Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Android Phone: Initial Impressions

Today’s unveiling of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, the manufacturer’s first Android handset, epitomises the product of a company in transition.

A new operating system, a new platform, a new outlook on what consumers truly desired, even a new president extolling the virtues of the handset. We can say that the change is certainly for the better, if this new device is anything to go by….

First and foremost, stat crunchers can rejoice as the X10 is a beast.

With a 4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen, a SnapDragon processor (as seen in the HTC HD2) running at 1GHz, an 8.1 megapixel camera with 16x digital zoom, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm headphone jack and a microUSB port for charging/connectivity (finally replacing that proprietary slot), the X10 easily appeases hardcore mobile phone fans on the specs front.

The look of the device is no slouch either, ergonomically formed on both the front and the matte rear with metallic accenting and a few blinking lights giving that XPERIA bling to the X10.

Any fans of inventive Sony Ericsson colour names? Well, you can add ‘Sensuous’ Black and ‘Luster’ White to the burgeoning list, as those are the two that the X10 will come in.

However, the most exciting aspect of the X10 comes from software rather than hardware features, as this device marks the debut of Sony Ericsson’s new UX (that’s User eXperience, grammar fans!) platform.

Built on top of open source foundations – Google’s Android in the case of the X10 – UX creates a unique Sony Ericsson user experience by combining media features with signature applications and integrating social media, all wrapped in a pretty user interface.

Combined with this UX platform, two applications form the backbone of the X10′s compelling featureset: Timescape and Mediascape.

Timescape is essentially the culmination of recent events (status updates on Facebook, tweets, new pictures posted on Flickr), all searchable and navigable in a single view.

Depicted as a vertical ‘spline’ of tiles, all with images of your gorgeous and genetically superior friends (at least they were in the demo…), the TimeScape can be easily scrolled through with a long press offering up a content preview and seamlessly moving between text conversation history, e-mail and even viewing online photo albums with a sideways swipe.

Another great concept is that of the ‘Infinite’ button, which enables the combination of local and online content, the potential of which was best demonstrated in Mediascape.

The top half of the screen was dominated by music and movies residing on the handset, whilst the bottom half introduced dynamic content from Sony’s online PlayNow Store available for purchase, and YouTube clips.

The Infinite button offers up intelligent suggestions on preferred content, based on what was currently saved to the X10′s 1GB of internal memory (to be beefed up by an 8GB bundled card).

It sounds like targeted selling in theory, but looking at the gorgeous 3D tiled interface of the X10 in action might just convince otherwise…

The animations and interface layout in the advert above were largely present on the lone X10 demo handset at the launch event, which we found most surprising of all.

In the interests of full disclosure, the transitions stuttered, froze and straight messed up on multiple occasions (once enough to bring the phone down altogether), but we’ll give Sony Ericsson the benefit of the doubt that teething issues with the X10′s demo software combined with the power of the SnapDragon processor will sort this out (please!).

It may seem a little over-stylised, but our excitement over the TimeScape and Mediascape demos on the X10 was second only to viewing the iPhone’s multi-touch and accelerometer doing its thing for the first time….the reality of the finished product will hopefully match it.

Built atop Android 1.6 as opposed to the latest 2.0 build due to what sounded like time constraints, the UX interface transforms Google’s software to the point of being almost unrecognisable.

Extensive and brilliantly intuitive customisation changes the face of all but the most integral of features like Google Maps and the Android Market (which the X10 will support).

The notifications tab and that unmistakable Android styling do pop up on occasion, but Sony Ericsson have made great steps in trying to prove UX as a platform in its own right, taking over most of the Android interface. There are no Windows Mobile-style slips of the veil here…

With a Q1 2010 European launch window, the XPERIA X10 cannot come out soon enough…

Not soon enough for us in terms of looking forward to how Timescape seems to work as an alternative to booting up tons of applications to access different features and functions, and for Sony Ericsson as the social networking trend is all the rage right now.

With the Motorola DEXT, Palm Pre and Vodafone’s 360-enabled phones already promising to make your social lives a bit more managable, and yet more around the corner, the X10′s killer app might become a standard feature by the time it is released next year…

We’ve seen Sony Ericsson beaten to the punch before, with both the XPERIA X1 and Satio trumped by having such a protracted time between announcement and release.

Getting the X10 out there and demonstrating this platform for the first time will work wonders for the inevitable influx of future UX-enabled phones to the market.

However, with a combination of that great XPERIA handset design, a revolutionary user interface with the potential to outshine even HTC’s best Android efforts and a new platform-driven strategy, the X10 stands to mark the first step in a brave new direction for Sony Ericsson, one which we are tentatively pleased to be along with for the ride.

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