Still, you can easily upgrade the 'phones thanks to the 3.5mm socket. There's a mere 400MB of memory on board the X1, but you can augment this with Micro SD - wot, no Memory Stick? - which you can hot-swap, though you'll still need to remove the metallic backplate. The X1 will handle cards of up to 16GB in capacity, though none is supplied.
After all that multimedia mediocrity, it's a relief to note that the X1's web browser is a bit of a gem, though you'll prefer to use it in landscape mode with the slide-out keyboard rather than the stylus-only portrait mode.
A nice touch with the 3.2Mp snapper is the touch-focus mode
You can zoom in or out with the volume rocker, slide pages around by brushing them with your thumb, view streaming video, set up RSS feeds, save pages and navigate through your browsing history. It makes browsing fun, in other words.
There's GPS on board, as seems to be standard for smartphones these days. It's backed up by Google Maps and a trial of Wayfinder Navigator for satnav with voice guidance.
The X1's battery life isn't anything to write home about. We just about got a couple of days out of it, but with optional juice guzzlers like HSDPA and Wi-Fi switched on and the screen brightness optimiser switched off, that time was reduced to about a day.
Verdict
Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile handset packs a lot into a compact package. It has an average camera which at least beats the iPhone, a pretty good media player and an excellent browser, as well as enviable connectivity options. But we were left with the suspicion that a degree of useability has been sacrificed for style.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Windows Mobile smartphone
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!
