With so much buzz about the Galaxy S and with a new Droid phone coming out every other week, it’s easy to forget that there are other Android phones out there.
One of those phones hasn’t gotten much buzz around the web is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The X10 has a pretty stout spec list:
- 1GHz Snapdragon CPU
- 4in TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen
- 480 x 854 screen resolution
- 8.1 MP Camera with LED flash
- 1GB built in memory
Not to shabby eh? Hardware-wise, this phone is neck and neck with the latest and greatest Android phones that are currently available. But with all good, there must be some bad and in this case, that bad is the fact that this sexy-hardware phone is packing old-school Android 1.6. I know, I can hear your sighs and mutterings of “WTF” from here, I’m muttering that too. Sony Ericsson knows this and have said that the X10 will be getting some 2.1 goodness (I know, not 2.2, again “WTF”) in Q3 (or Q4 depending on your market) of this year.
But enough about that stuff, let’s get to the actual unboxing. The X10 comes in your typical AT&T branded box:
Rest assured that when you purchase your X10, that your box won’t be in the same shape that mine was. It was probably delivered by this guy.
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Anyway, let’s get this box opened up:
I have to say that I’m not really a fan of how this box was designed. The lid actually opens up and contains the headphones and all the documentation, it just makes for a cumbersome package in my opinion. The Captivate package had a much more thoughtful (and sturdy) design.
Anyway, back to the X10. Once you get everything taken out of the box, this is what you’ll find:
You get your typical accessories, AC to USB adapter, miniUSB to USB cable and a hands free set of headphones. This headphone set is rather odd though. Rather than sleekly build the microphone into the headphone cord, SE has decided to go a different route and make it a two piece solution:
So now that gives you a second thing to worry about losing. What’s also not to great is the fact that the cord on the headphones themselves is so short that you HAVE to use the microphone part of of the headphones if you want to use the supplied headphones at all. This will surely frustrate enough people to either use a bluetooth earpiece, or just use their own headphones.
Well enough about accessories, let’s look at the phone itself:
There’s no doubt about it, the X10 definitely looks like a high-end smartphone. The front of the phone is very attractive and modern looking. One thing you immediately notice about the X10 is that it has three hardware buttons. From left to right, Menu, Home and Back. Why Sony Ericsson chose to omit the search button found on most Android phones is beyond me.
The X10 also feels like a high-quality device as well. The fit and finish of this phone is impeccable and I really don’t have anything to complain about. The back of the phone has a nice “matte” finish that is slightly grippy and is very similar to the finish on the back of the Epic 4G.
Onto the back of the device, you’ll find the 8.1 MP camera along with the welcome sight of a LED flash:
Popping off the back cover you’ll find the 1500 mAh battery, SIM card and microSD card:
Moving to the sides of the device:
As you can see, the “left” side of the phone is completely devoid of buttons. On the right you’ll find the volume up and down keys as well as the camera shutter button.
On the top of the device, you’ll find the miniUSB jack, 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. The little flap that covers the miniUSB jack isn’t as elegant as other devices (ahem, Galaxy S) and you’ll need to work on not breaking it when using the miniUSB port:
Flipping the phone over to the bottom, you’ll find a spot to attach a lanyard (odd that one isn’t supplied though).
Now let’s see how the X10 compares in size to some the Nexus one, AT&T Captivate and the Sprint Epic 4G.
Besides the Nexus One, the other three phones are all pretty similar in width and heights. But what about thickness?
So as you can see, the Nexus One is the thinnest (and is about the same thickness as the Captivate, which is why the Captivate isn’t in this picture). The X10, as you can see is just barely thicker than the N1 while still being a great deal thinner than the Epic 4G. (Shocking I know)
So that’s the hardware, what about the software? Well it’s Android 1.6, which means no multitouch and that sucks. Living without multitouch in a multitouch world really is tough. You never realize how much you miss pinch-to-zoom until you have to keep tapping the zoom in and zoom out magnifying glasses in the browser.
That being said, I actually don’t mind Sony Ericsson’s UI that they’re using on the X10 and I can only image it getting better with newer versions of Android. One thing that is pretty annoying and I’m sure has everything to do with Android 1.6 is switching from portrait mode to landscape. When you rotate the phone, right before the screen changes from portrait to landscape (or vice versa) the entire screen gets blurry and then finally rotates. Depending on the webpage you’re viewing this is either a quick process that you barely notice or one that definitely takes a second or two.
So that’s it for our unboxing and first impressions of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Look for our full review and benchmarks of the device within the week!
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