How would you change Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1?

Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 hasn't been the easiest handset to procure here on US soil, despite being "available" since Black Friday. Still, we know hardcore HTC / SE fanatics have figured out a way to get their palms in touch with the X1a (or X1i for international users). You already heard our spill on the handset, but now we're interested in finding out how you'd tweak things if given the all-important keys to the design lab. Would you keep everything the same and just add Android? Would you rework the keyboard? Swap out the touchscreen with a capacitive replacement? Make it available only in turquoise and lime? It's a pretty safe bet that this isn't the last Xx smartphone you'll see from SE, so your thoughts on the matter may actually prove beneficial in time. And... go!

[va jj @ Dec 26th 2008 7:25PM]

last

[Alec @ Dec 26th 2008 7:44PM]

Capacitive multi-touch, and android.

[Flashpoint @ Dec 26th 2008 8:10PM]

If only Apple iPhone design placed a slide out keyboard directly underneath it while keeping the rest of the phone the same - or adding battery life too.

[ACEY RIOT @ Dec 27th 2008 12:51AM]

Android, cap-touch, number row on kb...smells like french fries

[Knee to the Groin @ Dec 26th 2008 10:35PM]

Haha, well played va jj, +1 for you.

If your user ID ever gets banned you can always come back as pu ss

[Brad @ Dec 27th 2008 4:47AM]

What's with Engadget's recent hardon for capacitive touch screens? I like my resistive screens. I can wear gloves, use a stylus (or the back of a pen), etc.

I don't see what it gains you to go with a more expensive, less useful touch technology. What am I missing here?

[eggothewaffle @ Dec 27th 2008 6:34AM]

In Engadget America, capacitive screen TOUCHES YOU.

[fatso485 @ Dec 27th 2008 10:11AM]

Same form factor (sliding keybord)
-Screen should be at least 3.2” without increasing the total size of the phone. Seems doable if they optimize the unused space and relocate some of the buttons to the side. 3.2” should be the new 2.8. 3.2 is also much friendlier for hand use and easier on the eyes
- faster CPU. Samsung already using 624mhz and asus will use 800mhz very soon
- built in falsh should be at least 2 or 4 GB just for convenience+ the sd card.
- jogdial and maybe an extra button on the side (record, comm., ok…etc) to improve usability with 1 hand use
- keyboard needs a fifth raw with a slight increase in button travel distance.
- the panels is bloated and takes too much memory and slow. It needs to be optimized
- accelerometer. Too many developers are starting to make use of this
- very quick release date. Its not like we are asking them to do a totally new hardware. All these things seem like tweeks to the current model. No later than first half of 09
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=438524

[Levi @ Dec 27th 2008 11:07AM]

Brad - capacitives are much more responsive, as in, you can BARELY touch the screen with the tip of your finger and click a link. They are also more accurate, as they are based on the average of the user's input (read: finger). This makes casual use much easier to implement. Take any Verizon phone with a touch screen, or any WinMo phone with an altered GUI catered to casual finger use, and they just suck ass. Pressing buttons two or three times, sometimes getting the wrong ones when you are CLEARLY pressing the right one is annoying as hell.

The only downside that I've seen switching from resistive to capacitive is that you don't have the accuracy of a stylus. The screens are definitely capable of the accuracy, which is present when touching a tiny tiny link on a fully zoomed out webpage, as long as it isn't surrounded by other links. Pinpointing text is not very fun either. These are all things that could be fixed up when you combine the capacitive screen with an additional form of input; arrow keys, joystick toggle, trackball, etc.

But that's just my two cents. I heart capacitive, but it doesn't mean you can't heart resistive. I have to say, Solitaire on a resistive screen in WinMo is wayyyy more fun and accurate than any app store Solitaire.

[Scott @ Dec 27th 2008 11:38AM]

Levi, have you tried Solitaire City? (free and $ versions.) I find it hard to believe there's a better solitaire app for *any* mobile device!

Capacitive touch screens FTW. There's no way I'd go back to a resistive again, ever.

[Brian @ Dec 26th 2008 7:26PM]

Make it an iPh-

uh, I mean...

Lower the price!
/obvious sarcasm

[E @ Dec 27th 2008 1:17PM]

Agreed. Lower the price.

Perhaps WiMo 7 when it comes out.

[ryan-c @ Dec 26th 2008 7:27PM]

Mobile OS X?

[CleverEndeavor @ Dec 26th 2008 7:51PM]

why mobile osX why not android or fuure WinMo (7)?
making it with osX would turn it into an iphone 4G...
i think we all can agree that we do not want that.

[Thats What He Said @ Dec 26th 2008 7:58PM]

No, it would make it into a 3rd Generation iPhone, the 3G right now is referring to the fact that it runs on a 3G network. Unless they put WiMAX or LTE into an OS X Mobile version of this.

[Mehul @ Dec 26th 2008 11:31PM]

I dont know why you were low ranked, ryan-c. I think Mobile OSX is a very good OS. Sure it may not be as 'open' as Android but its responsive, intuitive and with the inclusion on the app store, has a great potential. It just needs some basic things which everyone has been asking for like MMS, Copy and Paste, Flash support, voice dialing, voice guided navigation software and a better app acceptance system.

Despite these shortcomings, I feel like its arguably the most user-friendly OS I've ever used and I think it would do great on a design like X1. As far as the X1 hardware goes, I think it needs the following things:

Slimmer design,
Capacitive Touch Screen
I know its not carried by a carrier but its ridiculously expensive, so either reduce the price or have a US carrier
For its price now, it should get atleast a 5MP camera

[Nicholas @ Dec 27th 2008 1:39PM]

As an iPhone user, I would still like to see Android develop rapidly. Competition is good! And, at least everything will interoperate. UIQ wasn't horrible on the old SE Ps, but SE always under powers these devices. WinMo always looks great in the next revision. It's been like this forever, and is lesson MS learned back in the Win 1.0 days. Just wait till the next revision! Somebody always waits.

I'm looking forward to the Android, OS X, Blackberry future, and hopefully Blackberry (for BB) will get their development perspective sorted. Oh yes, there's Palm too! Cough.

[JohnTitor @ Dec 26th 2008 7:28PM]

make it available while there was still hype

too late for that though

[AshR @ Dec 27th 2008 1:25AM]

yeha man, making it available in australia would be awesome

[Christian Walters @ Dec 26th 2008 7:28PM]

1-Lower the price
2-Get the bootloader HardSPL'd so we can flash it
3-Get a GOOD WinMo 6.1 ROM that isn't full of bloatware
4-There is no four
5-?????
6-PROFIT!

[Metkis @ Dec 26th 2008 8:41PM]

These jokes are just getting incredibly dull.

[Christian Walters @ Dec 26th 2008 8:43PM]

'cept im not joking. I mean all of what I said.

[Homeboy @ Dec 26th 2008 7:29PM]

Fewer panels, less eye candy for more speed and higher reliability.

[Zephyr @ Dec 26th 2008 7:30PM]

Android.

[Quikboy @ Dec 27th 2008 4:13PM]

Robots.

[Arkenklo @ Dec 27th 2008 6:28PM]

Terminator 3

[loocas @ Dec 27th 2008 7:06PM]

Wall-E

[Saad Rabia @ Dec 26th 2008 7:31PM]

1. Make it cheaper.
2. Add built-in memory (at least 8GB)
3. Better camera.
4. Don't announce it 1 year early.
5. Stop using physical frames around screens, keep it all leveled up like the Omnia or the iPhone.

[TomMaroney @ Dec 27th 2008 8:01PM]

Adding inbuilt memory is only a good idea if it a) doesn't seriously affect the price and b) if they also allow for an expansion slot.

[Saad Rabia @ Dec 28th 2008 3:59AM]

Exactly TomMaroney, just like the Samsung Omnia did; amazing price, built-in memory (8 and 16 GB), and an expansion Mini SD slot (Up to 16 GB).

[savocado @ Dec 26th 2008 7:32PM]

1. WinMo - GTFO
2. Android
3. a bit larger keyboard
4. lower price
5. ???
6. PROFIT!

[sexynaty973 @ Dec 26th 2008 7:34PM]

Release it at a time when it would seem most popular.

[Adam @ Dec 26th 2008 7:35PM]

CDMA version.

[Mitch @ Dec 26th 2008 8:07PM]

Or you could just switch to gsm...

[neodorian @ Dec 26th 2008 11:00PM]

@Mitch: Some of us like our faster and cheaper networks despite the fact that they aren't the international standard. It's a trade-off.

[Ari @ Dec 27th 2008 1:44AM]

It's a tradeoff. Therefore, by going with the alternative, you know that there's lots of hot GSM sexiness that you're going to be missing out on.

Remember, before the iPhone, all the sexy phones were from Europe and Japan.

[Samo @ Dec 26th 2008 7:36PM]

1. Make the damn thing lighter
2. Make it thinner; OK, it has a QWERTY keyboard, but still... a few mm makes a big perceivable difference
3. More touch friendly capacitive screen (a la G1) wouldn't hurt, although the arguement againest is that it's bad for stylii? WM6 does need a stylus, so....
4. Auto-rotating the screen layout when err, rotated; It's a feature of the SE K800i, so why not the top of the line SE smartphone?
5. Not too sure if it was just the demo unit (fully working in-store at the CPW (uk mobile store), but build quality felt bad, plasticy, but I guess a better one usually flies in the face of point 1?

Other than that, the SE S/W for ONCE doesn't suck... The X-Panel thingy-ma-bob worked well when I used it, and I can't got back to a non-QWERTY keyboard (I mean an actual real tactile one) smartphone..... I think [Touch HD looks sexy too :S]

[Nippero @ Dec 27th 2008 10:45AM]

Errrr

*flips K800i around....* Screen aint moving O_O

:P

[zcubed @ Dec 29th 2008 11:38AM]

he means an accelerometer so when u turn the phone on its side the screen auto-rotates. it is featured on the k850i at least. dunno about the k800i.

[Tim @ Dec 26th 2008 7:39PM]

Typing on an X1i now. Keyboard is good, but I miss cursor keys (the phone cursor requires moving to the upper part of the phone) and a few symbols that I have to use softkeys to get to, like dollar sign and underscore. Opera is an improvement over IE, but it could be faster (goes non-responsive at times), and it fails rendering some pages. Size is good, battery is good, call quality is good.

[Andy @ Dec 26th 2008 7:40PM]

I just wish it had a better Camera..5.0MP or better

[Dave Chappelle @ Dec 26th 2008 8:39PM]

Just because there is more megapixel does not mean the camera is that much better. You have not seen the actual quality of 3.2mp because all the other phones have crapshooter (sorry the dictionary thought 'craptastic' was not good enough) 480x272 screens which actually make the picture look worse than it really is. Get a N73/K850i (3.2mp) and take a photo, upload it to your computer and check it out. Also lighting is important does the camera have a reasonable flash?... there are many other factors i am sure.

[zcubed @ Dec 29th 2008 11:33AM]

the K850i has a 5mp camera. i have it and its nice but stability is a huge issue with the pics even when the auto-stabilizer is on. good pictures in daylight, not so great in the night.

[Eric R @ Dec 26th 2008 7:46PM]

ANDROID! Cupcake, plz.

[Jack @ Dec 26th 2008 11:28PM]

I can haz cupcake?

[Wolfticket @ Dec 26th 2008 7:48PM]

I wouldn't, because I'm crap at soldering and I'd probably make a complete hash of it.

[wako @ Dec 26th 2008 7:49PM]

cheaper


if it was at a reasonable price, i would buy one. 800 bucks? Hell no

[harry4657 @ Dec 26th 2008 7:50PM]

I will make it disappear

[FoGo @ Dec 26th 2008 7:51PM]

it is perfect!!!

i would add full flash support
a 5Mpixel camera
Accelerometer just for fun
and 8GB of available memory (or more)

but it is still perfect the way it is

[Gad Get @ Dec 27th 2008 7:19AM]

You realize that doesn't make sense, right?

"It's perfect! BTW, here's how I'd improve it..."