We've seen the new Android-based
XPERIA X10 from Sony Ericsson at a
fast pace and a
snail's pace, but have we ever seen it so stunningly middle of the road? We just got a chance to play with the phone in person for the second time, and from our random sampling of three or four different handsets, it seems that performance is very contingent upon how much content is loaded into the device and what particular thing it's trying to perform. Sometimes we'd fly through the stacks of faces, while other times we'd sit there waiting for the simplest thumbnails to load up. The good news is that we have until next year to see this thing really come together, and the word is that the software is improving and at a rapid pace. The big change about this phone is the "Nexus" UX platform, which actually all takes place in two "apps" at the moment, Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is an integrated view for social networking and messaging, with an "infinite view" to see all types of communications for a particular person, while Mediascape is a more tame media app with a modicum of internet and social integration. It all seems very logically placed, and we like the fact that SE hasn't really sacrificed the Android experience -- you can still do Gmail and the Android Market and so forth, with very familiar UIs -- but it's going to have to be a lot more bulletproof before it hits the market if Sony Ericsson really expects us to use this day to day. Oh, also: the soft keyboard is terrible. We hear they're working on it, but boy does it need work.
Update: We've added the video below, go check it out!
posted November 18th 2009 3:03PM
Ok so now we need 850/1900MHz 3G ASAP
SE always too late :(
I'm not suprised that they are losing 2,000 members of staff if they think that UI can pass on a flagship product.
Stay relevant or die. Harsh I know, but just sayin'.
What did you expect? It's a SE phone. It be a total turd for at least six months while ripening in customers' hands, and the day it becomes halfway decent is the one they also release the next model.
it's the phone i wanted like a year ago...
now i can't really justify getting anything that doesn't have at least a few gigs of internal app space. limitations suck
Now that i think about it, it looks like something The Astonishing Tribe would have done. They also have a prototype UI called Nexus. Anyhow, Sony Ericsson can´t pull this of, it doesn´t look good and its not gonna be much better than that. Which is somewhat embarrasing since they´re one of those who´s been at it the longest (i.e cellphones).
1. Could have selected just the good pictures
2. They aren't full res, massively scaled down pictures always look sharper.
3. Droid had an autofocusing problem that is being addressed, judged the Droid camera then.
its got a nice camera.
heres a thought.... the reason the UI looked sluggish in the video is because the reviewer in all his infinite wisdom decided to do one handed recording. the idiot was all thumbs. he was going all over the place with his one hand and obviously had no clue what and where he was going. half the shit he said made no sense and had nothing to do with what his hand was doing.
Flowah: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2009/11/17/malmo-to-new-york/
What's your excuse now?
As for Engadget, they sure don't seem to understand (Or WANT to understand) what "Test build" stands for. Every X10 out there currently is running debug code in the background, which slows down the phone depending on how much data it's crunching.
You'd kill for a chance to see a pre-production product from Apple or RIM; won't you, Miller? SE here invites you to something, shows you a glimpse of what the future beholds and you go into the smarmy knowitall mode. Heh.
Let me explain this to you in very simple terms: It stutters because it's not meant to be ready yet. I know that you've said the same in the article, but the message would have come across a lot nicer without the smarminess.
ok, meaningless review. preproduction software means that phone there is unusable and no preview, well, not much, of the final product
Does SonyEricson have a history with Verizon? I hope they do.
i want this phone really bad. this is looking like it will be my first android device. looks very promising. sonyericsson has stepped up big time like how motorola did with the droid and cliq.
I just switched to the Droid last week from primarily a WinMo / iPhone / Blackberry background and I couldn't be happier. I'm very happy with Android and whats so cool about it, it gets better all the time as more developers come aboard.
Thats foching hot!
Can't wait for this. SE, release it unlocked in the US please, ON TIME. I'm kinda afraid that US will get this like 10 years after Asia and Europe (or at the same time Duke Nukem Forever is released).
Looks like it has potential - still worried by the spped and complexity of this but nice to see them trying something different - only time will tell i guess...
can you turn off the sony ericsson UI and use stock android home screen? or is it fully integrated into the OS?
Who cares about SE's rom on there? Proprietary builds for certain phones suck anyway. If I get this phone, I'm just wiping it and putting CM on there anyway.
I think this phone is one of the sexiest Android devices out now. I would however flash 2.0 the second I got it. My 2 cents.