Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 review
Now that we’ve had some time to spend with the XPERIA X1, we’re going to break down the various features and give you our in-depth review. We’ll continue to update this post as we use the device more, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what’s at hand — a brand new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1! Full review is after the jump. Pictures will be added shortly.
Screen:
With a 800×480 VGA screen, you can’t really go wrong right? Right. We’ve got to say off the top that this is the best-looking screen we’ve ever seen on a Windows Mobile device. It puts all the others to shame. It’s not just that the screen has an amazing resolution, it’s that the screen is vibrant and clear as day. If your vision isn’t top notch you might have to increase the font size in settings because it gets a little small with that super high-res. Sunlight couldn’t phase it either as we had no problem using it on the go outside.
Audio quality
We didn’t put the speakers through our normal tests just yet to be honest. We tried a couple MP3s and they sounded good, not great. The speaker volume in general could have been a little louder and the sound could have sounded a little fuller. Speakerphone was the same. We’ll report back with more detailed findings.
Notification lights
If you’ve seen the Sidekick LX, you’ll know what we’re talking about. There are 4 independant notification lights on the four corners of the X1. These are LED lights that change through various colors. Unlike the Sidekick, you have complete control over the notification settings. Only want people to think you’ve got a UFO in your pocket when you’re getting a text message? No problem. There’s a lot to choose from to suit your own needs. The lights offer a nice touch and weren’t too over-powering and bright which we were afraid of. The kids will love it.
Call quality
Calls came in and out with crystal clear quality. The ear speaker was plently loud and the party on the other end said we sounded like we were on a land line.
Data Connectivity
Name something you’d like to see in a mobile device… HSDPA? Wi-Fi? GPS? The X1 has all of it. T-Mobile USA lovers will also be overjoyed at the fact that an AWS 1700MHz version is coming. Our unit had the 850MHz/1900MHz US 3G bands so we were rockin’ over HSDPA just fine. In fact, web browsing was abnormally fast. We didn’t find much of a difference between browsing over Wi-Fi or HSDPA. That’s probably due to the bottleneck of the phone in general, but it was a pleasant surprise.
Build quality
Another winner for Sony Ericsson. While the device isn’t the lightest phone on the market, we think it’s build quality is almost second-to-none. Maybe even iPhone status. It’s just so sturdy and well put together. We have to give HTC some mad props on this one. Could you please try and incorporate some of this newfound metal addition into some of your devices HTC? Please. The sliding mechanism was fantastic even though the device isn’t a normal “flat” slider. Major points for build quality.
Usability factor
This could be subjective depending on your view of Windows Mobile, but we found the X1 to be on par or better than any Windows Mobile device we’ve used. Baring the keyboard issue, (see below) there wasn’t anything that hindered us from taking full advantage of the device. When closed, the device gives you access to all necessary shortcuts on the bottom front of the unit. Slide it open and you’ve got access to everything you could want. People have wrote us and asked about how it is to use the phone when the QWERTY keyboard doesn’t have directional keys, but they’ve overlooked something — the optical joystick. This works wonderfully well and doesn’t have a learning curve. It’s a natural extension of what we’ve been forced to use in the past. There was a “cursor” menu in settings but no cursor showed up on the screen. You also have full control over the sensitivity of the optical joystick. Making phone calls was comfortable and we didn’t have any issues with people hearing us or us hearing them.
Keyboard
The keyboard is a sensitive area for many people. Anyone who follows us know we take it very seriously — we put them all through the ringer! So, it pains us to report, that at least with our particular unit, the keyboard wasn’t great. It didn’t take time to get used to it, it just didnt perform like the way we had hoped. The reason is because the keys almost are completely flush with the case and don’t give good tactile feedback when pressed. Odly enough, the spacebar was actually ok. It faired the best out of all of them. We understand why there really is no travel in the keys — there is a huge sliding mechanism right over them — but we would have liked to see a little more feedback when typing. They have this triangular pattern on top which does make it easy to feel them, but you don’t get a good response when actually pressing them down. The backlight on the QWERTY ‘board successfully helped us find the keys when it was nightime, but that still didn’t help when typing. We said this before, but if we had to compare the keyboard to anything, it would be Sony’s UX-series computers. It’s the same exact thing.
Does anybody know if the X1 comes pre-loaded with Active Sync?
how much are sony ericsson xperia ?
what about office programes?
t mobile not picking it up..att is
Would someone kindly comment on the music quality, please? I listen to intricate classical music which my IPOD can’t cope with at all. Sony Ericsson has a tradition of excellent music quality and I’m hoping that the X1 is up to it. Thank you.
Bought this phone 2 weeks ago and returned it today. Have had many Sony Ericssons before and this phone just isn’t as well made or intuitive to use. It feels flimsy in your hand. Its touch screen was farily hit and miss. It is very fiddly to use and after only 2 weeks it is showing signs of wear around the optical joystick and the slot where you put the stylus. Some e-mails came with the message that they could only be read upon signing on and downloading again. On answering incoming calls I found that about 20% of calls were cut off. In conjunction with my Mercedes blue tooth system I found that I had one of the following 1) fully functional 2) functional but no memory recognition of my phones contacts 3) complete non-recognition or 4) a micture of the above!
My previous phone was Blackberry 8800. I am going back to Black! Have ordered the Storm.
Was looking forward to life with the X1 but won’t be rushing back.
I seem to be the only dissenting voice here so maybe it was me rather than the phone!
The keyboard is actually a little fiddly but adequate. In my opinion the P990 keyboard, though tiny, was better.
Multimeda capabilities are superb. The Radio is excellent, though no RDS, or at least, it doesn’t seem to have RDS.
Movie playback is fantastic. I have loaded DivX mobile player and it’s way better than previous flagship SE phones because of the speed, rendering and large screen size.
The Media player is much like Media Player in XP or Vista. It also has a OPSP or Media-centre-like interface which is very funky.
I haven’t tried the video camera but stills are sharp. The optics seem to make up for the lack of megapixals. It’s a phone though so don’t expect Sony Alpha quality picture quality. It’s good for snapping things.
Battery life is woeful. I listened to about 15 minutes of music, made two 5 minute calls, deleted 27 emails and read and replied to about 4 SMS messages today starting with a full charge at 7am. by 4pm it was dead as a Dodo.
I’m just hoping I have a crap battery because that sucks. It has a 1500mAh battery. That’s the biggest mobile battery so far available by a good 250mAh.
I suspect it is poor OS Power management, being Micro$ developed. Shame it isn’t Symbian.
X-Panels are pretty damned fast. Personally I wouldn’t care if the iPhone is faster because I just see all Apple products as style over content at twice the price of any of the alternatives only with better marketing… but that’s only my opinion. Go to a shop and ask to try them all out!
It charges through MiniUSB, though it would seem most PC and laptop USB sockets don’t have the ooomph to actually charge it in my experia-nce. I think my battery may be dodgy though.
I actually say thw charge bar go down whilst it was plugged into a known-to-be-powered USB socket. (Some USB sockets only carry data and no power).
This is possibly one of the greatest mobile phones ever to be created by humankind
As Mr Anonymous so helpfully says, “one of the greatest mobile phones ever to be created by humankind”
Yes, but it is a little flawed. Lets hope that the battery technology catches up with these new smartphones’ capabilities, and soon, otherwise… what’s the point of having such richly featured devices if you can only use them for such a limited time between charges?
I’m all for the convergence of technologies, but at the moment they (the manufacturers) seem to be getting a little ahead of themselves.
Still, it shifts units, eh? And I, for one, couldn’t resist the temptation of owning such a gadget that resides right on the edge of cutting edge.
It is the same “Anonymous” here Greeboid.
Most of the review sites have said the Xperia X1 has excellent battery life.
One reviewer said he used it for light to moderate use (2 hours of talking, some web browsing etc) and the battery lasted two days!
I have never wished for more specifications in my phone than what the Sony Xperia X1 has and im happy with the price in fact for those specs in my pocket with long battery life I’d even pay twice as much lol!
I agree though, the battery life is of critical importance, with this phone I wont really need my eeepc (as much) which only has a battery life of 2-3 hours and that eeepc does not fit in your pocket.
I really look forward to (hopefully) multi-day battery life in the Xperia X1 which would be a BIG selling point!
It seems you can’s resist the new technologies either, Anon. (can I call you Anon… it’s a little informal)!
I also have an eee and I gat up to 6 hours! It probably depends on the model and OS but it does highlight one thing: battery performance seems to vary enourmously.
I take your point about the review sites stating battery life is great but no matter how independant these sites are they are not going to get the phones to review if they totally slag the phones. So, call me cynical, but I think these sites are great for getting the lowdown on most aspects of useability but for the real warts and all reviews look to the forums and pick those comments that appear to have the most level headed views.
Some of the comments in this forum, for example, seem a little premature. They were made before the phone was available to the public… so they can’t be all that informed!
I posted loads of comments here and for the most part they were an attempt to answer some of the questions that other people have posted that had mostly gone unanswered but to be honest, you just have to go out, get one and live with it until your next upgrade.
I love my xperia. I’m going to stick with it. I’ll probably get a spare battery to suppliment the one it was shipped with, like I did with my P990 and with the P910 before that.
It’s a fantastic bit of kit, but I can see its flaws.
Hi Greeboid, yes Anon is fine!
Thank you for pointing out about reading comments in forums from people who already own the phone, I’ll be doing that before buying my Xperia X1 (will be getting one within 3 months at the latest, maybe in 1 month).
Hows the battery in yours ? I agree there must be flaws, pretty much every device has them
And you are right, I pretty much must buy the Xperia it has all the specifications I’ve been wishing for since forever!
I’ll be reading all your comments too because you seem to know what you’re talking about, would be very interested to hear about the X1 flaws from you since you already have one lol
I hear the Keyboard is good or ok, but not great. I have a HTC Universal which has a *GREAT* keyboard
Hey BG. Thank you for always giving the detailed reviews. Do you know where the phone was made? Battery or box might say it?
I was a big Nokia fan and would always check to make sure my phone was from Finland, and then this came out and I’m on the market for a new phone, but I’m not too familiar on where they normally make Sony Ericsson phones, and if there are knock offs out there.
Bottomline, the XPERIA X1 is being positioned — not just as a consumer or a productivity device, but one that offers you the best of both worlds — a “wicked” entertainment appliance, yet loaded with productivity features that the most fastidious mobile professional could use very effectively in an enterprise context. There’s already a fans website for the phone http://www.Xperia-X1.org LOL
QUOTE : “…I actually say thw charge bar go down whilst it was plugged into a known-to-be-powered USB socket. (Some USB sockets only carry data and no power).”
There is an check box under ‘Settings/Power’ to ‘not charge phone when connected to PC’
Make sure this is not checked (it was checked on my phone by default)
My battery seems a little unpredictable. I am at the end of my second day since charging and it would seem that I have a 1/4 left.
During this period I have checked my email 3 or four times and placed or recieved about 20 minutes or so of calls. I have listened to aboy 2 hours worth of MP3s but I have pretty much left the other smart features like Sat Nav alone. Wi-fi and Blutooth have been off.
My conclusion:
If you use it as a phone then the battery life is acceptable. Sat Nav, Bluetooth and Wi-fi eat the battery for breakfast.
The flaws I have found seem to centre around the operating system and navigation.
* There seems no quick way to initiate a text
* when using it as a phone its a long winded process getting to the right contact.
* The keyboard seems a little unresponsive and sometimes its difficult to find the odd character. The virtual Keyboard is not very intuitive either, I wanted to add a percentage sign earlier. I’ll let you test drive one yourself to see if you can figure that one out.
The good stuff:
* GPS (I’m using Wayfinder as it was bundled with the phone) is very quick (once the maps are downloaded to the phone)
* Screen brightness and resolution; I think these are seciond to none
* Camera, though “only” 3.2 mgapixels has great optics and despite this being a Windows phone (I’ve read that Windows smartphones don’t have good camera software) it seems to take great photos. For a phone.
I’m happy overall and I’ll live with it. Sony Ericsson, though aparently dumping UIQ, haven’t committed to future smartphones being Windows. I hope they see sense and go back to UIQ but frankly I expect them to surprise us with their next xperia (is that an oxymoron)?
Knowing SE they’ll get all excited a year before its released and then we’ll have to wait another 6 months after that.
To be hones, I think all their smartphones have been worth the wait.
By the way, Thanks, Mushmush for the helpful hint. I had already noticed the checkbox and I made sure it was configured to charge when connected. I just thisnk the USB on the crappy computer I have in work wasn’t pushing out much juice !
and, Anon, I would still choose it over a Nokia N9x. When you get yours at least you know that you haven’t got a boring device. I’ve had mine about three weeks now and I’m still exploring it and finding out about its quirks.
It’s different. (well mostly different… it is made by and has a resmblance to HTC phones).
I like that about it.
But then, when everyone was getting iPods I got a Creative Labs Zen. I never regretted that at all.
I just don’t like to conform and follow the crowd.
SE Xperia, BB Storm or Samsung Omnia? Already discarded iPhone. Opinions please. I am also a Creative Labs ZEN user Greeboid.
Hello, Yorkie,
I can’t really comment from an informed perspective on the other phones.
I see we may be of like mind though, as you have discounted the iPhone.
I was listening to two colleagues discussing their iPhones, which they love, and discovered today that neither of them could find a way to cut and paste text on that device. How poor is that?!
I’m afraid I’m a little biased against Apple iProducts because I think they’re a rip-off lifestyle product. Just my opinion.
For example, the Mac Mini is basically standard PC hardware (intel chipset and dual core chip) wrapped in a delightfully tiny package. If you sourced by the same hardware by another manufacturer, only with Windowsoperating system, would be anything from 1/3 to 1/2 the price. Thet are cute though.
Anyway my advice would always be: Go to a mobile phone store and try them out! Read the more well informed reviews, and then take the plunge.
If you feel you’ve made a mistake then return it within 14 days and you should be OK, or keep it until the next upgrade. All these gadgets are going to have something about them that will be less that perfect.
I hope this doesn’t sound like a cop-out. I can only tell you that I have found flaws in my device but, overall, I love it and I’d recommend it!
Good luck!