The Sony Ericsson Xperia has the largest screen of any Android phone we’ve reviewed – ever. Does it turn this phone into a movie-watching, web-browsing phenomenon though? Read our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review to find out.
Read the rest of our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: user interface
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: design and build
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: screen and media
With a display that big, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 never had a hope of being tiny – but it is quite slim and very sleek. We found that it was happy to snuggle away in our pockets without making its presence felt more than with any other sizeable smartphone.
The Xperia X10’s screen doesn’t used AMOLED technology like the HTC Desire, but it is a smidge bigger and offers great brightness and contrast once you juice its brightness up a notch within the Settings menu. Grab a few compatible H.264 videos and you’ll be in portable cinema heaven.
It can’t quite compete with the best Androids on the operating system front though. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 uses a customised version of Android 1.6, and although Sony Ericsson says it’ll get an update, we’re not exactly sure when. Android 2.1 lets you sign into multiple email accounts using the one inbox, has more home screens and an improved phone book – amongst a host of other bonuses. It’s a pity the X10 is living in the past.
Thanks to the X10’s custom interface it doesn’t show its creaky bits on the outside. It revolves around the Timescape and Mediascape screens, which offer very pretty ways to get access to your social networking updates and media files.
They act much like separate apps, taking you away from the home screen to show you their wares. Animated and very slick, they’re great for showing off to your mates, but after a few days we left pining after the pleasures of the HTC Desire’s simpler HTC Sense widgets. Still, Mediascape does rock and has few comparable built-in rivals in Android phones.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10’s media skills carry on with its camera. With an eye-watering 8.1 megapixels on show – more than any other Android seen in the UK so far – you can produce some fab photos. It needs about 20cm distance to focus on an object unless you enable the advanced macro mode, but the levels of detail you can achieve with a steady hand are very impressive. There’s a dedicated camera button, but you can use touch focus if you’d prefer, which lets you tap anything not the touchscreen to focus-in on it.
In general operation though, the Xperia X10 doesn’t feel quite as slick as we’d hope considering there’s a 1GHz Snapdragon purring away within it. It has a few benefits over the HTC Desire, like the super-powered snapper and slightly larger screen, but our heart still belongs to HTC.
Read the rest of our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: user interface
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: design and build
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: screen and media
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10: Robot and Android phone snuggle up
