Official: Sony Ericsson X10 has no multi-touch hardware
Blow for fans of iPhone wannabe
A Sony Ericsson staffer has admitted that the company's eagerly awaited Android-based touchscreen smartphone, the Xperia X10, lacks hardware support for multi-touch operation, dashing hopes that the feature's absence might be remedied by a firmware update.
The X10 is due to go on sale next month through Vodafone, Virgin Media and Orange, to name but three operators. It sports a 4in, 480 x 854 touchscreen and runs Android 1.6.
Sony Ericsson's X10: no multi-touch operation
It's been known that, unlike many other touchscreen handsets, the X10 won't do multi-touch, but it has been assumed that this was a result of the phone's software.
However, in a posting on the quasi-official Sony Ericsson Product Blog, staffer Rikard Skogberg said: "As said earlier, there’s no multitouch in [the] X10 – and I also can confirm that it’s not only related to [software] but also to [hardware]."
In short, updating the X10's OS to a version with full multi-touch support - Android 2.0 or up, basically - will not add the feature to the phone.
That said, Skogberg did indicate that some multi-touch features may be added to the handset: "For future updates of X10 we are of course working on other solutions for e.g. zooming."
But whether that's hardware revisions or software "future updates" isn't yet clear. ®
COMMENTS
DAMN IT!
I've been desperately nursing the smashed, partially functional phone I've got at the moment for ages waiting for this phone to come out.
Android 1.6, Clearpad 1000, no multitouch.
F**kwits! If I'd known they were going to cock this up I'd have looked at other phones, but my main two requirements were Android and a good camera (i.e SE's cybershot cameras) so I was holding out for this.
Oh, request for review seconded!
It would be possible
It would be possible to have multitouch, I don't beleive it's a h/w issue. It's really a matter of whether SE wants to put it on it or not via future updates.
Register Review Please!
Needs a RegHardware review and comparison against iPhone and Desire asap!
They used an old screen!
Did some searching online, apparently SE used the ClearPad 1000 which doesn't do MultiTouch. Nexus One, Desire, etc use ClearPad 2000 which does MT.
What on Earth were SE thinking? Releasing a phone months late, with an old OS, and using old screen-tech? Utter madness. I was really looking forward to this phone.
I thought the lack of multitouch just meant no pinch-to-zoom, but it also affects input speed in the on-screen keyboard. Hence lags when messaging.
