The new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is a very powerful and attractively looking PocketPC running Windows mobile.
Introduction:
HTC released its flagship HTC Touch Pro more or less two months ago and the competition has already reacted releasing Xperia X1 – a PocketPC with bigger screen, versatile OS, good multimedia management, and what is very important in this class of mobile devices – solid and sophisticated looks. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has surprisingly good sound quality for a Windows Mobile phone, and good web browsing experience.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus HSDPA 7.2Mbps
+ 3-inch 65K-color WVGA touchscreen
+ 528 Mhz CPU and 256 MB DDR SDRAM
+ Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS
+ X-Panels interface
+ Very good battery life
+ microSD memory expansion (microSC card in the box in some areas)
+ FM radio with RDS
+ 3.15 MP auto focus camera with VGA video recording
+ Optical trackpad
+ 3.5mm standard audio jack
+ MS Office Mobile document viewer and editor
+ Good build quality
+ Opera 9.5 web browser
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 cons:
- User interface is more stylus-optimized than thumb-optimized
- Body is a bit on the bulky side, but at least it is not too heavy
- No TV-out port
- No built-in accelerometer
- Poor display sunlight legibility
- Low quality video recording: VGA@30fps in 3GP format
- Weak camera performance
The design:
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 measures 110.5 x 52.6 x 17 mm and weighs 145 grams. The phone is available in two different color schemes and both of them look great. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is made of high quality materials and it shows. Thanks to the metallic finish it is not a fingerprint magnet, although the touchscreen will, of course, get a few of them with time. The front of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is dominated wit the 3-inch high resolution touchscreen above which you will find earpiece and ambient light sensor. Below the screen is are a few hard buttons: two call keys, D-pad and the X-PANEL with a OK knob. When you slid the phone open you will the the QWERTY keypad with large and friendly looking space and enter keys. All the keys in Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 are comfortable and responsive, yet people with bigger fingers may find that the uppermost row of keys on the QWERTY keyboard is a bit too close to the rest of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 body thus making it a bit harder to use. On the back of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 you wil find the 3.2 megapixel camera lens and the LED flash. The left side of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 houses miniUSB port used for connecting the mobile with a computer and for charging. The right side features the volume rocked and the dedicated camera key.
Performance:
There are no problems with reception an in-call sound quality. But the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is about much more than merely making phone calls. The 3-inch touchscreen with 800 x 480 resolution is excellent for watching videos, browsing photos, or the Internet and even editing documents. The screen has really good quality and there are no problems using the phone in the dark as it is brightly and evenly lit, yet in the direct sunlight you may experience some difficulties. That is quite usual in mobiles running Windows Mobile and the fingerprints on the screen only make the issue more noticeable. When compared to the competition I must say that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1’s screen makes better overal impression than Samsung Omnia, but still worse than Apple iPhone.
What may slightly disappoint in Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is the 3.2 megapixel camera. The camera can take photos in up to 2048×1536 pixels, but the amount of detail tends to be too low, whereas the noise level a bit too high. The images are usable, but rather not for large prints. The video recoding is also a disappointment as the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 records in 3gp format.
The music and video players on the other hand are really good. Windows Mobile devices were known for poor audio performance but in Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 it all works really well. In fact, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is one of the best music players on the market at the moment. The cell can also play videos but for DIVX support you will have to go to third party companies.
Menus / ease of use:
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has 7 preloaded panels which make is very easy to find all the functions of the phone. You can customize the panel function and looks quite easily, so that you have quick access to the stuff you need the most. In one quite funny panel you will see a flock of fish, where each of them indicated a different message. One will tell you that you’re running out of juice, other will change color when you turn the sound off and so on and do on. Of course, the phone has all kinds of time-savers like calendar, timer, stopper, alarm clock and document viewer and editor. Additionally, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has Google Maps pre-installed, and a Google panel with shortcuts to its search engine and other useful services. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has great connectivity thanks to which you can easily tweak your phone, or if you don’t quite know how to do that you can always find the information of the net. All in all, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is easy and fun to use. Moreover, although its price is a bit higher than HTC’s it has a bigger screen and nicer (to some) design so it is quite competitive.
Selected Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 features and specifications:
- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
- Qualcomm MSM7200A @ 528MHz
- GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850, UMTS900, UMTS1700, UMTS1900, UMTS2100 (X1i/X1a vary)
- HSDPA / HSUPA support
- 512MB ROM
- 256MB RAM
- 3″ WVGA (800×480) screen, 65536 colours
- 3.2 Megapixel Auto Focus camera with LED light
- 0.3 Megapixel forward facing camera
- GPS + A-GPS
- Dpad + Optical Joystick
- Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
- WiFi 802.11b/g
- FM Radio
- 3.5mm headphone hack
- microSD expansion
- miniUSB connector
1500mAh battery
Other recently reviewed mobile phones:
Samsung M8800 Pixon, Samsung M3200 Beat s, Samsung B2700, Samsung i900 Omnia, Samsung U800, Samsung G400 Soul, Sony Ericsson G705.