Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has a large 4-inch screen and an 8-megapixel camera. The smartphone was announced in November 2009. It hit the market in March 2010.
Monitor
The Xperia X10 has a 4-inch screen with 480 x 854 pixels. Unlike the Google Nexus One, which has a scorching AMOLED screen, the Xperia X10 has a plain old TFT screen. Still, the screen is good. The colors are bright and vivid.
Operating system
At the moment, the X10 runs an old version of Android (1.6 or Donut). An update to the latest version is expected later this year.
Camera
Sony Ericsson smartphones have always had great cameras. The X10 is no different. It has an 8 megapixel snapper that offers excellent image quality. Smile detection works fine, but facial recognition is more of a mistake than a success. There is no xenon flash and due to the limitations of Android 1.6, the LED photo light does not function as a proper flash.
Processor
The Xperia X10 has the same 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor as the Google Nexus One. But since Android 1.6 doesn’t support hardware acceleration, it doesn’t feel very snappy.
User interface and browser
The Xperia X10 offers a completely new user experience, thanks to the Timescape and Mediascape interfaces. Timescape is an excellent feature. It’s basically an animated pile of 3D tiles. Each tile represents a particular event in your life, such as a Facebook update, a tweet, an email, or a photo. These mosaics are arranged in the order in which they were placed. Timescape allows you to have your entire social life in one place, but sometimes it works a bit slow.
Mediascape is the X10 media player. Judging by Android standards, it is a very good app. Mediascape allows you to quickly access music, movies, and photos stored on your phone or online. At this time, PlayNow is the only online music service that Mediascape supports. But more add-ons are coming soon.
Connectivity
The Xperia X10 supports a variety of connectivity options including quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE, Wi-Fi b / g and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and file transfer. There is a microUSB port to connect the phone to your PC. There’s also a microSD memory card slot, but it’s not hot-swappable as you have to remove the battery to access the slot.
Other useful features include built-in A-GPS and Google Maps for local searches. The smartphone also has a pre-installed Wisepilot trial version for satellite navigation.
Verdict
The Xperia X10 has adequate hardware, but it runs a slightly outdated operating system. An update to the latest version of Android will give the phone a better chance against Nexus One and HTC Legend.
Xperia X10 Specifications:
Display: 4-inch TFT screen with 480 x 854 pixels
Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
Camera: 8 megapixel camera with LED light for photos
Connectivity: A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, HSDPA
Battery life: 8 hours of talk time on 3G, 425 hours of standby
