Sony Xperia X1 - Windows Mobile-Based Cell Phone

The cell phone supports most of the standarddid not. Lags were aplenty and even a simple task
networks such as GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800,like pressing ok and exit took a while which was
GSM1900, HSDPA 850/1900/2100. Its size is 110.5not exactly a good sign. I ended up rebooting the
by 52.5 by 17 mm. The weight is only 145 gramscell phone quite often in order to get it to work
and the screen is TFT 65K with 800 by 480more efficiently. Of course after rebooting, it
pixels, about 3 inch. The cell phone does supportswould behave for awhile then the whole process
GPRS, WAP, and EDGE. It does not have infraredrepeats itself.
feature but the cell phone got Bluetooth 2.0. TheThere is a silver lining of course. At times when
cell phone has an internal memory of 400 MB.the cell phone did not slow down, I did find that
By golly, could this really be it? Excuse theoverall process of using the cell phone pretty ok
theatrics but it has been a very long time sinceand you do get the full Windows Mobile
the Sony Xperia X1’s unveiling in Barcelonaexperience that you would expect from a cell
during Mobile World Congress 2008. Consideringphone like Xperia X1. I don’t know if the lag
that this is Sony Ericsson’s first attempt at aissues are due to the unit we have being a
Windows Mobile smartphone, should I cut themprototype or maybe even a firmware issue.
some slack? I consider the phone as a betterWindows Mobile 6.1 comes with push email, MS
phone than any other cell phones out thereOffice, Google Maps, Windows Live, Adobe
offered in some prepaid cell phone plans.Reader LE and so on. Email and contacts sync is
What caught my attention was its gorgeous body.pretty efficient here considering the cell phones
Despite being thicker than most normal cell hones,native compatibility with Microsoft Windows. One
the X1 has a somewhat average bulk whenof the more interesting applications is the Opera
compared to other Windows Mobile cell phones.Mobile 9.5 which is way better equipped for
At 145 grams it felt pretty solid in my hand andbrowsing. As expected, Opera is not the default
not that brick-like and the closest cell phone inbrowser and any links you access from emails
build and size to it would be the HTC Touch Pro.and other programs will only launch Pocket
The Sony Xperia has a similar optical mouseInternet Explorer.
found on the Omnia but I found it to be veryThe only downside for a Windows Mobile 6.1
erratic and moody. It worked well when used todevice is that there is not much third party
scroll web pages but was pretty mediocre inapplication to choose from. In fact some third
general as I found that it tends to overshoot itsparty applications only work with a specific device.
target.To ease your suffering somewhat, there is an
What drew me to the Sony Xperia X1 howeveronline store of sorts preinstalled by Handango.
was its screen. The screen looked great with itsKnown as Handango InHand, it allows you to
WVGA resolution and the navigation pad on thepurchase software from them and its shortcut is
front is rather tactile. However the chrome-likeembedded into the default home page in Opera
QWERTY keyboard feels flat despite havingand Pocket Internet Explorer.
some slight accents to it. For starters the topI have neve found GPS on a cell phone particularly
row of the keyboard was simply too close to theawe-inspiring but the Sony Xperia X1 cell phone
edge and the curved design which we initiallysurprised me with a fast loading Google Maps. In
thought would help, it did not. However I did loveterms of locking on to satellite signals, X1 is just
its backlit keys, I mean after all who does not likelike any other cell phone. My test in the outdoor
backlit keyboards?gave faster locks when compared to indoors and
The Sony Xperia X1 panels or rather X panel isin areas with high building, results were a bit more
Sony Ericsson’s touch interface application forvaried.
the X1, much like the Touch Flo interface is forLocated at the back of the cell phone is the 3.2
the HTC cell phones. My review unit had sixmega pixel camera and I found it odd that Sony
panels which were supposed to replace the boringEricsson did not decide to give the X1 cell phone a
WinMo Home screen. I personally found most of itfive mega pixel CCD instead. At least it would
uninteresting except the fish pond and Googlehave put it in a better position against the
panels. The fish panel is just a simple clock withonslaughts from Nokia and Samsung.
three fishes that will swim to wherever yourThat aside, the Sony Ericsson X1 cell phone
finger is on the screen and the Google panel issuffers from a similar fate like the rest of the
basically a shortcut application for web searches.Windows Mobile camera cell phones. The camera
The rest of the panels however were moreinterface is sluggish in every way. Microsoft really
multimedia related.has to do something about Windows Mobile’s
Maybe it is a little too early to really give a fullresource management as no matter how good a
opinion on Sony Ericsson’s X1 panelCCD you put into a cell phone, the limitations in
implementation as the SDK has only beenpicture taking speed will eventually take its toll.
released. After all at print time only a FacebookAs for image quality, I did not really have high
and Windows Live panel had been released andhopes but surprisingly, the results blew me away.
downloadable from the manufacturer’sImages captured looked great on the cell phone
website.and even on the computer. The sharpness and
On paper the 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7200the richness of colors are great even for a
processor and 256MB of RAM looked like it wouldcamera cell phone. This more or less allowed me
have been able to handle WInMo’s notoriousto overlook some of the minor issues like white
resource issues. Well unfortunately for our unit itbalance.