After so many years of avoiding Sony Ericsson like the plague, I am definitely excited to be reunited with it after my unboxing of the X10 device. I am fully aware of the cons mentioned in previous reviews and will be expecting them in due time, but this doesn't take away from the new gadget pleasure!
Starting off, the initial shock of having to navigate the interface to change the device language from French was averted when this setting appeared after unlocking the display. After going through a few minutes to set up a wifi connection and configure my Google account, I soon discovered just how dark the screen really was when brightness was set to automatic. As soon as I disabled the auto setting it was as if a ray of light had burst forth from within the touchscreen! The Neptune blue of the interface was simply mesmerizing and breathtaking!
So far all was well with the set up of my Gmail, Facebook, and Picasa accounts, and all content appeared without trouble on the Mediascape and Timescape interface. One issue was that my Twitter account would not connect to the X10, but I always had Seesmic. As if to make up for that, I soon discovered that Google Maps was alive and well with Google Navigation!! This feature alone had made my expectations of the X10 that much greater!
Timescape was indeed a whole new way to check incoming email/SMS messages and status reports from my social networks. There was also an opportunity to see the recent happenings from my music player and photo gallery as well, but this seemed to be overkill. Panes of glass rectangles hovering in a space of hypnotic azure were adorned with faded images of either a contact, photo, or album art. At the bottom of each pane was a breif summary of either a SMS, email, tweet, Facebook status/message, last audio track plackback, or last photo viewing. Swiping through each pane seemed magical and dreamlike, but this eventually lost its fairy tale luster. Tapping on the lower left icon that identified the origin of a pane brought me to the appropriate app in which to view the data: photo gallery for photos, music player for tracks, Gmail inbox for email and so on. There was also an infinity symbol in the upper right of the pane that seemed to be mainly for either accessing a contact's file info or integrating a new contact file. All in all, viewing this kind of data in Timescape felt to be a bit too much at times, especially when some sluggishness was seldom noticed.
Mediascape was certainly a brand new way to take in my media content on the X10, and I was eager to have the full introduction! I had installed some multimedia files from my Mac for playback testing and was very surprised to see the X10 handle a high quality movie file only previously played by the HD2! However, just like on the Nexus One, the movies had no way of having their aspect ratios changed onscreen. Even though there was no AMOLED technology on the X10 screen, its size made it all the more impressive for me. No equalizer settings for the music player were expected, and I certainly didn't get them. Audio tracks sounded pretty good in settings of complete silence, but I still found the output volume to be too soft and low. By comparison, the Nexus One and E72 easily surpassed the audio output of the X10. Interfacing of Mediascape was a bit confusing to understand at first, but after some practice with it I had no trouble. I honestly preferred the more straightforward UI of the default Android music player app for navigating my music library. Navigating photo libraries was interesting, but seemed confusing at first with all the thumbnails flooding the screen with smallish fonts to desginate specific viewing criteria. The 4 inch screen could have fostered a great user experience, but being without multitouch REALLY hurt it in this regard. Additional features such as sharing proved to be just as reliable as my Nexus One, and every photo simply looked absolutely vivid onscreen. Mediascape just seemed to be too much eye candy that exerted an uneccessary graphics load on the CPU. It would have been one thing if it could perform such visuals without being sluggish, but this was usually not the case...especially in loading/viewing online photo libraries through via 3G instead of wifi.
Setup of online accounts and access to the Internet was all possible via my own wifi connection, but once I travelled outside my home I ran into an issue. Data service was not connecting to my device for use of the browser or Google Maps. While there was indeed some frustration building over an unsuccessful attempt to tweak settings, I eventually considered going on the Sony Ericsson site for help. I did recall when owning the P990 how I had to download data configurations for AT&T, so this X10 was probably no different. Another pet peeve on was the inability to work with my Klipsch headphone mic in voice calling. The Nexus One had no problem in working with it, so why did the Sony Ericsson? In addition to that, I found out that when the 3.5mm jack was occupied with either regular headphones or an auto line-out cable, there was no auto configuration to enable the phone's mic! While connected to the cassette adapter in my car for music playback over the stereo, I received a phone call signaled by the ringtone coming through the same. I pressed the touch command to answer the call and expected the phone mic to transmit my voice, but it did no such thing. I sat puzzled as the caller's voice continued over my car stereo: "Hello Trent, are you there? Hello?" It was obvious my contact heard me pick up, but he couldn't hear my voice at all. After discovering the data access situation just moments before, I was seriously agitated with Sony Ericsson experience. Why is it so hard to allow for a mobile to automatically configure itself to whatever SIM card it happens to be storing? I didn't understand this part of Sony Ericsson. I eventually visited the SE site for assistance with the data settings issue and found a page where I could have them sent to my device via SMS. Just like I remembered from the P990 and P1i, it was a matter of inputting my country, carrier name, and phone number and then waiting for a confirmation pin number. After an hour, I thought it strange that I was not receiving anything yet, so I tried the online prompts again only to not hear anything back. Frustrated and confused, I called SE customer service only to find out that it can take up to 24 HOURS to receive this SMS with the data settings!! WHAT?!! As much as I tried to be patient and understanding, that hassle really seemed inexcusable to me. Being stuck with a smartphone that cannot access TMobile data for Internet was a HUGE damper on the XPERIA experience, and having to go through extra steps and then WAIT for the solution to arrive made it worse!! Honestly, it was that aspect alone that caused me to start missing my Nexus One which was configured OUT OF THE F*****G BOX for TMobile 3G!! Never once did I have to contact customer service on any other brand to receive something as fundamental as DATA ACCESS SETTINGS!! Ridiculous is what that was, absolutely ridiculous! Just when I thought myself prepared for the expected cons, these matters just had to come out of nowhere and smack me across the face. Patience is definitely a virtue, and I am afraid I lost it in ranting just then...this is certainly a testament to the speed and accuracy of the Nokia 9300 qwerty. UPDATE: After a number of failed attempts at receiving that SMS message for Internet and MMS settings and wasting my time with a SE phone rep, I came across a discovery from a Google search. Someone in the same predicament actually got correct X10i APN settings sent from an Expansys-USA tech rep. After sending an email for assistance to Expansys-USA technical support, I did receive those settings which did get me connected to TMobile 3G on the X10i!!!
As I went through the first day of writing with the Android qwerty, I found myself missing the responsiveness of the Nexus One screen. At first I thought it was the standard SE keyboard that was at fault for quirky feedback at times, but I was proved wrong once I saw the Android keyboard exhibiting the same minor issue. The feedback really isn't too bad, but it was indeed a couple steps below the Nexus One. Speedy thumbs that could compose a SMS or quick email on the Google phone were slowed on the X10 in lieu of typos. While the auto correction feature usually took lead on the Nexus, it seemed lackluster on the SE. Using landscape mode felt more reliable than portrait mode for faster typing, but I still had to be watchful of potential mistakes. While I did miss the Nexus in this regard, I was impressed with how comfortable the X10 felt in my hand when using landscape mode. The flat surfaces of the top and bottom provided resting spots for my upper palms as I held the phone horizontally. Being that the width was just right, this made for a most worthwhile usage experience despite feedback being inferior to the slimmer, smaller Nexus One.
While the larger footprint of the X10 could be a pro in the cases of viewing multimedia or typing in landscape mode, portability was of course affected in a negative manner. There was a profile thinness that allowed it to be stored in one's pocket with no trouble at all, but its sharp corners did make it seem unwieldy at times...especially when taking it out of my pocket. Unlike the Nexus which had curved corners, the SE didn't always feel natural to hold despite the sleek shaping of its back. Even though it wasn't a gargantuan HD2, it still couldn't manage to step up to the same level as the Nexus. However, there could be some pardoning of this from the X10 feeling lighter with all of its plastics.
Battery can indeed be as bad as the HD2 if not worse. I had brightness at the max level on the huge screen and wifi enabled along with GPS, Assisted GPS, locator services, and Gmail updates. Once I kicked my normal usage routine into gear, I was getting a low battery warning by the evening...and this was after a full charge from overnight. I also made matters worse via Timescape automatic updating of my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I first selected the update interval for every 15 minutes, but I learned the hard way. After some voice calls, Seesmic, web browsing, camera snapshots, music listening, and MMS activity, I got the low battery warning in the mid afternoon!! Needless to say, carrying an AC adapter in my pocket was about to become a necessary evil for this X10. While I couldn't see myself compromising on the brightness, I did increase the Timescape update intervals to every hour instead of 15 minutes. Even after doing this, battery life still remained a critical issue with the X10. I learned one morning that overnight charging is MANDATORY when I woke up to a blinking red LED and a below 10% battery level warning. Honestly, for the first time in a while battery longevity had become a potential deal breaker for me. As an end-user I was willing to go only so far in trying to maximize battery life, but not anything more...and yes, this was indeed selfish on my part. What was scary about the X10 was that carrying an AC adapter probably wouldn't have been enough since battery depletion seemed to rival the gas mileage of a gargantuan, guzzling SUV.
The Gmail application was the same on the XPERIA X10 as on the Nexus, but there was one difference. When deleting a message from the inbox, there is no "Undo" option that appears at the top of the screen. This wasn't a big deal, but I assumed it was something that could be fixed with an Android 2.1 upgrade in the future.
Using YouTube was the same as on the Nexus One, but the X10 won out with its large screen! Those 4 inches were amazing for watching full screen content, and I noticed that widescreen videos took up the whole space while standard versions did not. Sound from the speaker could be a chore to deal with even with cupping my hand behind it, but there were always 3.5mm headphones available as an alternative.
Using the camera for still images was not bad at all, and I actually liked it despite the poor flash execution. Instead of having a flash that automatically appears in the midst of taking a picture, I had to take time to go into menus and turn on a photo light. This extra step was certainly a huge irritation, especially when there are feature phones out there at half price capable of automatic flash!! On the other hand, having some kind of LED light was better than having none at all. Taking a picture yielded some good quality shots overall and I was pleased with the 8.1 megapixel unit. The interface was impressive in its own right from the aspect of added functionality execution over the Nexus One camera app. Once pictures were taken, there was a row of these recent pics that appeared in the lower right corner of the screen. This camera roll could even be accessed by touching the desired photo which then opened another viewer window over the viewfinder. But this certainly didn't stop there, for there were small icons below the viewed picture that gave the user a number of command choices such as delete or share. While the Nexus did offer this same function in its camera app, its interfacing didn't come off as polished as the X10's variant. Taking photos was ergonomically sound with the placement of the physical shutter key, for I was able to hold and operate the phone like a dedicated camera. Shooting video turned out to be a great experience, especially with 30 frames per second and a WVGA resolution being available. Image stabilization and a video light further impressed me on that 8 megapixel camera unit, and I was slowly doing away with bad impressions left from Sony Ericsson in previous blunders. Colors seemed accurately represented and movement was definitely smooth in on-board playback, but all that changed once I imported recorded videos to my Mac. I noticed that X10 recorded footage played back on my Mac exhibited audio that was out of sync from the video. While I could have immediately put the SE at a disadvantage, I also did not want to cast unfair blame if my Mac was at total fault. Aside from that glitch, the X10 did demonstrate great video capturing capability. The video light did provide some lighting for objects up close, but nothing that could seem to rival the torch on the E72.
The X10 was certainly a pleasant surprise after my years of avoiding the Sony Ericsson brand name as a result of the P990 fiasco and mediocrity of the P1i and M600. With Android OS on such impressive hardware, the company seemed to be moving in the right direction. However, two things for me hindered its chances of being a worthy Nexus One backup: uncertain Android OS updates and inconsistent touch response. As much as I loved Android, there was no doubt that I had become accustomed to the most recent OS version on the Nexus One. Releasing a device with anything less than 2.1 was not a deal breaker, but not really a smart move in today's competitive mobile market. To make matters worse for X10 owners, they would have to wait on Sony Ericsson to provide an Android update...and prompt timing wasn't always in that company's track record. Last I heard was that a 2.1 OS update was due for the X10 in the fourth quarter of 2010...the FOURTH quarter!!! In my opinion, pushing out the update ASAP should have been paramount in SE's business agenda to keep it relevant amidst its competitors. The longer the X10 held on to 1.6, the further behind it would keep falling as newer devices became available for Android with the latest version. The feedback of the touchscreen was not exactly the most reliable to work with in using the qwerty or navigating the interface. Double presses and swipes were necessary more times than I would have liked to see, and that took away from the visual charm of the SE interface overlay. Instead of measuring up to the quality of the Nexus One, the X10 shamefully took a backseat with its glorious 4 inch screen. Not having multitouch was not really a major issue, but that once again called to how badly SE wanted to compete in the market. As spellbinding as the display could be in watching videos, there was still no comparison to the Nexus One and its grouping of supported accessories and direct access to Android updates.
TRENT SMITH
Sent from my Nokia 9300
