Ever since Sony and Ericsson came together we have been waiting, waiting for something beautiful, something that truly represents the geeky, technological combo that is Sony Ericsson. The instantly recognisable Cybershot and Walkman range proved a big hit, but we still couldn’t help that feel those triumph’s were a little premature. Deep down we knew that the Japanese- Swedish blend were capable of producing a lot more. Enter the illicit love child that is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
This technical fusion has been donned the hottest-looking Android phone yet, better still it has the brains to match. Snatching the title away from the likes of the Satio or Vivaz, the Sony Ericsson X10 has a hard run ahead, not only does it need to prove itself in the smartphone stakes but it’s also Sony Ericsson’s debut Android handset, a Snapdragon first (the thing that determines how speedy its insides are) as well as being the first to feature the company’s signature user interface, Rachael. So we know it’ll get by based on intellect but how about that exterior everyone’s raving about?
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 isn’t a small smartphone by any stretch of the imagination, but what do you expect from a handset boasting an impressive 4” display? The majority of the front panel is taken up by the screen putting this handset somewhere between the monster that is the HTC HD2 and the current smartphone leader, the Apple iPhone. The X10 is only the second Sony Ericsson to be released with the new human curvature design, and if you don’t know what that is by now, shame on you. It’s the new curved design that Sony Ericsson are incorporating onto the new 2010 handsets, where the outer casing is moulded to fit the shape of a human hand making it more comfortable to use. The rounded edges also give the impression of a far sleeker and slender handset than the hardware would have you believe.
Now over to the good stuff, the Sony Ericsson X10 runs Android 1.6 a very user-friendly operating system. I would bet that 15minutes is all you’d need to get up to speed with how it all works, and that’s being generous. For those in the know, you’ll realise that this ‘donut’ version of Android (the company like to name their operating system updates with dessert codenames) isn’t the latest edition, however with this in mind, Sony Ericsson will be offering an update. The user interface (things like the menus and homescreen) is yet another first, the Rachael skin is a real contender for best UI, pit it against well established interfaces such as HTC Sense or Windows Phone and we think it would still come out fighting. The first major feature is Timescape, which gathers all your communication tools into one animated stack. Simply click on the Timescape widget and your homescreen turns into a cumulative view of all contact you’ve recently had with friends including SMS, MMS, Email, Missed Calls as well as Social Network updates. Using something called Infinite you can pull up a load of info about any of your mates, like what they’re doing via Facebook or Twitter, when you last spoke to them using the communication history or even check out their latest photos. The Infinite mode also works in Mediascape, another cool feature that works in the same way as Timescape but, as you can probably guess from the name it sorts out all your media in a similar way. Use the infinite button within the media player and it’ll give you the low-down on whatever media you were viewing at the time, for example say you were listening to your favourite artist, at the press of a button you can find out background info on the person or band in question, their latest tracks with the opportunity to download them as well as Youtube videos and other media content.
But that’s not all the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has to offer, the company is renowned for producing fantastic cameras and this is no exception. Sporting an 8mp camera, complete with autofocus, LED Flash and a load of other features dedicated to making images picture perfect, the X10 is right up there with the best camera phones. As more 12mp cameras get released the X10 will have a hard fight on its hands, in preparation for this Sony Ericsson has developed some rather cool software to make sure this little bundle of joy stays top of your list. Tag a contact in any of your photos and face recognition technology will search through the rest of your photos and tag said individual for you, as if that wasn’t enough it will then seek out that person and sync all those photos with their contact details, pretty impressive stuff.
Getting back to the technical side of things the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 packs a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor, basically making transitions between pages and menus extremely speedy. Throw in 1GB of internal memory and you’ve got plenty of space to download apps or music and for the more adventurous there’s an extra port for microSD which can hold an additional 16GB. Messaging options are just as comprehensive as the next smartphone, including push email, instant messages and all the other communicative tools. Finally, there’s integrates GPS, digital compass, Google Maps and Gmail.
All we can say is, let the smartphone games begin!
