Preview: Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia

Overview

After months of waiting, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 is finally ready to be released in the UK, although at the moment we cannot release the price of this mobile as Sony is keeping that piece of information firmly close to their chests.

The wait over this mobile is due to the huge rush of touch screen smart phones that have been released in the market recently and with it being a Sony there is already a huge demand on this mobile, so will it be worth the wait or will people be let down once again by the hype bug.

Review

Style

From the pictures that have been released on the Internet the latest Sony phone seems to be keeping in tradition of Sony’s mission to make mobiles that look both smart and stylish. Touting a diamond themed button design for the three main buttons this mobile would appeal to both men and women alike both in terms of its modernism and style and with a sliding out keyboard. When using the slider it leaves the mobile in an ‘arc’ and when it is opened it gives the user the choice to use either the touch screen navigation or the 4 way and totally optional joystick which may appeal to gamer in us all.

The mobile comes with a full QWERTY keyboard and the 3 inch screen making viewing pictures, videos and internet browsing a dream.

Under the Bonnet"¦

By the looks of this mobile it seems that Sony have decided to go the way of the Blackberry (No its not a new Jedi religious thing). As it is a smartphone it comes with the operating system known as Windows Mobile 6.1 which gives you access to the popular office applications such as Word, PowerPoint etc. Also, using this as a business mobile on the move is a breeze as you’ll be able to pick up e-mails as well as opening all those pesky reports that you get every five minutes.

On a brighter note this mobiles comes with an in-built 400MB of memory which is huge in terms on built-in memory, bundle this with 256MB of RAM and 512MB of storage space this mobile should be quick on the uptake and able to handle applications with relative ease. It has not yet been confirmed yet if this mobile will have a memory expansion slot but with the latest mobile these days coming with them as standard it may be that Sony forgot to mention this.

Finally this mobile comes with A-GPS technology so losing your way will never happen again with this mobile.

Camera and Video

With its dedicated video chipset you can view videos on this mobile with ease and even record at a comfortable 30 frames per second, so no more jerky camera recording on this mobile.

But it seems that with this mobile it seems a shame that the camera that is built into this phone is only capable of 3.15 Megapixels. Whilst it might not be the best out there it is also not the worse – kind of in the middle, it just depends on how crucial people think this is.

Touch Media or Touchscreen

The screen on this phone is shown as a panel style interface, which looks rather sharp and with each one being arranged by you it gives a touch of personality to every phone. Scrolling is reported to be as light as a feather which I am taking to mean it's nice and easy to scroll through the menus and not like trying to get dried dirt off your black pants.

Technical Spec

• 3"³ TFT Touchscreen
• Arc Sliding Qwerty Keyboard
• A-GPS
• Handwriting Recognition
• Windows Mobile OS with Office Mobile and Outlook mobile
• 3G and Video calling capability
• Wifi Connectivity

The Gaj-It verdict

Design: 10/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 8/10
Value: 9/10

We Say: This mobile seems like a worthy addition to the latest generation of mobile phones. It may be a little weak in some areas than other mobiles on the market at the moment but other features may make up for these and is definitely one worth looking at when it's released.

Sources

Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia Review at Phones4U

Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia Review at Dial-a-Phone

Shop For It

Compare Prices on Kelkoo