Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 launched at Tent London

We’ve already previewed the highly anticipated Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and last night we went to the official global launch at Tent London as part of Design Week. It was an interesting choice of venue for a mobile phone, but as the night wore on it became clear as to why this stylish device was set amongst retro clocks and extremely bright furniture.

Upon first impressions the handset itself is pretty unique. Available in black and silver, it is solidly built with quality materials that really inspires confidence in the build quality, which is necessary if you’re going to trust the practicalities of your everyday life with this thing. The Xperia X1 is designed to coordinate your professional life but also includes some fun aspects to be used in your personal life.

The best panel by far on the Xperia X1 was a panel of 1 black and 2 orange fish that would excitedly swim to wherever you placed your stylus on the screen. Sounds pretty basic and boring, but each fish did have a purpose. If the sound was muted, one of the orange fish would turn clear. If your battery’s getting low, one of the fish starts to turn red, and if you miss a call another fish will turn yellow . While at first the sound of an aquarium in your phone sounds like a waste of an application, the fish do allow you to guage your phone’s settings with just a quick glance at your “aquarium”. If you for some reason really don’t like fish, just give them a tap and they will go nuts.

The phone isn’t all gimmicky though as it features Turbo 3G for incredibly fast internet access, which I’m sure will be great news for people who need to constantly work on the go and have been frustrated with previous slow page loading and unnecessarily intricate functions.

The release date is still set for September 30, but the UK carrier remains unconfirmed though I did hear that it will most likely be Vodafone.