The camera is of the 3.2-megapixel stripe and is fairly good as far as that goes. The Pics it takes are decent, with reasonably accurate colours. If the definition suffers in respect to those increasingly common five-megapixel affairs, that's only to be expected. Less excusable is the fact ot takes a good three seconds or so for the phone to get into camera mode. Autofocus adds further delay to the shutter time, so the X1 is not great for quick snaps.
All the camera settings are accessed on screen, and while there are a few pre-shot options - including multishot, though not SE's BestPic - there are few features here for post-shot editing. There's an LED photolight rather than a xenon flash, but a nice innovation is the touch focus mode, where you touch the screen at the point you want to be the main focus of your pic, which can make for some arty forced perspective shots.
Sony Ericsson's Panels UI sits on top of Windows Mobile
Incidentally, video quality doesn't take too much of a downward step, since the X1 records and plays at 30f/s - 640 x 480 (VGA) only - giving smoother-than-expected recording and playback.
There's also a VGA camera on the front for video calls using the phone's HSDPA 3G connection. And speaking of connections, the X1's got everything you could need, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and infrared. Push email is available through Windows Outlook, and of course you get the main advantages of the Windows Mobile platform: easy syncing with a PC and a wealth of third-party applications.
The music player owes something to SE's Walkman series - there's also Windows Media Player if you feel the need - though it feels a bit under-specced in comparison. It will display album art, but there's no graphic equaliser and a limited number of filing options. The X1 doesn't come with Sony Ericsson's best headphones - they're reserved for the Walkman series - though they're really not bad at all.
COMMENTS
I <3 Levente Szileszky
As someone said previously - stop comparing everything to the bloody iPhone.
And Levente is correct - there are so many horrible shortcomings in the iPhone... you can't forward an SMS? What's that about?
Can't wait to get my X1 when my o2 store has stock ;)
WM unresponsiveness
It's true and unfortunately the X1 suffers from it too. IMHO what causes it is the absolutely fucking humungous amount of files in the windows directory. It takes and age to read anything out of it and any app that touches \Windows will suffer as a result.
I have touch-flo 3d installed on the X1 now and I'm as happy as a pig in shit, nonetheless.
@Robin
"but my experience with other phones before iPhones were invented and trying to buy and install apps left me in no doubt that a non technical person wouldn't have a hope in hell"
So the average user can't manage "download .cab, tap it to install" or "download installer to PC, connect up phone to PC, run installer"? Even my mum can manage that.
Also, both of Levente Szileszky's posts are correct.
Ehh?
I wasn't pissed or anything, I just wish to see this stupid, false urban legend about the "innovative" iPhone (or Apple, for the record) would die once and forever.
"If the iPhone was so bad then Google and others wouldn't be ripping off it's design, app store etc."
Ummm who's ripping off Apple? You got it backward, pal - iPhone came to the party pretty late, taking clues from all smartphones out there, mostly from HTC WM phones.
The Google G1 is another HTC-made phone and it is exactly just like any other one they made, beginning many years before Jobs even dreamed of the iPhone: slide-out QWERTY keyboard, powerful CPU, lots of memory, nice touchscreen, slick design.
Also G1's design couldn't be more different from Apple's: G1 is a nice anodized matte black phone unlike Apple's shiny, chromish-trimmed unit (at least here, in the US) - which, BTW, is rather a copy of certain Asian HTC competitor phonesfrom earlier times.
And FYI: application stores exist since Palm days (~late 90s), a DECADE before Apple, I have no idea what are you talking about - have you ever heard of Handango? Started as Palm and its WM-specialized area opened in 2001...
As it's always, once again Apple didn't 'invent' crap, it merely copied others and marketed as their own idea and people with no clue whatsoever keep parroting their PR BS, sorry but this is what it is.
Pathetic, that is.
@Hardly cutting edge then?
>Having used WM6 on a phone I have to say it's absolutely pants!
>SE's hardware is often very nice - why saddle it with a joke o/s that is well past its best?
You'd better get used to it, WM8 is where all interface design is due and WM7 isn't out in 2010. So WM8 won't be around until 2011 or 2012!!!
It's astounding how long Microsoft can keep dragging their heels with WM development. I bought a Toshiba E800 in 2003 and some other WM phones. From a user perspective the OS has barely changed since WM2005!
