Otaku Gadgets

The highly anticipated update to the Sony Ericsson XPERIA line is finally here and it is called the X10. The main points of attraction on this phone are – the Android OS, the custom UI, the large capacitive touchscreen and the 8.1mp camera. It has been through several leaks and spy shots in the past month or two. And it seems like they were pretty much spot on. Get over to the other side to get the full low down on what is apparent about this new fangled Android phone from Sony Ericsson.

First things first – it is not running Android 2.0 yet, as many of us have been expecting. But it makes sense because they have been building the custom UI on top of Android and they possibly did not have enough time to work on the Eclair release because Google has made it available only recently. The phone is expected to arrive on the market in the first half of the year 2010.

The rumors put the code name as Rachael and now it seems like Rachael was actually the name of the custom UI, which is what is actually signified by the infinity symbol. SE is calling it the ‘Open OS’ but it is basically Android 1.6 with a custom UI. However, this custom UI does add a lot of features that are unavailable on the other Android phones.

The spotlights are on the two main features –Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape can be accessed by touching the infinity symbol and it is meant to consolidate all your communications. This is one of the most enticing features of the phone.

When you have a contact, you communicate with him or her on various different platforms. You call, you text, you tweet, you Facebook, you email, etc. What Timescape does is it brings all those communications to one central place for you to see. All you have to do is choose a contact and it will display all the communiqués that you have had with that person. I am not entirely sure about the twitter part but the website does mention Facebook. So they are looking to make this a set that compliments your always-connected lifestyle.

Moving on to the Mediascape feature, this is where the face-off with iPhone will be really worth seeing. Mediascape, as the name suggests, is a media browser feature that gives you access to all the images, music and videos that you have on your device. It breaks away from the traditional display style or artists/albums/etc.. Instead, it will display songs that you have favorited, the ones that you have recently played and such. This way, it actually manages look quite similar to the Zune HD. Now whether that similarity is a coincidence, we are not too sure about. But it is for the better anyway. All other smartphones in the market have failed to deliver a rich media experience that can rival the iPhone’s. If SE comes through on their promises, we might finally see some real competition for the iPhone.

Although, by that time we are likely to have a new iPhone in our midst and probably something that pushes the envelop far beyond the reaches of the current ‘catch-up’ playing crop. But Android will at least be able to beat the iPhone by the sheer number of devices.

The X10 has generated this much interest because of two important things – Android and Snapdragon. Everyone has been super excited about a new Android phone that will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor. This is not the first Snapdragon Android phone though, that title belongs to Acer Liquid A1. But that one has completely failed to impress and Acer underclocked the chip at just around 700MHz. Not cool.

The XPERIA X10 on the other hand has kept the clock speed at the native 1GHz. Since the phone has not seen a commercial release yet, hands on details are hard to come by. But Engadget (and others) have reviewed a pre-production unit and they have quite a bit to say about the device.

According to them, there is a clear difference in the speed of the device versus the majority of the devices in the market and that is where the Snapdragon really shines. But more clock speed also means more power consumed and that is the part that worries us all. However,  the device tested was only pre-production, so there may be hope yet.

The X10 was reported to lack enough responsiveness and there was apparently a distinct lag during certain functions. So the reviewer wasn’t too impressed by the UI.

It is true that what SE is trying to do with the device is something that is totally different from what they usually do. They are also gunning for pretty big things (Timescape and Mediascape), which have been attempted by several other companies before. And most of them have failed miserably. Take the Motorola CLIQ for instance, with its MOTOBLUR features. It failed make the tinniest impression on most of us. And as a result, it is all but forgotten completely under the whole Droid hype.

It seems like SE knows that they are on to something big here, so they have announced that the new phone will be the flagship of a whole new line of products. I say if their sound quality, camera quality, media features and social network/online communication integration is properly done – we can finally say that the iPhone has some serious competition. And we do want the iPhone to have some competition because it will hopefully drive innovation faster than Apple’s usual fastrate.

In the meantime, what we are asking from Sony Ericsson is really quite a lot and we understand that. So do not get your hopes up yet. Instead, just know that another great Android phone is coming and it may be the first of an entire new line of phones.

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