By The promised February launch of the Xperia X10 may be put on hold but that hasn’t stopped information from flowing in elsewhere – a bunch of new information has poured in about the device and Sony Ericsson’s Android initiative in general. First off, what I’m sure you’re seeking most, hands on reviews of the device from Engadget and Gizmodo:
Engadget said their experience with the X10 was merely mediocre, noting a horribly half-decent experience with the UI that would sometimes lag terribly and other times be lightning quick, at seemingly random intervals. It has potential but these guys say it gets bogged down and slow rather quickly and it needs a LOT of work – especially the software keyboard:
They’ve also got a video on viddler of the X10 in action.
The guys at Gizmodo had a similar experience of mediocrity but whereas others think software tinkering can fix the problem, this hands on suggests its more of an all-around problem:
The X10 is perfectly fine. It’s just that everything outwardly belies the specialness of what’s going on inside. The all plastic-build feels just slightly better than cheap, the shape is kind of awkward unless you have gorilla hands, the design—it all just feels, well, incredibly ordinary.
Not exactly what you want to hear from people craving Xperia Android goodness, but they DID say the camera is awesome which is pretty exciting. A video of them testing the phone out:
Both of these hands on reviews highlight two features of the Sony Ericsson Android experience – MediaScape and TimeScape. Together, they make up what the company is now calling Nexus – essentially their version of HTC Sense or MOTO BLUR. MediaScape is essentially your all-in-one media center and TimeScape is your integrated contacts manager. It’s nice to know that SE doesn’t FORCE you to use their solutions and Android’s default apps for media and contacts are easily accessible. Not that you would WANT to use Android’s built-in media player but hey, the option is all yours.
Developers will now have a chance to build apps in HTML, CSS and Javascript for this new SE Nexus platform with the invention of the company’s WebSDK and you can test your applications in a simulator called “PhoneGap”. Why that name? It doesn’t ONLY work for Android but you can develop apps that will work on Symbian as well. Yippee.
The question on most people’s minds is “how much will this thing cost?” The answer? A lot. The Wall Street Journal is reporting the phone will cost $879 without a contract. Even if a carrier were to offer a ridiculous $500 subsidy for the phone it would STILL be $379 and EASILY the most expensive Android Phone. Not to mention SE hasn’t exactly had the easiest time coaxing carriers into partnerships. If they’re going to be asking this much for the phone they better darn well fix the problems and make it undeniably awesome – which it clearly isn’t at this moment.
Kudos to Sony for releasing the Xperia, im gravely disapointed with the initial feedback, i’ve spent the best part of 2009 anticipating this phone (i should really get out more) or maybe i should audition for the real life Big Bang Theory, eitherway i’m really upset about the feedback, however i have high hopes that Sony rectify these issues to make this a totally awesome android experience.
cowabunga dudes
Shrey
After tweaks and kinks are worked out. I hope tmobile gets this phone. They need a good phone STAT!!! Cross your fingers g1’ers. Let’s hope we get a David to At&t’s Goalith(iphone or verizon droid).
cant wait, hope they fix it
wayne king
According to Mobil.se here in Sweden, the mother land of SE, the reported price is 6000 SEK;
http://www.mobil.se/ArticlePages/200911/02/20091102224014_MOB_Administratorer343/20091102224014_MOB_Administratorer343.dbp.asp
6000 SEK ~ 584 euro or 867 dollar according to Google;
http://www.google.se/search?q=6000+sek+in+euro
….That said – it really should be even less expensive over seas, due to the really high VAT taxes here in Sweden, which should translate to around $600 instead of your reported $879.
This is SE we’re talking about people…. They have a long history of overpromising and underdelivering. The more I see of this phone the less impressed I am and sure that they are going to mess it up and we’ll never see it sold in mass here in the US. I hope I’m wrong.
they’re “leaking” information 3 months early because they know everyone is going out and buying HTC phones right now. So much for the big surprise.
Time and again hardware manufacturers seem to underestimate the need for good software to match the hardware, or else the device won’t fly. So far only HTC has got it right with their low-end but nevertheless great user experience phone “Hero” (Motorola kinda there, but not so innovative as HTC). Sony Ericsson is about to find it out the hard way ! Recently, there was a GigaOm article about the need for good software:
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/18/smartphone-success-centers-on-software-not-hardware/
It’s really very simple. Good software is vanilla android 2.x… The x10 has been slowly headed towards off-my-list for the last month and a half, and it’s pretty much landed in no-man’s land after this info. Bring on the htc dragon/passion, moto droid tablet, and maybe the acer a1 liquid…
I have no idea why everyone thinks the Acer A1 Liquid is going to be a good phone. None of Acer’s other products are good, why would this be any different? Because it has a snapdragon processor in it? Hahaha.
The HTC Passion will probably be the only phone to deliver after the Droid. The X10 already has so much negativity about it, and the general public probably doesn’t even know Sony makes phones. There isn’t really any other phone announced for the next few months that’s on my radar.
the high price tag would be ok, if they released it this holiday season. Because it would be the only SnapDragon/Android phone on the market. But next year, when probably more SnapDragon/Android phones are released, it will be much less competetive.
@a man
I reserve judgement on every product in every market until there is sufficient evidence to think otherwise. Besides, Acer gets a little better every year. I would call them decent, at this point. Also, note the word ‘maybe’ in my post. You might just be venting at the general hype, but there was a healthy enough dose of skepticism in my post that your rant is pretty much misdirected.
@jason
I wasn’t actually calling your post out for anything. I picked out the A1 from it simply because I’ve seen other people refer to it several times without reason.
@didi
Also, if the HTC Passion arrives in Dec, as rumored, it would take a lot of market share away from the X10. And by a lot, I mean most of it. HTC is a more reputable manufacturer and has a larger fan base in the mobile world (at least in the US). Not to mention it’ll probably be much cheaper. Truth is, the time frame no longer exists where it’s justifiable to release a phone with these specs at this price.
I am disappointed with how SE and HTC for that fact are doing the pre-product launch marketing. What we see are honest reviews that are finding lots of faults. The feedback about the phone is already showing this phone is not going to meet the expectations of the market.
Compare this to Apple’s launch of ipod, ipod touch and iphone. There we saw rave reviews and market expectations were exceeded. The product was already polished and ready to go during pre-launch.
I really wanted to move to Android, but the more I see and more I read about the product line coming out, it is not selling me. The super powered hardware still performs very slowly (regardless of why – SW or HW) compared to that of iphone. I hate to go on about that phone, but it is starting to become apparent to me that for the next 2 years the iphone platform will still be a better experience in terms of: speed, functionality, variety of apps, and lack of bugs and issues
VOTE FOR T-MOBILE
it’s sad to see motorola putting that bulky chunky keyboard into every model. I think they’d kill it with slick think GSM Droid version on T-mobile right now especially with T-mobile unlimited no contract plans. SE would be a nice shiny toy nobody could care less about.
X10 has many shortcomings compared to Droid
1)No Flash,so no camera/video capture at night
2)Android 1.6 vs Droid has Android 2.0
3)No Ambient Light sensor( Display brightness automatically adjusts as per the outside light – dark vs bright )
4)No Voice activated google maps navigation
5)Video capture for X10 is at lower resolution then Droid
6)Biggest of all: No physical keypad
7)Price for X10 is more then four times of Droid
8)Comes with only 8GB transflash vs Droids 16GB transflash card
1) there is a flash
2) will be updated
3) sensor is there
4) yes there is
5) false
6) not everyone wants one
7) again not true
8) so? buy a bigger one.
Good points you made there. :D
I just want them to upgrade to Android 2.0 as opposed to 1.6. I think then it will give the phone a different experience.
i purchased x10 one week back.its amazing wonderfull mobile.all features r superb & easy 2 operate.i love it …