Introduction, package contents

I think this would be the time to write an orotund and majestic introduction, but I somehow can’t do it, although we have seen the evolution of Sony Ericsson’s first Windows Mobile handset from close: early this year we’ve been to Barcelona to the announcement, where such sublime things have been said that for a moment even we have managed to put our skepticism aside. Of course we’re not those types to believe all kinds of marketing bullshit, we’ve been laughing quite a lot about the great, but meaningless sentences they’ve told. So this is how the story of Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 began, at least from our point of view.

The black edition

Of course we should take a closer look in order to completely understand the story. Sony Ericsson and Windows Mobile… why is this so interesting anyway? Well, for example because the Japanese-Swedish manufacturer had an operating system optimized for their own touchscreen, UIQ (based on Symbian), and WM has been one of the greatest rivals of this system. Of course there is no more UIQ and when designing Xperia there has been no Android, so Sony Ericsson didn’t have many choices, but this is still an interesting situation. To top it all, the subject of this review is not even manufactured by Sony Ericsson, but by HTC – yep, the same HTC that didn’t even exist as a separate brand a couple of years ago and now it assembles the top-of-the-line models of renowned manufacturers. I think this fact characterizes the situation of both companies.

The grey variant

X1 came about a week later to our country, although we’ve been highly expecting it, we really did. We’ve been waiting for it so eagerly that we tried to acquire it from any possible source, and so we managed to get two of them within two days, I received an English version from SpeedShop, and my colleague Bog got a German one from XXL GSM. This came out quite well, as on one hand we had a silver and a black edition too, and on the other hand we can both share our experiences and opinions with our readers – I am doing this through this review, while our chief editor inserts some comments in italic, one should be coming up right here. But let’s return to the handset: the box is the usual one from the manufacturer, which is basically okay, but I’ve felt this a bit too modest for such a phone. We also get a charger, a data cable and a high-quality headset whit it – this is not too much.

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I have also been highly interested in X1, as it really looked like a unique piece. A Japanese-Swedish handset that has been assembled by a Taiwanese manufacturer and it has an American operating system running on it… what a case. According to some rumors the launch of Xperia has been delayed by a couple of months because the relations between Sony Ericsson and Microsoft haven’t been the best. It might also happen that this is the last Windows-based handset from the manufacturer, but then we have the great question of what kind of operating system will run on Sony Ericsson smartphones. UIQ is finished, Symbian is definitely under Nokia supervision and they are having problems with Microsoft, so we have Android and maybe Linux left. Anyway, it is a strong fact that since February Sony Ericsson didn’t announce a single smartphone… - Bog

Exterior

It looks great on press photos. Of course the only thing that doesn’t look good on press photos is something that is ugly as hell in real life, but still, the manufacturer did a great job with Xperia, the photographer has been at least a Ken Rockwell. I don’t like it that much IRL, it just didn’t impress me, it’s hard to describe this in words. It’s not ugly, it’s assembled well, the center of the back is made of metal, the slider is great, there are some flashing things on the sides, but then it is nothing special. My friends didn’t like it that much either, although there have been a couple who made me promise a half a year ago that they will be the first ones I’ll call when I get the phone. By the way, X1 is quite large, it weighs 147 grams and its size is 110.5 x 52.6 x 17 mm when closed, so it’s not the phone you’ll wear in a pocket.

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In the center of the front side there is the 480 x 800 pixels large touchscreen with a diagonal of 3”. I can’t say anything negative about picture quality, brightness and colors are okay and it can be read in sunlight as well. On top there is an engraved Sony Ericsson logo, the secondary camera, the light sensor and the strange-looking speaker. On the bottom we can see the main controls, which are made of black plastic. This whole team is surrounded by brushed metal, which gives the handset a nice, high-quality look. The keys are high-quality as well, they click quite loudly when pressed, but they still have a great pressure point. The d-pad also works as an optical mouse, which has been characteristic for Samsung handsets before.

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The back looks rather strange. The top and bottom parts are made of a soft, rubber-like plastic, while the center, detachable part is made of brushed aluminum, which would be no problem – but they have different colors. The last time I’ve seen such a thing has been on Nokia 2630, I just can’t understand who made this up and why, as I just can’t believe that no one has noticed in the factory that the two parts have different colors. Furthermore the detachable part has a lousy fastening, there is no handle or slider, it just goes back to its place, but not dynamically, we have to press it hard. Based on this I have to ask how long it will survive the continuous motion.

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On the top there is the power button and the 3.5 mm jack output and we can also observe the stylus of an average size and quality. On the left there is the miniUSB (no, it’s not HTC ExtUSB) connector, one of the LEDs that flash in all possible colors at once and the small handsfree speaker. On the bottom there is the hook for attaching the neckband (why is this such a must-have feature?), while on the right there is the camera’s exposure key and the volume control keys. The microSD card can be inserted after taking the back off – fortunately the battery doesn’t have to be taken out in order to do this, but since the back doesn’t seem to be properly fastened, I think the slot is placed incorrectly.

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When sliding the phone open we can take a look at the 42-key QWERTY keyboard. This is near perfect: the buttons are places on a metal surface; they have a great pressure point, a proper size and beautiful white backlight, so the machine looks utterly high-tech when opened. The most awesome thing is undoubtedly the sliding mechanism, and the fact that when the phone is opened it is a little arced, so there is a difference of 10 degrees between the display and the keyboard. This is just an approximation, as the keyboard itself is arced, which improves usability. The only strange about this is that there are no software keys on the keyboard, so we have to tap the screen sometimes during use. This is of course no big deal, as although the display is sunk, the rim is very small, the panel and the other parts of the front are almost planar, I think the difference is not more than about half a millimeter.

I find Xperia strangely narrow and tall. This is of course strange when compared to other similar phones, as basically this is the normal layout for a WVGA display and the sliding QWERTY keyboard. The buttons on the front are sometimes hard to reach, and we have to think which is the OK, the call accept or the function key of those in the X shape, as they are only lit when we touch them. The full keyboard, however, is great, the layout is fine, typing is comfortable and the white backlight is powerful enough. I think the optical mouse is unnecessary, as by default there is no mouse cursor on the software, although it might be good for browsing. The metal case provides a feel of quality, but the back cover is just a disaster. - Bog

Hardware, speed, video

The operating system of Xperia is Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which runs on a 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 CPU, 256 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM. There is 163 MB free for storing data and 157 MB for running programs, which is just fine. There is no flash storage, and although the handset costs a fortune, we don’t even get a memory card with it. Of course we can say that those who buy such a phone can also buy a large memory card, but I still miss the built-in storage, and I think I’m not alone with this, but there are also the non-professional users who consider Xperia as a rival to iPhone – a handset specialized in multimedia features.

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The most disappointing about X1 is its speed. The handset is slow, it’s very slow. We have to wait a couple of seconds for the programs to launch, screen switches aren’t fast either, although there should be no problems with the hardware based on the benchmarks. I think there is a lack of optimization, as there are a couple of things that work at great speeds, for example scrolling is fast and smooth. The overall impression is still disappointing, even more if we consider the speed of the Sony Ericsson X-Panel feature, but we’ll talk about this in more detail on the next page. Until then here are the benchmark results. There are no VsBenchmark scores, as the program doesn’t support widescreens.

The results are about the same as of the ones of Touch HD, which might be promising and give us some hope – the handset might just need a couple of ROM updates in order to become as fast as it should be with this hardware. Before talking in more detail about the software, let’s take a look at the wonderful little test video below:

Unfortunately I have to say the same things, Xperia is currently irritatingly slow. And this time this is no unique flaw of a single phone, Bocha had an English phone and I had a German one, and we have experience the same thing. No matter the powerful hardware if the user interface is not optimized, it’s shocking that closing the camera application takes long seconds (as you can see on the video). We have to say that Xperia currently cannot live up to the speed of Touch HD, but not even of Touch Pro, even though we had some minor problems with those as well. And to have some positive aspects tool the scrolling is really good, it has never happened, like on some Samsung models, that the software recognized an OK instead of scrolling. - Bog

The unique user interface

As all Windows Mobile users know, the operating system isn’t very user-friendly by default, at least in terms of usability. Of course the manufacturers know this as well, so all have their own user interfaces, which usually come in the form of Today plugins and other features. The best job has been done by HTC, as TouchFLO 3D doesn’t only look good, but it’s also fast and easy to use. Of course Xperia doesn’t have this, but as a matter of fact it doesn’t have any kind of Today plugin, as the manufacturer had a different strategy: they give us more Today screens. Seven in total, and we can switch between these with the key labeled X-Panel - switching is darn slow.

So we can access the screen above by pressing this button, and then there comes two-three seconds of wait. It has an effect that might even be called cool, but this is not the first thing that pops into our mind since it’s slow. As you can see we can have at most nine screens displayed on a page and there is another view for poker players, as in that case the Today screens are arranged similarly to the cards in our hands. If we don’t choose any of them, the icons start wobbling, at least this looks cool, not like the screen changes, as the manufacturer used an easy to spot trick: after we tap the picture we want, we first get an image which changes to the effective screen after some loading and hourglass-watching. The switch can be seen by the image becoming sharp. I can’t say anything else than this is lame.

The first layout could be called the standard Windows Today; here we can put any number of plugins. The second one has a large clock and a couple of shortcut icons; this will be preferred by those who are always running late. The third one is one of the most dumbass things I’ve ever seen: there is a white screen with three fishes on it, which can teleport, since after switching to this view they are fist standing in one place (preloaded picture, you know…) and then they suddenly change position and start swimming around. All they know is to follow our finger as we start moving it around the screen, well this is indeed awesome, I think this is clearly a nomination for the “Screensaver of the Year” award… oh, or maybe not, this has been already won back in the ‘90s when Windows 3.1 has been the top. The fourth layout might be the favorite of businessmen with a calendar and shortcuts; this is quite easy to use. The layout sitting in the center is reserved for multimedia contents, it has the usual Sony Ericsson menu, this is where we will play back our music and we will also be browsing images over here – of course only after we wait four-five seconds for it to load. The sixth icons if of the radio’s, the seventh is owned by Google, it has search and four shortcuts. We can access the Start menu and the taskbar from all view, at least this is positive.

The only advantage is that we can see HTC’s work at some parts. For example the X key has some features made by them, so one hand it really closes programs and on the Today screen it opens up the list of applications – unfortunately taskbar icons are the default ones, so they won’t get bigger if we tap near them. The Comm Manager is also made by the Taiwanese guys, and I think that the scrolling routine is from them as well. There is no gyroscope in the phone, the screen rotates when we open the phone, but of course this is a bit slow as well.

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I had the German handset for testing, which had a wonderful T-Mobile logo in the background. This also means that instead of the Google panel I had the web’n’walk interface, probably the other network operators will also use a similar method to customize the Xperia menu. I think that these seven skins are surely great, but none of them can fulfill the function that is one of the most important qualities of all current touchscreen handsets: it’s easy to navigate on them without a stylus. It might be strange to say this, but the screen resolution makes things even worse, for example it’s impossible to hit the proper letter of the alphabet on the side of the phonebook without a stylus, but sometimes it’s even hard to scroll the Start menu down, this can be seen on the video on the previous page. User experience has been the slogan, but I think this has been more like marketing gibberish instead of experience. A couple of skins look cool, but they don’t enhance WM’s stylus-optimized interface. Omnia, or a TouchFLO system are much better, complex and easier to use than this.

Software, GPS

Let’s see the default software. On top there is Adobe Reader LE, which is a PDF reader. Coming down we can see Google Maps and then there is Handango InHand, which lets us buy software online – this is probably the local iTunes Store. We also have a Java runtime environment and Opera Mobile 9.5 for browsing the web, which has been seen on the video, but here are a couple of screenshots too.

We also have QuickGPS, which helps finding GPS position faster with data downloaded from the Internet – yeah, X1 has a built-in GPS receiver. We have used an original iGO 8, which has installed fine, but it didn’t either at me or at Bog. This is an unfortunate thing, we hope that it’s only a matter of time, like in the case of Diamond.

I can’t say that Xperia doesn’t have much apps, but there could have been more. We have a limited Today-concept and a good web browser, but that’s about it. What am I missing? For example a speed dialer, a place where we can store our favorite applications and a weather forecast widget would be good as well, just like a stock market thingy – hey, it’s a business-class model. Of course we might also have something unique besides the fishes, something that would make X1 better than its rivals…

Data transfer, phone calls

Services related to calls and messaging are all handled perfectly by Outlook. We can store an unlimited number of entries in the phonebook, there are lots of extra fields, messaging is good too, text messages are displayed in a chat-like view, we can send and receive multimedia messages and the e-mail client has no problems with authenticated IMAP servers or attachments. Scrolling is available in the contact list as well, and we also have all the letters of the English alphabet on-screen, which helps faster searching.

Fortunately there were no problems with sound quality, no one has been complaining about not hearing me either. The phone is OK in terms of data transfer as well, the GSM module is quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), UMTS and HSDPA are both supported and we can fall back to GPRS or EDGE if there’s no coverage. We have WiFi and Bluetooth too, the first being compatible with the 802.11b/g standards, while BT is of version 2.0 and supports stereo sound transfer. I have already mentioned the built-in GPS receiver and there was a short note about the flashing lights on the sides, which warn us of missed events – we can set what kind of events we want to be warned about.

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Multimedia

The camera has a resolution of 3.2 megapixels and it has autofocus. This is not a high-end camera resolution nowadays, but it’s great that the handset can record VGA resolution videos. There aren’t too much settings available, we can choose from five different preset modes (portrait, landscape, night mode, sport photo, document), and we have focusing to touch, which means that the camera focuses on the spot we tap at on the screen. There is image sequencing, a couple of effects; we can disable camera sounds, set white balance and JPEG compression. That’s it.
Test video coming soon, we’re having some small technical difficulties, excuse us for that.

Image quality is not too good, and that’s the least to say. It’s no news about a Sony Ericsson handset that it can’t set white balance correctly by itself, so on most open-air images there is too much blue color. Still, probably no software update will help the image noise and lack of details, edge sharpness is also far from being perfect. I could say that I’ve been disappointed by this as well, but considering the other parts, I didn’t even expect much…

We can access multimedia contents from the X-Panel. The image browser is rather good, it works very fast and it’s easy to use with fingers, although it’s based on a different concept than TouchFLO – for example we can zoom with a slider, but it’s really smooth. We can browser the pictures with our finger, but this part is rather innovative, since all images pop up when moving around, so we can browse really fast.

The music player, however, is a disaster, as we can only access from the X-Panel part, so we can say there is no dedicated program. If we don’t like this we can stick to Media Player. The player can sort tracks by ID3 tags, it can display album covers, it can seek, but it has no equalizer. The headset in the package is the in-ear type we might know from the Walkman series, it’s really, really good, although I think it has a bit too much bass. Sound quality is pretty bad through the handsfree speaker. There is an FM radio, it works.

Battery, summary

The battery is a 1500 mAh one, and it can be changed. It kept the phone online for two days that included lots of phone calls and few multimedia features. This is an average performance for such a handset – if I had been listening to music, I suppose I would had to charge it daily.

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Summary: I don’t know what to say… Xperia has been a huge disappointment for me. I think a reason is that I have been highly anticipating it because it has been over-hyped in the press and I’ve though of Sony Ericsson that they will be able to create something that no one has ever created on the Windows Mobile platform. The sad thing is that they couldn’t. They were surely trying hard, but I think X-Panel is not the feature that will improve Windows Mobile, and mostly not at this “speed”. Some users have theoretically installed TouchFLO, but I think that won’t do much either. The handset has fine hardware, but nothing special, it has a nice design and quality materials were used, but it’s far from being flawless. Furthermore it’s also very expensive, the German edition costs €565 EUR at XXL GSM, while the English version has a price-tag of €790 EUR at Speedhsop. For this amount of money we can get a Touch Pro or Touch HD, while this second one is a much better handset, even if they are not the exact same category. The thing is that I won’t give any award for Xperia, as although it might be worth a cool product title because of the robust hardware, but I didn’t like it. And not because it was a huge disappointment, but because it’s slow, it’s not mature and it’s very expensive. I am expecting X2, but please, have a different policy on that…

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If there will be any X2… Unfortunately Xperia is a slap-dash piece of hardware, even with its sliding mechanism. It has some good ideas, the hardware is rather powerful, the metal used in the case is promising, the display is great, the QWERTY keyboard is pleasant. But these won’t make a Windows Mobile device no world champion, as that has to be used. If it would have been launched a year ago, before Omnia and Diamond, it might have had a chance. But now it’s not enough to give an interface which has no real, easy-to use interface. A couple of skins won’t do, and the current version of Window Mobile needs to be highly customized by the manufacturer. There were expectations, but X1 didn’t manage to live up to them. If we consider that this is the manufacturer’s first phone for this platform than we can say that it’s promising and it will get better by the time, but I think there are three problems. The first is the price, which is just too much. The second is that all devices have to be compared with the rivals, and this is no strong part of Xperia. The third aspect is that no one knows if there will be any next episode in this story, if Sony Ericsson and Microsoft will be able to cooperate and will there be any ROM updates. It’s no question: the manufacturer had a difficult job, and of course they deserve some positive words for trying. But we both feel that this is not enough in the current competition.

Bocha feat. Bog

Translated by Szaszati

One phone has been provided by www.speedshop.hu, thanks. Please, click here in order to access the shop.

The other handset has been provided by XXL GSM. The handset can be purchased at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.

Specifications

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
	Technology	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz
	Operating system	Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
	Size	110.5 x 52.6 x 17 mm
	Weight	145 grams
	CPU	528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200
	ROM / RAM	512 / 256 MB
	Display	3” diagonal, 480 x 800 pixels resolution, 16 bit color depth touchscreen
	Expandability	microSD
	WiFi	802.11b/g
	Infra / Bluetooth	none / 2.0 (A2DP too)
	GPS receiver	present
	Audio	miniUSB output, microphone, mono speaker
	Camera	3.2 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Battery	1500 mAh changeable Li-Ion
	Other	X-Panel, QWERTY keyboard