Sony Ericsson’s had its fair share of troubles lately, posting operating losses and restructuring efforts all over the place.  Even SEMC’s mothership, Sony is nearly drowning from its losses.  Their latest iteration, the Sony XPERIA X1, jointly built with HTC (but still under SEMC’s branding), seems to be the company’s greatest hope and shining beacon on a hill. 

The question is:  How bright does this device shine amongst such proven powerhouses like RIM, Apple, and Nokia?  The full design review — after the break.

Sony Ericsson needs this device to do well, and they need this pretty badly.  In fact, they’ve even pulled muscle power from the Taiwanese manufacturer, HTC, to do so.  There are many cues taken from its other Windows Mobile powered siblings (Touch Pro, G1, Tilt, to name a few), and they’re very prevelant even in the Sony Ericsson branded device — and it’s definitely a good thing. 

Five Word Review
Brushed Aluminum, Beautiful Interface… Windows.

Aesthetics and Action
One glance at the X1 and you’ll know the crowd it’s accurately targetting, along with its price.  This phone is stunning, not so much in a sleek and silky way, but in a classy, self-confident, egotistical, exclusive, superior manner. 

Brushed aluminum in both black and silver tones, enclose most of what’s seen on the device.  Even the keys are metallic.  The back panel lifts off and clangs at every hard surface it touches - and it makes you feel damned important.  A black rubbery material help to protect the camera lens and act as feet when the device is lying flat on a table.  I almost wish they gave up the invaluable rubber padding to go full-blown metallic.

The sliding keyboard housed undernearth the device definitely helps to accent the classy look.  It’s backlit with a great subdued colour scheme, which helps to accent the metallic feel.  It’s definitely one of the most modern looking keyboards out there.  The most unique feature about the keyboard however, is the curve that ever-so-slightly tilts the screen up.  From any angle showing the top or the bottom of the device, the curve looks beautiful and provides a strong sense of elegance in the midst of the square/diamond theme.

One of the cool ideas implemented by this phone is the four indication lights on the very edges of the phone.  It looks very cool, although its placement seems to be an odd design choice, since its difficult to tell when they light up.

 

Lastly the highly-touted WVGA (800×480) screen.  This one’s a bit tricky to describe.  It’s a gorgeous screen; only its hampered by its other factors.  It’s definitely not as bright as the Bold, which makes viewing the phone less of a jaw-dropping experience than it could have been.  The lack of brightness is further accentuated by the glare from the resistive film.  The final gripes I had about the screen are its smaller size and the slight bezel on the edges.  The size of the screen (2.8″) coupled with Windows Mobile 6.1, causes for the unfortunate and abundant use of the stylus or accurate finger nails.  The slight bezel along the edges (although this is the case with all resistive touchscreens) makes clicking individual items on the top menu bar, very difficult.

Fortunately, the gripes end there as the pixel density is absolutely stunning.  Words on the screen are clearer than ever before and even miniscule websites can be traversed with the eye very easily.  The contrast ratio is superb allowing you to watch videos with clarity and sharpness, which is critical for watching that amazing Quantum of Solace trailer that’s included.

The screen is also one of the most responsive resistive touchscreens I have ever used.  Typically it’s a little bit difficult to traverse a menu properly, as dragging around on a layered film doesn’t feel very responsive (like on the Touch Diamond).  Thankfully, menus are responsive, navigating websites are a breeze, touches are quick to react, and even highlighting sections on a paragraph in Microsoft Word Mobile is simple to do.

At 16.7mm thick and weighing 158g, it’s definitely a hefty and thick device.  Most users of previous HTC devices and other handsets with slide-out keyboards would find themselves in very familiar territory, but anyone transitioning from a slim and sleek device might find themselves with a bit of size issue.  I hate to say it, because it sounds so unnecessarily demeaning… but it looks like a brick.  Okay fine, it’s a damned classy and fine-looking brick.

Aesthetics and Action: 8.5/10

Fabrication and Flavour
This is the section I wanted to get to.  In my opnion, this is single-handedly the best built device on the market today.  I say this with caution as there are several touchscreen-only devices that have no mechanical parts — which makes life easy for them.  Fortunately, I think the fluidity of the mechanical parts on this device make it the best built device.

The sliding mechanism is one of the best ones I’ve used.  Sure it doesn’t swoop like the G1, but it doesn’t awkwardly budge when closed or open.  It’s also the smoothest on any slider, by a landslide.  One hell of a bearing, I assume. 

If there are any complaints, it would be that the buttons on the keyboard are a little bit difficult to type on.  As I explained in my T-Mobile G1 design review, sliding-out keyboards require the keys to be as flat as possible so that the screen can be slid over with minimal space in between.  Like the G1, it’s difficult to find your way around the keyboard with your thumbs, meaning that it’s difficult to type while looking anywhere but the keyboard.

The optical joystick is also another gorgeous addition.  It feels good to navigate and click, and it’s definitely a handy alternative when you don’t feel like losing your stylus.  It’s a little bit recessed which makes it harder to scroll quickly, but I’m assuming that this was a design choice, so as not to interfere when pressing the actual arrow buttons down.

Finally, front facing buttons are easy and simple to use.  The dedicated panels button makes sure that when you need to show off the phone, you have one of its coolest features accessible within one button press.  Not only that, but the diamond shapes really add to its look, especially when the backlights shine through the cracks - it’s gorgeous to use at night.  Unfortunately, when it comes in silver, the keys are still black, which I think is a poor design choice.  Luckily, I got the black one and I have no complaints.

Fabrication and Flavour: 10/10

Interface and Interaction
Windows Mobile users are seeing this one coming from miles away.  Hate it or love it, the device is still Windows Mobile at its core.  Thankfully, Sony Ericsson has done a lot of work in making sure that consumers see its cooler touchscreen features.

Panels are Sony Ericsson’s attempt at hiding the robustness of Windows Mobile.  It does a great job and its a pleasure to use.  For those not in the know, Panels, which can be accessed by its dedicated button on the front, lets you switch “desktops”.  You can have a media focused panel, an RSS feed panel, a radio panel, and it even comes with a fish panel!  It’s actually pretty cool to use because it notifies you of missed calls, text messages, and a low battery by adding fish or changing their colours.  The fish even wiggle away when you touch it!  Realistically though, I don’t see anyone using this as their main panel due to, well, practicality issues.

My favourite panel, is the media panel.  Being an avid PS3/PSP user, its interface looks like a vertical XMB (XrossMediaBar).  It provides easy access to your pictures, music, videos, games, and contacts - everything I pretty much need!  I do wish that this panel would actually use gestures (left and right motions) to move back and forth between the menu levels.  It works on the optical joystick, but not on the touchscreen.  All in all, this panel is well put together and looks fantastic.

One last panel to note, is the dedicated Google panel which provides easy access to Maps, Gmail, Calendar, and Photos.  They’re all pleasant to use - especially Maps.  Never thought it’d be so smooth, but it works pretty much the way it does on the T-Mobile G1, but without all the bells and whistles like Streetview. 

The use of panels is definitely a very welcome addition by Sony Ericsson.  The best part is the ability to download panels that others have created.  I’m totally waiting for someone to import an actual XMB interface.

Once you get passed the fancy interface and applications though, its core Windows.  HTC, in other consumer-oriented WinMo phones, have done entire makeovers of all the menus for applications and settings and whatnot.  Sony Ericsson chose to leave that alone and to be honest, it’s a pain to use without a stylus.  And styluses suck, period.  To each his own, but its hard to sacrifice the oddity of using it with your fingernails or styluses versus the functionality it provides.

It’s a shame that Windows Mobile totally shows its age when used with this phone, because its functionality (and it has a stupendously long list) is still among the best in the smartphone market.  It just looks horrid and doesn’t stand a chance when compared to the usability of other OS’s.  And since this blog is totally dedicated to form, cheers to hoping Windows Mobile 6.5 comes ASAP.

Interface and Interaction: 7.0/10 + 1.0 for Panels

Performance and Pacing
When videos of the panels interface showed up on the blogosphere, people were loving the idea.  Then, when an actual hands-on demonstration video popped up, fellow blog-readers loathed and went up in rage at its choppiness.  Most have, since then, put it off as an issue of handling too many desktops and pre-production hardware.  So the question is… how does this device fare in retail?

It’s still slow.  It’s important to note that the device actually blazes through any tasks that individual applications throw at it.  The Qualcomm MSM7200A @ 524MHz processor definitely helps the cause.  This is all nonsense however, because the use of PANELS - its defining interface - is ridiculously slow. 

On a fresh stock device that’s not running any applications, when the Panels button is pressed, there’s close to two seconds of lag before the animation shows, and another two seconds of animations.  Of course, we haven’t hit the climax yet.  Accessing a panel is even worse.  The panel thumbnail pops up and expands quickly to show that you’ve accessed the specific panel - this takes about one to two seconds.  Unfortunately, its REALLY a pixelated and expanded thumbnail.  The actual desktop isn’t available for use until another 4-6 seconds, as it loads all the pertinent information on the panel.  That means a total of approximately 10 seconds is needed to switch to another desktop.  That’s just ridiculous.

In terms of networks, performance on HSDPA is blazing fast on Opera.  Browsing is beautiful and the processor chops up everything nice and quickly.  In fact, I couldn’t even notice a difference between HSDPA and Wi-Fi.  T-Mobile users will be happy to note that its 3G network is also supported by the XPERIA.  Browsing to the data and format-intensive Gametrailers.com on Opera took me 20 seconds before I could use the site fully.  Quite impressive in my books.

Update: So for a slightly more scientific method, I’ve benchmarked times to another data-intensive site: IGN.  With 1798kb (according to WinMo’s IE), Opera crunched it with a functional, formatted, and browsable site by 40 seconds.  Including all the pictures, it finished at 60 seconds.  That amounts to about 30KB/s with intense processing and formatting.  Pretty impressive.

One other thing to note is the inclusion of Microsoft ActiveSync for synchronizing everything from corporate email, to music, to documents and pictures.  The software included is quite explanatory and serves well for corporate users and generally anyone who likes to auto-sync music.  If you’re a music junkie though, you’ll probably want to switch to Mass Storage mode.  Quick benchmarks show that ActiveSync sideloading hits about 2MBps while Mass Storage mode hits about 4MBps.  Slower than the other HTC device, but it works.

Performance and Pacing: 8.0/10

Tracking the Trends:
The XPERIA X1 has a name to match its pretentiousness.  Its looks and its style definitely capture a wide audience.  However, (and I may be wrong) but Sony Ericsson totally failed in its attempt at viral marketing, using the Who is Johnny X campaign.  European ads tend to have its awkwardness in relation to North American ads, but this one was totally unexciting and not worth the time.

Sony Ericsson needs this phone to sell well.  Unfortunately, its high price point makes this phone a premium device - which is good for those who can afford it, but detrimental to sales.  Luckily, the attention that this phone gets with its curvature and its sexy panels attract many from wide and afar - which brings us to this episode’s X-Factor: Brushed Aluminum.

This phone is sexy mainly because of its looks - its a PR beauty.  Its brushed aluminum sparkles those ads like gel sparkles hair.  That ad up there sparks what we call, gadget lust.  It’s the indescribable jealousy and envy of wanting something for its looks.  Heck, that’s what luxury is.  Heck, that’s what this phone IS - luxury.

Collative Conclusions

Sony Ericsson did quite a good job implementing panels within its first attempt at a windows Mobile phone.  It’s great fun to use, but slightly annoying due to its lag.

The amazing thing about this phone is that its hardware aethetics totally live up to its hype when you pick it up.  Its the greatest-feeling device I think I’ve used.  Sure its thickness distracts, but its got the curves, and the casing to win y’all over.  Now… about Windows Mobile 6.1.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1: 9.0/10

Please feel free to comment, question, or anecdotally frame your words in the section below!

Tags: Design Review, HTC, Panels, QWERTY keyboard, sliding mechanism, Sony Ericsson, touchscreen, Windows Mobile, X1, XPERIA

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Columns, HTC, Reviews, Sony Ericsson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.