Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10


The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 might just be the most anticipated Android-based phone since the arrival of the Motorola Droid.

The X10 promises to be the most powerful Android smartphone on the market thanks to a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 8 GB of included storage, an 8.1 megapixel camera, and Sony's proprietary Nexus UX platform, which sits on top of Google's operating system.

I spent some hands-on time with this device at a recent Sony Ericsson event in New York, and this phone is indeed very impressive.

Build & Design

Many of Brighthand's readers have been concerned about the size of the X10, but it honestly isn't a huge handheld, despite the large WVGA touchscreen. This smartphone is roughly the same size as the original iPhone, and easily fits in the palm of your hand.

To illustrate this, I took a photo of the X10 next to a BlackBerry Curve 8330 and an iPod touch 2G with PowerMat case.

* Comparison Image


PERFORMANCE

As nice as the X10 looks, it's really the software that makes this phone special.

The Nexus UX (user experience) platform is the name Sony Ericsson is giving to the software platform that sits on top of the Android operating system on the X10. Nexus adds "signature applications", a newer and richer GUI, and lastly improved service integration so your Twitter account, e-mail accounts, media player and more all work together seamlessly.

Instead of reading a friend's tweet and then closing the twitter application and opening email to send them a message, the Nexus UX platform lets you easily jump from a friend's Twitter or Facebook account and email them in a matter of seconds. Sony Ericsson essentially summarizes Nexus as organizing your ultra-connected world and making it easier to discover more.

Signature Apps
The first "signature app" for the Nexus UX platform is Timescape, which helps you organize photos, email, SMS, Twitter and Facebook.

Mediascape, the second signature app, does the same type of content aggregation that Timescape does, only this time it happens with your media such as photos, videos, and music.

The Xperia X10 also offers face recognition software built into the Nexus UX platform so that if you take a photo of someone and "tag" their face with their name, the device will automatically recognize that person and organize the photos with your contacts. This means that if you press the person's face again the X10 will automatically bring up that person's contact info, Twitter, Facebook, and any other photos of that person.

Questions Remain: Price and Battery Life
These new features are all well and good, but we still had some fundamental questions about the X10. The biggest questions, of course, weren't answered by Sony Ericsson representatives. We all want to know how much the X10 will cost here in the US, but the official statement from Sony Ericsson is that there is no announcement regarding price since it will also involve carriers. On that note, will the X10 even be sold by US carriers? The answer: "We have no announcements yet because arrangements with carriers haven't been finalized."

Sony Ericsson has just announced the price of the X10 in the UK at approximately $879, but it's too early to say whether this pricing reflects the actual "street price" of the X10 from U.S. carriers.

Luckily, the Sony Ericsson team was willing to answer our questions about battery life ... even if they weren't too specific. The Sony Ericsson reps promised the Xperia X10 will offer "all-day battery life" similar to competing premium smartphones.

PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION

Bottom line, the Xperia X10 might just make good on its promise to bring "Everyone, Everywhere, Right where you want them." This powerful handheld combines solid hardware and great features with Android and a robust UX platform that aggregates all the content that matters to you.

The Droid has some tough competition on the horizon.

Source: http://www.brighthand.com/