the code. That for some pointless GUI-animation that you should simply scrap if you cannot get it to work properly. If the lack of care is so evident as to surface in some simple "just a GUI tour" video such as this, what do you expect when it comes to real-world performance, when the device is crammed with apps and user-data? It will crawl then crash, just like generations of SE smartphones before, providing the same rotten and frustrating experience as generations of SE smartphones before.

[TareX @ Oct 13th 2008 7:58AM]

Resistive touchscreen.
Not finger friendly (except for maybe the panels), everything seems to need a stylus.

It's just too little, too late. Revolutionary TEGRA devices should be showing up Q1 2009... I don't see all the rush to get this WM phone. Maybe Android is justified, it being a new OS and all, but with ultra-powerful WM devices just around the corner, I'd rather play the WAITING game.

[Adam H. @ Oct 13th 2008 12:16PM]

has there been any substantial information on a true release for the tegra? I'm not knocking your comment, I would really like to know. All I've seen is demo's of what could possibly happen and slight mentions of possible releases.

[Adam H. @ Oct 13th 2008 12:16PM]

has there been any substantial information on a true release for the tegra? I'm not knocking your comment, I would really like to know. All I've seen is demo's of what could possibly happen and slight mentions of possible releases.

[Sridhar3 @ Oct 13th 2008 9:20AM]

Good-looking phone. Approximately the same size as the Touch Pro. As stated, the animations are a little bit sluggish, but I wouldn't exactly call that a dealbreaker (seeing as the demo video did not give any insight as to if said sluggishness affects functionality).

At any rate, let's hope the final version runs a bit more smoothly.

[haX0r @ Oct 13th 2008 9:34AM]

I love Cell Pr0n.

[haX0r @ Oct 13th 2008 9:45AM]

Xperia X1 + Android = sexy!

[TeraFlopper @ Oct 13th 2008 9:41AM]

All that tile flipping made me dizzy.

[ett.ufo @ Oct 13th 2008 10:41AM]

I played around with the X1 at a store here in Stockholm just an hour ago (The last one, it's selling like hell). Here are my impressions:

I Really hoped the device would differ from the videos I had seen on the mighty Internet, but unfortunately I can't say that it did.
The look of the hardware is excellent; high quality and stylish.
The feel of the UI is not up to par...
It's as slow as the videos show, and that's when it was just out of the box freshly started and running No extra programs.
As seen on many videos the touchscreen is very unresponsive and you have to press rather hard for it to register.
Combined with the sluggishness of the screen updates it gets very annoying and leads to confusion:

" Press, did it register? No, I'll press again. Press. Aha, here it comes, Press something else, did it scroll? No, what is the device doing? Where in the UI am I? Press...I'll abort and go back. Shit, there it flickered by. And I just aborted! Damn. Press again..."

I guess you'd get used to it, but UI experience is not in the same league as the Iphone.
They actually promoted the Iphone in a stall outside the store, so I could compare the X1 with an Iphone just after I tried it.
Maybe the UI speed of the X1 can improve with the next firmware...

My personal verdict:
X1 - not fast enough, not good enough UI.
Iphone - not good enough hardware.
Result:
I'll stick to my excellent, blistering fast SE k800i dumb phone for a little longer and cry a nerd tear every night over the fact that I can't yet find the smart phone of my dreams.

[zenstylejunglist @ Oct 13th 2008 10:30AM]

Damn that thing is tiny!

[nxp3 @ Oct 13th 2008 12:12PM]

Wow, I can't beleive how small that thing is until now seeing it in someone's hand. I don't mean that in a good way. Look how small those keys are compared to your finger, I rather do touchscreen if the keys are going to be that small. It look mighty hard to type, they need the keys to be like the treo or it's useless being that small.

[Tor Lindberg @ Oct 13th 2008 6:17PM]

It's time to face the truth! All mobile phones/PDAs using some form of Windows Mobile OS, from Standard to Professional edition and up to todays V6.1 are sloooooooooooooooow. And though sometimes the fault is in underdimensioned processors in the devices themselves, most of the time the problem lies within Windows itself. This is true not only for Sony Ericsson but also even HTC's newest offerings and a lot of other brands.

So, if you're looking for a smartphone, forget about Windows Mobile. I know that my iPhone 3G is at least fast enough so I don't go around and get irritated by simple things like changing from vertical to horizontal.

[i_am_rich @ Oct 13th 2008 1:56PM]

The X1 is the Chinese Democracy of smartphones

[Decoy @ Oct 13th 2008 2:54PM]

Chinese Democracy is the Duke Nukem Forever of albums.

[mercurysunblast @ Oct 13th 2008 2:36PM]

Damn, I wanted the X1 since day one.
Now, not so much. I'm sorry but yes...it IS slower than molasses in the middle of winter...
If I want my phone landscape, I want it landscape faster than it takes me to blink. I have no patience to sit around waiting for it to decide to flip orientation.

It certainly is a hot looking phone, but the two things standing in my way is the sluggish OS and the keyboard. If the keyboard sucks, why even include one? I have the Sprint Mogul right now and I HATE, HATE, HATE using the keyboard. It sucks big time...so next phone I get, I'm researching the hell out of keyboards.

ANYWAY, I'm pretty pissed off that this ended up being such a half-assed product but eh, that's how life is. Hopefully the android OS will mature into something really awesome by the time I'm due for another phone, (which isn't too far away).