Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 announced, we go hands-on
By Vlad Savov 
posted November 2nd 2009 11:00PM
posted November 2nd 2009 11:00PM
We have to start off by noting that Sony Ericsson is calling its modified Android version the UX for now -- meaning User eXperience -- although we suspect it will revert to the more familiar Rachael naming scheme as soon as the lawyers have cleared a few hurdles and cashed a few checks. Part of a big "open OS" push by the company, this new interface will make appearances on a number of future handsets, both of the Android and Symbian persuasion, though Windows Mobile support sounded like something SE might consider only if there's much public demand for it (so much for a proper X2 successor, eh?). You'll find the full PR and exhaustive spec sheet in the gallery below.
Android the Sony Ericsson way
There are three central modifications that Sony Ericsson has made to the default Android 1.6 installation, beyond the obvious visual overhaul. Taking the lead is Timescape, a spiritual sibling to the MOTOBLUR, which aggregates all of your communications on the phone, whether they be Tweets by your favorite NASA astronaut, missed and placed calls, received text messages, or Facebook status updates. It's all there, in one big gorgeous integrated pileup. Naturally, all that can be filtered by source or by person, making for a seamless environment for interacting with your friends over the otherwise quite fragmented social networking space. Mediascape does the same for the media on your phone, presenting what you have available locally or online, and making track suggestions on the basis of the song you're listening to or stuff it has discovered your friends like via their communications with you. Finally, there's face recognition, which automates photo tagging by recognizing your friends after the first time you tag them, and also allows you to call someone by simply tapping on their face when viewing a picture.
All this sounds very swish, and as you can glean from the video above, the prepackaged presentation was all strawberries, cream and smooth swiping, but we've already seen equally sharp and impressive videos leak online and what we really wanted to know was how the whole thing ran on a real device. Unfortunately, there was only a solitary X10 on show, and that bad boy had such an early build of the software that it really doesn't merit talking about. Calling the present interface "laggy" would be paying it an unearned compliment. We got the gist of what SE was trying to do here, but there's absolutely no way to evaluate whether the company has succeeded when usability was this low. With its Donut not even half baked, SE faces quite a challenge in trying to deliver its promised release in the first quarter of 2010, but there were a couple of fully cooked items that we can discuss.
Browsing and Google Maps
The two apps that were already optimized, Google Maps and the WebKit-based default Android browser, showed us a happy glimpse of what the X10 is capable of. The 3G connection was lightning fast, and webpages were rendered quickly and accurately, with a satisfyingly smooth scrolling action that reminded us of Motorola's DROID. Similarly, Google Maps was responsive and relatively snappy, and showed off a little of what the Snapdragon under the hood can do.
XPERIA X10 hardware
Another thing that Snapdragon can do, apparently, is eat through your phone's battery. Again, we are dealing with a pre-production model here, but the number of power issues and the near-permanent attachment to the charger of the one device on show did not bode well for this phone's endurance. It sports the same 1,500mAh battery as the X2, so make of that what you will. Input duties are handled by the standard Android on-screen keyboard, and the minimalist trio of hard buttons do their jobs with relatively little fuss. We say jobs because the Options and Back keys change functions according to the context of what you are doing. Further testing would be required to tell if that's a boon or a hindrance. Multitouch capabilities like image rotation and zooming, which we expect to see as standard on touchscreen-dominated devices, are important and inexcusable omissions here.
The handset itself is pretty much what you might expect of a high end device -- it's full of appealing curves and slopes, which do nothing for usability (a physical keyboard might've helped), but give it a clean, uncomplicated, and relatively durable look. In our limited time handling it, we found the X10 comfortable enough, though you could tell you were holding a 4-inch device rather than something more compact like the original X1. Touring the outside reveals a MicroUSB charger / connector port, 8.1 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, and an 8GB MicroSD card will be made part of the standard retail package.
Wrap-up
There's not much we haven't noted already. If Sony Ericsson delivers its halcyonic vision of an ultra-integrated device that intuits your intentions and makes a highly connected life easier, we'll all be up in arms and rejoicing. Alas, the state of play today reveals a handset that has a phobia toward the untethered life and a software platform that is plagued by lag and unresponsiveness. We give kudos to SE for stepping outside of its featurephone comfort zone, and eagerly await the final results of this unquestionably ambitious project.
I really like this phone and one of the reasons that I like it is because it DOESN'T HAVE A PHYSICAL KEYBOARD. I liked the Droid when I saw it but it was an instant dealbreaker when i saw that it had a slideout keyboard. I refuse to buy a phone that has a slideout keyboard or trackball, so looks like I will be waiting for awhile. (Yes I know the droid can still be used with all virtual keyboard, but I'm not at all interested.)
I certainly hope that SE gets this phone perfected really soon! I can't handle my horrible BlackBerry Storm for much longer...
Made a preview of Xperia X10 here, http://www.itsagadget.com/2009/11/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10-is-announced.html
Everything it's good except one thing.It's running Google Android 1.6.A week ago 2.0 came out.Will SE get this update?Because if I buy it I dont like to run the old version.Please reply
Apparently, Android 2.0 doesn't support the screen's aspect ratio.
That's what I heard tho, so don't shoot the messenger - SE said when 2.0 supports it then the X10 will be able to upgrade to Android 2.0
does this phone have a digital compass or g-sensor like the iphone 3gs? This would make it almost perfect
It is slow -NEVER TRUST THE ADS.
Looks very nice. Finally SE is getting the design right in one model instead of bits right across 3 or more phones.
8MP camera, sweet spot for a phone camera.
Touch sensitive over pressure sensitive as in the Satio.
Fast enough processor, hopefully multitasking to some degree and fast accelerometer.
No physical keyboard on phone this size, it's not needed and it keeps the phone pocket-able slim.
3mm Phone jack.... seriously, it took THIS long to realize conformity is not such a bad thing?
I was going to get a Satio but I wasn't impressed with the pressure sensitive screen and scrolling, and the lens cover on the rear. X10 looks to be the Satio + extra's/fixed. Have reservations about battery life thou.
Still I wish/hope that SE would start being innovative and beat the other vendors to the market rather than playing catch up and still charging an arm and a leg.
Cmon SE.
Those of you who say hardware kb's are on the way out... Most likely DO NOT jailbreak, mod, or develop on their phones. If one is going to do the above having a hardware keyboard is almost a necessity.
Also, there is just NO substitute for a hardware keyboard where typing is concerned. So, business users or those who type a lot of email normally prefer the typing precision of a hardware kb.
If all you need to type is "hi" and "be home soon (Ooops, I meant "b home sun")," and other crappy text talk then a software kb is great.
Why would they go back to calling the skin "Rachael" ? SE's custom version of Symbian was called "UIQ", it makes perfect sense to call it "UX"
If you are wanting X10 in U.S. on T-mobile, think again. Look at the difference in the bands between X10 and X10a. The X10a is the phone coming to the U.S. That phone does NOT have the T-mobile 3g band. Now, if you want one that does, bide your time and get a Euro X10, and all will be fine, but expect to pay a premium. Again, T-Mo USA drops the ball......BIGTIME!!!!!!!
The 854x480 4 inch touch screen is a very welcome feature, no keyboard needed or wanted. With open software I'd be tempted to jump all over this package but....it's LTE short of a Mobile M/H ATSC tuner. The addition of those two features would make this phone a thing of beauty.
How do you feel about the Sony 8″ VGN688’s? I know we share a love of Sony laptops, and something just feels super awesome about having a Vaio in my pocket.