There are the standard three home pages, but the main one features SE's Timescape and Mediascape icons, two items that are key to the X10's offering. Timescape will pull together all of your updates – be they Facebook, Twitter, texts, emails, phone calls, photographs or tunes – and display them in a series of cascading tiles which SE chooses to call 'Splines'. They can be all in one place if want them to be, but there's also a scroll bar along the bottom to filter them into their respective channels.
Social networking updates are catered for with the Timescape function
On each of the various Splines is an 'infinity' key and when you press it, it pulls up additional related information such as related artists if it's a song or contact details if it's a Facebook update. As well as the Timescape app, there's also a Timescape widget which flashes up your latest updates on your homepage. But while I tried, I couldn't get it to splice my Facebook friends info into the phone's contacts book.
Elsewhere, Android's better points are left in place. The menu is accessed by sliding up a bar from the bottom of the screen, while sliding down still brings up your notifications. The Google widget including voice search is on another screen along with wireless options and you can add icons and widgets by dragging and dropping from the menu in the usual way, including the Moxier suite of syncing, calendar, contacts and mailing apps.
The 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor does a good job of keeping everything running smoothly, though there was the occasional stutter when jumping from app to app, which I could have done without. Both landscape and portrait Qwerty keyboard orientations proved easy to use, due largely to the screen's supersize dimensions. Outsize tiles pop up when you connect with a key and alternative word suggestions appear as you type, but there's no haptic feedback.
The browser is impressively nippy whether using HSDPA network connection or broadband over Wi-Fi. Zoom icons appear when you brush the screen and there's a magnifiying window to help you make sense of text-heavy pages. Mediascape does for your media what Timescape does for your social life, pulling together all your music, video and photos into one handy interface with the same scrolling Splines. It's an attractive interface and, once again, you can either choose to view everything together or break it down into its constituent parts.
The big touchscreen display is great to view but can be unresponsive to handle
Unfortunately, it seems the actual media gallery can only be viewed in portrait mode, which is a bit strange since you'll almost certainly be turning to the X10 to watch videos in landscape mode. Videos look fine on the large, sharp screen though, and you can adjust the size by tapping the screen so it fills all of the available space.
COMMENTS
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"I got this phone as a free upgrade for my wife"
Don't you miss her?
Nah
I use the recently released google navigation now to get me safely to the local brothel.
distinguish
no...its so that they have a USP. each of the OEMs is adding some bespoke apps or GUI additions to make THEIRS the phone to get. be that a system to link in all your social networking...or to make the front page prettier or deal with video/photo/mp3 etc.
otherwise, they'd all just be clones and the only difference would be form factor and camera/memory specs.
any of them could run the vanilla Android ...but then you lose those bespoke features...and people are very keen on the HTC features.... the Sony Ericsson stuff has had quite a few rave reviews too.
Desire vs X10
It certainly seems like this and the Desire are the two main smartphone options around at the moment, at least for those of us who don't want a physical keyboard.
I have a Desire, and the guy sat next to me has an X10, so we're in a handy position to be able to compare. Each of us thinks we made the right choice, so there's obviously nothing massively wrong with either handset.
The Desire has a more up to date Android version, multi-touch and a more sensitive screen. The X10 has a better camera and a slightly bigger screen. They're also very different looking devices, so it's well worth seeing them both in the flesh before you make a decision. The Desire is a really nice looking phone in the flesh, the pictures don't do it justice. The X10 is slightly bulkier, but its more angular shape will appeal more to some people. It looks a bit plasticky to me though.
One thing's for sure - Android phones have finally come of age, and both of these handsets are beautiful bits of kit!
I just can't forgive...
...the debacle that was the X1.
Ok. The phone was not a total dogs dinner. But it was pretty dammed close.
My phone suffered every one of the well document faults from the cracking case to the keyboard registering no / multiple character inputs and the battery deciding to have an off day and go nuclear and yet I am going to be stuck with it for at least another 6 months (as I was fool enough to let Vodafone talk me into a 2 year contract).
SE could have salvaged some of their reputation with me but they didn't. The attitude is, from my perspective, adieus sucker see you when you are due your next upgrade.
I want to like the X10 but I no longer trust SE. What if the X10 also has 'issues'? Will SE again shrug their corporate shoulders and offer innumerable repairs but duck out of any semblance of providing what was purchased.
In my opinion SE got off pretty lightly with the X1 (albeit it buggered them up with a UK release of the X2).
Just remember folks, if the X10 turns out to be another dogs dinner then you are dining on your own. SE won't even have the good grace to provide the condiments...
