SE Xperia hands-on – not good enough?

September 19, 2008 | By Surur

I have just returned from the Sony Ericsson Xperia display at the Tent London exhibition, and I am seriously concerned for this emerging smartphone.

After playing with the phone for about 2 hours, the overriding impression is lack of polish. This is especially apparent when compared with HTC’s Touch Pro, which exudes a wow factor which the Xperia X1 seems to lack. The Panels interface seems disjointed, without any overriding theme or integration, and also seemingly a lot of duplication. The device included the Opera browser, but all the internet links still pointed to PIE. One of the panels was SPB Mobile Shell, and of course this worked differently from all the panels UI-wise. The colour scheme was different for each panel, and the graphics appeared low resolution and again, unfortunately, unpolished.

The hardware also did not impress, feeling on on the flimsy side, especially compared to the extremely solid HTC Touch Pro. The device itself felt much lighter than the Touch Pro, but not necessarily in a good way. The keyboard was not as bad as feared, but still pretty soft and squishy, and depressing one key seemed to depress the whole membrane around it. Despite having a 3 inch screen, the screen actually appeared smaller due to being more narrow. Recessed screens are also very 2007.

Hopefully to make up for the horrible tirade I will end with the good points of the device. The screen was very good, touch focusing in the camera application worked well, the Handango Inhand client looked good, and appeared very easy to use, and the Panels interface was pretty smooth.

I look forward to receiving a review device by the end of the month to see if my first impressions are justified when used for a longer period of time.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged preview, sony ericsson, sony ericsson xperia x1

pascal

Ouch. This was the harsh reality that I somewhat expected. Thanks for the write up. Look forward to more thoughts/opinions on the device.
netboy

“Recessed screens are also very 2007″

ya, but QVGA and 2.8 VGA is so 2005! how many freaking QVGA or 2.8 VGA do u need??
RS

The longer this phone has taken (and the more we’ve seen other great phones emerge from HTC) the more I’ve figured this thing wasn’t going to be up to snuff. The possibility that SE might not be supporting WM in future versions is also a major reason to take a step back and wait.
admin

“The possibility that SE might not be supporting WM in future versions is also a major reason to take a step back and wait.”

That last part is just a vicious WM-hating rumour. SE had said from the start (when they announced the Xperia x1) that the brand will not be exclusively Windows Mobile. When they repeated the same line with the recent launch of the X1 suddenly it became huge news and blown completely out of proportion.
Se@n

them saying they still arent exclusive is a big issue to me. Its like saying “We have no faith in the OS we are using.” I automatically assumed that this phone would be shotty, and it has turned out to be true by most reviews
netboy

it’ all about doing business! do u see game makers making games just for Wii or PS3 only? usually they make it for Wii, Xbox, and PS3! so u can get as many players as possible! just like SE, making it with different OS, so u get different group of people to buy your products!
Shadowplay

At this point I’ve all but dismissed the X1 and I’m eagerly waiting for my chance to snag the Touch Pro or possibly even wait it out for the Touch HD.

That said, I just wanted to point out that HTC is no longer exclusively WM either with the Dream (Android OS) rolling out here in the U.S. for T-Mobile.
Jim

Thanks for the review. Having seen quite a few demos of SE X1, I finally opt to go to HTC Touch Pro. I figure that:
1. SE is not serious about WM
2. SE first attempt in WM just would not cut it
3. Too many complaints from friends who has SE slider phones
4. Using HTC to built their phones
5. Panels or no panels – it is v1.0.0
6. Wanting 3rd parties to add to their Panels… keep waiting. No economics of scale – doubt anyone would be doing it
Chris

SE is never serious about anything.

You can easily deduct from their lack of support, even for the flagship phone like P990 and the first generation of UIQ3. As a result, such a good UI doesn’t take off and grab significant market.

You can freely search the fiasco history on several threads at my-symbian.com, under UIQ3 forum, with several headings:
P990 firmware (the whole history since launch till latest update), M600 firmware, Letter to SE, SE alliance with Micro$oft (especially about X1 & the future).

Let me ask one thing: if they don’t even support their owned UIQ3 properly, how do you suppose they’ll have the willingness to support WM? P990, M600 and W950 was abandoned in less than 2 years since product launching, check what happened with P1 ..
The features they improved for P1 has never been ported for older device (such useful one like bicolor ink, better alarm sound management, etc.). Even the hacking result in a much more useful phone with better camera ..

You can deduct yourself, a company that halfheartedly supports and chooses to ignore it’s users (up to the formal letter delivered to the CEO’s doorstep), will it support an O/S that it doesn’t own?
Swapnil

I agree with Chris. Having used Sony Ericsson phones all my life, I was let down by the company with their “latest and greatest” gadgets. I was a paying beta tester for their flagship UIQ3 device. The device was terribly bug-ridden, and it looked like the firmware was never tested before release! UIQ was a great platform, that was killed by SE’s lackluster attitude.

When SE was pointed out by angry customers that some of the features mentioned in the whitepapers were not on the phone, guess wat SE did? They modified their whitepapers!

After a few firmware upgrades, which fixed some bugs and introduced several others, SE unexplicibly decided to withdraw support UIQ3 devices in LESS THAN ONE YEAR of manufacturing them.

That was the time I decided to move on to other platforms, and migrated to WinMo (more that a year back now!). The new Xperia looks like a great device, but after what SE did to their customers, I will never give them my money.

And this early preview of Xperia does remind of the early UIQ3 devices (P990i, M600i, W950i)…so i guess history does repeat itself!
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