A Good Call?

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10

A really good first Android phone with some ambitious features.  Unfortunately, some of these need a little more work to make them really fabulous.

What We Like

There’s no doubt about it, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is an attractive phone; at 13 mm it’s not the thinnest phone out there but it curves softly and has a slightly rubbery feel to stop it from slipping. It has an impressive four inch screen and an even more remarkable 8.1 mega-pixel camera.

We found photos were sharp, and were superior to other smart phones we’ve tried, and there are a lot of options to tweak them. The LED photo light is disappointing though; it doesn’t come on automatically and having to turn it on manually every time we wanted to take a photo, or video was totally unfeasible. 

Instead of the usual four buttons, there are only three on the front of this phone, and no trackpad either.  Even with the camera button, this just adds to its sleek lines.

Connectivity is great, too.  The X10 offers Wi-Fi, HSPA and GPS for rapid Web browsing over 3G. There is also Stereo Bluetooth, and if you prefer your own headphones, there is a standard 3.5 mm jack. We were impressed by the 1GB of on-board memory, which is always handy to store all the apps available for an Android phone.  If it isn’t enough for you, it comes with an 8GB micro SD card, with support for up to a 32GB card.

The X10 hosts a feature called Mediascape, which is very useful.  It shows photos, video and music on your phone as well as displaying your online photo albums from places like Facebook. 

Call quality is good, as is the battery life. We managed to get a whole day from a full charge, which is good for a smart phone.

What We Don't Like

Another of the X10’s features is Timescape, which brings together everything from email, texts and tweets to recent songs and photos into a timeline that you flick through using your finger.  It’s a great idea but is frustrating to use; you have to tap each message to see more than the first few words, and then tap again to open another application to reply, or to follow a link. This constant backwards and forwards does not make for easy, or pleasant, interaction.

Unfortunately, the X10 runs version 1.6 of Android, which is really behind the times.  You can still download apps and use Google Maps amongst other things, but there are things you won’t be able to access. 

The speed of the X10 didn’t fill us with joy, either. It certainly isn’t the worst we’ve ever come across, but the 1GHz Snapdragon processor has a lot to deal with, like Timescape, so it is sometimes a bit on the slow side.

Likewise, the on-screen keyboard; it’s better than average but if you’re fast at typing you’ll probably find it not quite as responsive as you’d like it to be.

Conclusion

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is a fine example of an Android phone; the screen is a good size, and the camera is excellent. If you’re new to the world of Android, you’ll probably love it but if you’re used to multi-touch or better integrated custom apps, you’ll think there’s something missing.