Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review

Of the w0rld's largest phone manufacturers, perhaps none has been taken a more twisted road to smartphone ubiquity than Sony Ericsson. It began its journey back in the pre-joint venture Ericsson days by throwing its weight behind Symbian, a smartphone platform that would ultimately become the world's most popular -- so made a fatal error in supporting the doomed UIQ flavor that never saw even a fraction of the support its S60 cousin did. UIQ's untimely (but predicted) collapse last year left the company nearly rudderless and ill-equipped to deal with competitors like Nokia, HTC, and Apple, all of whom had long since embraced other platforms -- all with fighting chances of market dominance.

Hardware

In terms 0f appearance, we think the X10 is pretty polarizing, which might be a surprising statement considering that it's little more than a large slate -- and who doesn't want that, right? Specifically, we took issue with two things here: first, the front of the device is glossy plastic. Often, glossy plastic looks good when it's new & clean -- in pictures, anyhow -- but a few smudges and a brush with your car keys in your pocket later, it can easily be transformed into a war-scarred hellscape. As you might imagine, we didn't scratch test the X10 (we can't imagine our gracious handlers at Sony Ericsson would appreciate that too much), but it's a cause for concern. What's more, holding the X10 back-to-back with the Nexus One -- perhaps its nearest competitor on the market today -- quickly makes you appreciate the HTC phone's superior materials; it simply feels more solidly-constructed, and that's something that can make a big difference when you're buying a $500-plus handset.

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There's no indication of a dock connector anywhere on the phone, so unless there's some inductive capability that Sony Ericsson has yet to discuss, that port will be the one and only way of juicing your phone day in and day out.

Bottom line: the X10 will produce perfectly fine impromptu shots. As usual, you're not going to expect to replace your DSLR with this (or even your higher-end point-and-shoot), and you're not going to want to print out an 8-by-10 and frame it, but we'd feel much better about having this in our pocket for on-the-go shooting than, say, a Droid.

Software

The X10 isn't just an Android phone -- it's als0 the first to introduce Sony Ericsson's rather comprehensive Android skin, a package we'd first heard of in the middle of last year under the codename "Rachael." Unfortunately, it's taken the company so long to get Rachael good enough to launch that we're now two releases 0f the Android core beyond where the X10 stands; this phone comes with 1.6 out of the box, while devices like the Nexus One, Droid / Milestone, and Legend are putting along on 2.1, and we've no doubt that the next big version is just around the corner. Sony Ericsson has wisely committed to updating the phone on an ongoing basis, but it speaks to the same problem with which HTC and Motorola are already well-acquainted: when Google's iterating on its mobile platform at this breakneck pace, it's virtually impossible for the heavily-customized skins like Blur and Sense to keep pace.

Things that seem like they'd be extraordinarily processor intensive (scrolling through a Timescape Spline, for instance) can be super fast, while a drop dead simple operation like opening a pop-up menu can momentarily bring the phone to a halt. We don't get it, but we're hoping it's something Google and Sony Ericsson can tighten up over time through software updates.

Cellphones, Mobile Handsets

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review

Of the world's largest phone manufacturers, perhaps none has taken a more twisted road to smartphone ubiquity than Sony Ericsson. It began its journey back in the pre-joint venture Ericsson days by throwing its weight behind Symbian, a smartphone platform that would ultimately become the world's most popular -- but it made a fatal error in supporting the doomed UIQ flavor that never saw even a fraction of the support its S60 cousin did. UIQ's untimely (but predicted) collapse last year left the company nearly rudderless and ill-equipped to deal with competitors like Nokia, HTC, and Apple, all of whom had long since embraced other platforms -- all with fighting chances of market dominance.

Left without a platform to champion, Sony Ericsson would ultimately continue supporting Symbian through its involvement with the Symbian Foundation and phones like the Satio and Vivaz... and it would ramp up support for Windows Mobile with the Xperia X1 and X2... and it would bring Android into the fold with the X10, all within a few months of each other. All told, Sony Ericsson enters 2010 actively supporting three unrelated smartphone platforms, and comments by CEO Bert Norberg at MWC in February lead us to believe that they'd be happy to take on a fourth (or more) if the opportunity presented itself. It's an odd strategy to be sure, particularly for a company that's struggling mightily and shrinking its workforce more than any other top-five manufacturer. How it intends to effectively compete on three different fronts without spreading itself hopelessly thin, well... that remains a huge question mark.

That said, the Xperia X10 is perhaps the most promising of Sony Ericsson's confusing crop of modern smartphones, combining attractive hardware with killer specs, Android, and an intriguing custom skin. Does it hold its own against modern competitors like HTC's Nexus One and Desire? And more importantly, can it keep Sony Ericsson from going over the brink? Read on to find out.

Note: Sony Ericsson contacted us shortly after the review was published to let us know that this particular X10 is running pre-production firmware, which may account for some of the issues we had with keyboard performance and occasional sluggishness. Let's hope!

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review

Hardware

In terms of appearance, we think the X10 is pretty polarizing, which might be a surprising statement considering that it's little more than a large slate -- and who doesn't want that, right? Specifically, we took issue with two things here: first, the front of the device is glossy plastic. Often, glossy plastic looks good when it's new and clean -- in pictures, anyhow -- but a few smudges and a brush with your car keys in your pocket later, it can easily be transformed into a war-scarred hellscape. As you might imagine, we didn't scratch test the X10 (we can't imagine our gracious handlers at Sony Ericsson would appreciate that too much), but it's a cause for concern. What's more, holding the X10 back-to-back with the Nexus One -- perhaps its nearest competitor on the market today -- quickly makes you appreciate the HTC phone's superior materials; it simply feels more solidly-constructed, and that's something that can make a big difference when you're buying a $500-plus handset.

Secondly, with a 4-inch full wide VGA display, the X10 is big, very nearly approaching HD2 territory. That's not a problem for this huge-handed reviewer, but friends with more diminutive statures specifically called out the X10 as being a hassle to hold (fortunately, the upcoming X10 mini should be just what the doctor ordered for those folks, at the cost of screen real estate and processor power). Around back, the X10's battery cover is made of a lovely, high-quality soft touch material that is pretty much exactly what we like to find on the back of every phone we review. It feels nice, and the gentle, sloping curves make sure it's comfortable to hold. The phone clocks in at 13mm thick, not the thinnest on the market (the HD2 is an astounding 11mm, for example) but thin enough to look and feel... well, pretty thin. No one's going to accuse this of being a portly device, rest assured.

Around the sides, you find all the buttons and connectors you expect, including power and both micro-USB and 3.5mm headphone jacks at the top, volume and two-stage camera controls on the right, and the typical menu, home, and back buttons below the screen up front. The micro-USB port is covered with a flap, which improves the aesthetic appearance of the upper edge of the device but probably serves little practical function (we've seen micro-USB ports behave just fine with some pretty extreme lint packed in there), makes the daily task of charging more of a chore than it needs to be, and risks being broken off with repetitive use. There's no indication of a dock connector anywhere on the phone, so unless there's some inductive capability that Sony Ericsson has yet to discuss, that port will be the one and only way of juicing your phone day in and day out.

Notably absent is a dedicated search button, which might leave some existing Android owners upgrading to the X10 feeling like a fish out of water -- it's not that there aren't other ways to access search bars throughout the phone, naturally, but we could definitely understand missing one-press access to them. Adding to the potential for confusion is a silkscreened magnifying glass icon below the volume rocker, which makes it look like you might be able to press and hold the volume down button to get a search bar, but no -- it's actually indicating that the rocker doubles as a zoom control (which, admittedly, is a perfectly valid alternative use of the magnifying glass).

What about the camera? At 8.1 megapixels, the X10 represents just about the highest-res cam you can find on an Android phone today. Yes, granted, it's a well-worn truism that megapixel count has little to do with actual picture quality, but Sony Ericsson has historically taken a lot of pride in producing cameraphones that really hold their own, and we're happy to report that the X10 is no exception. At the risk of talking a little bit too much about software in the hardware section of this review, we'll say that we're pleased both with the picture quality we were able to achieve (even in less-than-perfect lighting) and also the camera's interface, which has been thoroughly and completely reworked from the stock Android UI -- it even whips the updated UI found on Eclair devices. You've got access to a variety of autofocus modes including fixed infinity focus and smile detection, multiple metering and scene modes, white balance control, a self-timer, and the list goes on. Heck, the phone even lets you adjust how big of a smile it should look for. If it's got a weak spot, it's macro -- we weren't able to get in as close as we've been able to do with some other phones, but as long as you stay further than three or four inches from your subject, you're golden.

Oh, and that light next to the camera lens? Your first guess might be that it's an LED flash, but Sony Ericsson has apparently decided not to buy into the fallacy that a single white LED can ever be considered a "flash" in the true sense of the word -- instead, it's a "photo light" that can be toggled on and off. When it's on, it stays on for the entire time you're in the camera application, which helps you frame your shot and get the autofocus tuned. It's a nice (and honest) feature, but we would've liked an icon in the viewfinder's HUD to toggle it rather than having to call up advanced settings through the menu button. Bottom line: the X10 will produce perfectly fine impromptu shots. As usual, you're not going to expect to replace your DSLR with this (or even your higher-end point-and-shoot), and you're not going to want to print out an 8-by-10 and frame it, but we'd feel much better about having this in our pocket for on-the-go shooting than, say, a Droid.

So Cyber-shot is one of Sony Ericsson's big co-branding schemes, but what's the other? Walkman, of course. As a music player, the X10 fares pretty admirably; we'll touch on the software in the next section, but from a hardware perspective, both the jack placement and the quality of the audio that the X10 produces are decent. The music was a little less punchy on the bass side of the spectrum than we'd like -- even with our Shure SE530s and triple-flange tips, both of which tend to accentuate low frequencies -- but the signal-to-noise ratio seemed superb throughout our testing. We could barely detect the presence of any electrical noise on the line; in fact, when we first plugged in, there was absolutely none. That's pretty rare for a phone.

The low-noise trend continues through to the earpiece while on calls. We were surprised at how the X10 was able to suppress line static without sacrificing volume; it was so good, in fact, that we had trouble at times figuring out whether we were still on the call when the person on the other end wasn't speaking. Likewise, the speakerphone is exceptional, both loud and clear enough to be useful for those impromptu conference calls we all have to take from time to time (or for when we're driving and we're caught without a headset). Sony Ericsson smartly placed the loudspeaker port on the side of the phone, not the bottom, so setting the phone down in any position has no ill effect on volume or usability.

Software

The X10 isn't just an Android phone -- it's also the first to introduce Sony Ericsson's rather comprehensive Android skin, a package we'd first heard of in the middle of last year under the codename "Rachael." Unfortunately, it's taken the company so long to get Rachael good enough to launch that we're now two releases of the Android core beyond where the X10 stands; this phone comes with 1.6 out of the box, while devices like the Nexus One, Droid / Milestone, and Legend are putting along on 2.1, and we've no doubt that the next big version is just around the corner. Sony Ericsson has wisely committed to updating the phone on an ongoing basis, but it speaks to the same problem with which HTC and Motorola are already well-acquainted: when Google's iterating on its mobile platform at this breakneck pace, it's virtually impossible for the heavily-customized skins like Blur and Sense to keep pace.

That said, Android 1.6 (née Donut) is still a perfectly serviceable version of the platform, and Sony Ericsson has injected a few key modifications that make some of the benefits of 2.0 / 2.1 moot. The meat of these tweaks revolves around two applications, Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape starts by going down the same social aggregation path that Motorola has with Happenings and HTC with Friend Stream -- basically, a chronological timeline of your friends' status updates across Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace -- but keeps going by offering other timelines for other services within the phone (photos, SMS and MMS messages, emails, and so on). These timelines are presented in ultra-trippy 3D stacks that Sony Ericsson has coined "Splines," and once status updates have been properly loaded into memory, these so-called Splines perform pretty well -- they're slick and smooth as you flick them up and down with your finger. There's some pretty nasty initial jerkiness, though, if you haven't viewed Timescape in a while.

Speaking of jerkiness, the X10 suffers from the same issue that plagues the Nexus One: despite the blazingly fast 1GHz Snapdragon core that's aboard, portions of the interface feel barely quicker than a lowly 528MHz MSM7201A. Since we've seen similar issues on the Nexus One, we can't really chalk up the problems to Sony Ericsson's customizations, so we're not sure how or where to place the blame -- it's just inconsistent, even without having loaded any third-party apps. Things that seem like they'd be extraordinarily processor intensive (scrolling through a Timescape Spline, for instance) can be super fast, while a drop dead simple operation like opening a pop-up menu can momentarily bring the phone to a halt. We don't get it, but we're hoping it's something Google and Sony Ericsson can tighten up over time through software updates.

Anyway, back to the second part of Sony Ericsson's one-two punch: Mediascape. Anyone who's used any stock Android device -- 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, doesn't matter -- can tell you that the in-built music app is in desperate need of tender loving care, and these guys have given it just that. Basically, Mediascape is your one-stop shop for browsing music, videos, and photos on the device; there's also support for the company's PlayNow store, though we weren't able to test it (it still hasn't launched in the US, though it's available in a number of European markets). The app makes clever use of album art, presenting you with a list of recently-played and favorite tracks when you first start -- there's some Timescape integration as well, where you'll find the art in a Spline representing your chronological consumption of audio. Naturally, it's got support for a variety of browsing modes (album, artist, and so on), background playback, and everything else you'd expect from a basic music player. Well, almost everything -- as we'd mentioned in the hardware section of this review, we were a little underwhelmed with the X10's bass response over the headset, and we would've loved a graphic equalizer in here to help clear that up. No dice.

Otherwise, there's not much installed out of the box: a handful of productivity apps from Moxier, a MySpace client, Mobile Systems' OfficeSuite viewer for checking out (but not editing) Office docs, the Quadrapop game, TrackID, and turn-by-turn navigation from Wisepilot that includes a 30-day free trial. The suite has built-in weather forecasts which is nice, but it's hard to say why anyone in the US would consider plunking down for this with Google Maps 4.1 -- and free turn-by-turn along with it -- just a download away.

Keyboard input -- a pretty important topic, if you ask us -- was a surprisingly big problem on the X10. First off, you can't consistently use the back button to clear the keyboard like you can on virtually every other Android device we used -- here, it deletes everything in your current text field and keeps the keyboard up on the screen on occasion, thought we can't nail down the pattern of the behavior. Much, much more dangerous, though, is the fact that we're seeing all sorts of missed inputs.

Wrap-up

Even in 2010, high-powered Android devices are still surprisingly difficult to come by. You can basically count the models seriously worth considering on a single hand, and the X10 certainly joins that elite team on the wings of its gigahertz-class Snapdragon core and gorgeous 854 x 480 display that clocks in at a whopping four inches -- a size that bests every other Google-powered phone on the market today (though it certainly won't hold that title for long).

Thing is, it's not just about the hardware; when it comes to Android, unless you buy a so-called "Google Experience" device, it's never going to be about the hardware alone. Any company that tries to aggressively skin a mobile platform is going to have issues -- possibly major ones -- on its first iteration.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10

Previously rumored as XPERIA X3 and Sony Ericsson Rachael

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 1700 / 2100
		HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - X10a for Americas
	Announced	2009, November
	Status	Available. Released 2010, March

Size	Dimensions	119 x 63 x 13 mm
Size	Weight	135 g

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 65K colors
	Size	480 x 854 pixels, 4.0 inches
		- Scratch-resistant surface - Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off - Timescape/Mediascape UI

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones, composer
	Speakerphone	Yes
		- 3.5 mm audio jack

Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Practically unlimited
	Internal	1 GB storage, 384 MB RAM
	Card slot	microSD, up to 16GB, 8GB card included

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, DLNA
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, v2.0 microUSB

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Touch focus, image stabilization, geo-tagging, face and smile detection
	Video	Yes, WVGA@30fps
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Android OS 1.6
	CPU	Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz processor
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push email, IM
	Browser	HTML
	Radio	No
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Sensous Black, Luster White
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via third-party application
		- Digital compass - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk - Facebook and Twitter integration - Document viewer - Voice memo

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BST-41)
	Stand-by	Up to 415 h (2G) / Up to 425 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 10 h (2G) / Up to 8 h (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.87 W/kg (head) 0.81 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	1.25 W/kg (head)

There's nothing at all on the left-hand side of the Xperia X10, nor on the bottom, save a little grille to attach a lanyard if you're one of those that sees a big mobile as an ideal replacement for a necklace.
The back of the phone is slightly curved - we assume this is another corollary of the ergonomics study conducted by Sony Ericsson which led to the 'human curvature' of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.
It does make it slightly nicer to hold in the hand admittedly - but it adds a lot of thickness to the device, which is 13mm.
Sony ericsson xperia x10

When you consider the HTC HD2, which has a much larger 4.3-inch screen, is a couple of millimetres thinner at 11mm, it does make something of a difference with a device this size.

Product Summary

Xperia X10

For

>
Great camera
>
Nice media player
>
Bundled 8GB card
>
Slick OS
>
Large and responsive screen

Against

>
Poor text input
>
Lagging system
>
Poor audio quality
>
Suspect battery
>
Strange Timescape home screen

Virtual keyboard
The X10's virtual keyboard is very close to the standard Android design, but it offers a few unique elements. 1n landscape mode it takes advantage of the display's full size so you have plenty of room for typing. There are three rows of alphabetic/punctuation keys with separate keyboards for numbers and symbols and other punctuation. You also get a special pop-up keyboard above the alphabetic buttons that includes smileys and some symbols. That's particularly convenient since it puts oft-used characters, like a dollar sign and parentheses, right on the main screen. The space bar is conveniently located in the center of the bottom row.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 - sensuous black (unlocked)

Reviewed by

Kent German

on 03/22/2010

See all products in the series See all Sony Ericsson products

CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating
Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 reviews

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As shown: $999.00 See manufacturer site for availability

Quick specs
Service provider: Unlocked
Cellular technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Combined with: With digital camera / digital player
See full specifications

Add to my list Product summary

The good: The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has a user-friendly design with a brilliant display. The feature set is generous, the internal performance is fast, and call quality is satisfactory.

The bad: The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's data performance was spotty. The Timescape application has its faults, you must use a third-party app for Outlook calendar syncing, and the landscape keyboard doesn't work in the messaging app.

The bottom line: The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 offers a slick, user-friendly design with a solid feature set and good call quality. Data performance was uneven, however, and the Timescape application and keyboard miss some details.

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Reviewed on: 03/22/2010
Updated on: 04/12/2010

Editors' note: Our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 was equipped with prerelease software that was not calibrated for U.S. carriers. The final version of the product may offer different performance.
To the steady beat of a drum, Google Android marches on to visit new cell phone manufactures. And with its new Xperia X10, Sony Ericsson reveals itself as the operating system's latest stop. Both outside and in, the Xperia X10 offers a bit more than many Android handsets do. Its large display is simply gorgeous, its multimedia capabilities are impressive, and the user interface is slick and easy to use. We also like the virtual keyboard, but would really love it if it worked across all applications. The Timescape application is worth noting as well, even if it didn't come together quite as we'd hoped. Without a doubt it's practical and pretty, but Timescape's interface is almost too complicated for its own good.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 photos

The X10's performance was somewhat uneven. Call quality is satisfactory and the internal speed is very fast, but some Timescape updates failed to load and the strength of the data connection varied. Those issues could be solely related to the carrier--we were testing the unlocked phone on AT&T's 3G network--but even the best phone can't be separated from its service provider.
Believe us when we say the X10 is a superb handset in many ways, though we were hoping for better overall performance. A different carrier, however, could offer a totally different experience. Because it's unlocked, the X10 isn't cheap--expect to pay at least $700 with an online retailer--but we commend Sony Ericsson for making a solid first pass at Android.
Design and display
"Big" is the first word that comes to mind when you see the X10. We doubt that many consumers are actually using an X10, but complaints about its size are littering user forums. We, however, take a more neutral view. Seriously, if you want a compact device, you really shouldn't be looking at a touch-screen smartphone in the first place. The X10 makes for a tight fit in a pants pocket, but it remains portable if you stick with a jacket pocket or purse.
At 4.7 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep, the X10 is only slightly larger than the iPhone, and you hear no one complaining about that device's size. The X10 is lighter than you might think (4.8 ounces) though we enjoyed its sold feel. Its face is purposely curved; Sony Ericsson does this so the device matches the natural curve of your hand. We understand nay skepticism, but it's only the slightest bit gimmicky. Indeed, the X10 fits comfortably in the hand, but it wasn't a huge leap over other handsets. On the other hand, the curved back means that when it's resting on a flat surface, the X10 wobbles if you try to tap at the screen.
Size, of course, does have its advantages. A bulky phone can offer a sizable display and the X10 comes through with a 4-inch screen. That makes it larger than most touch-screen phones currently on the market and we couldn't fault the rich resolution (65,536 colors; 854x480 pixels). Graphics, photos, and colors were sharp and vibrant, and we could see the display relatively well in direct light. The touch interface was accurate and responsive, both when tapping icons and swiping through long lists. It even was responsive at the very edges of the display.

We thank Sony Ericsson for giving the X10 standard headset and charger ports.

You get three home screens that you can populate as you please with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. Like all Android phones, other display options are limited to the wallpaper, brightness, and backlighting time; the menu font size and style aren't customizable. Our only real complaint about the display is that it shows smudges way too easily. Indeed, we were wiping it clean constantly just to see it clearly. The display has the Android notifications bar and an accelerometer, but not a proximity sensor.

We like the XP10's virtual keybaord.

Below the display are the X10's only physical controls. The Home key, back button, and menu control are large and tactile so we had no trouble using them. On the left spine you'll find the volume rocker and a camera shutter. The latter is a rather small, but it didn't pose a problem. On the top of the phone are the 3.5mm headset jack, the power control, and the Micro-USB port for the charger and syncing cable. We give Sony Ericsson major points for ditching the proprietary connections and including a microSD card slot. The slot is located behind the battery cover, but we'll let that slide in this case since we aren't stuck with a Memory Stick Micro format.
Virtual keyboard
The X10's virtual keyboard is very close to the standard Android design, but it offers a few unique elements. In landscape mode it takes advantage of the display's full size so you have plenty of room for typing. There are three rows of alphabetic/punctuation keys with separate keyboards for numbers and symbols and other punctuation. You also get a special pop-up keyboard above the alphabetic buttons that includes smileys and some symbols. That's particularly convenient since it puts oft-used characters, like a dollar sign and parentheses, right on the main screen. The space bar is conveniently located in the center of the bottom row.
We also love the X0's autocomplete function and dictionary. Instead of just one possible choice when writing a word, the X10 offers up to 20 possible choices. For example, if you type "it" you get not only "its" as an option, but also "itself," "Italy," "item," and even "ignore." What's more, the X10 is adept at remembering previously used words and offering them as suggestions even if they aren't in the dictionary. After typing "germank" just once, we got it as a suggestion each time we started typing another word that begins with G.
Not all was well in keyboardland, however. For reasons that we can't fathom you can't use the landscape keyboard in the messaging app (it does work in e-mail). When typing a text message you're stuck with the portrait keyboard at all times even if you tip the phone to its side. In additional to being smaller, the portrait keyboard doesn't have the same autocorrect feature described above.
UXP interface
The X10 runs Android OS 1.6. We've rattled on endlessly about the fragmentation of Android, but we're starting to wonder if anyone besides us really cares. Google always has said that manufacturers and carriers decide when a device receives an OS update, so it shouldn't surprise us that the X10 runs a different version than the Motorola Droid. But updates aside, we still think it's a problem that new Android handsets aren't given the most recent version of the OS at the time of their final release. The Droid hit stores months before the X10 was ever made it past the announcement stage, but it runs Android 2.0. So why do we have to fall back to 1.6 to use the X10?

Timescape
The main draw of UXP is the aforementioned Timescape feature. After registering your accounts for e-mail, Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook, it displays your latest e-mails, text messages, and social media alerts in a flowing design that resembles a stacked deck of cards. To move through the deck, just swipe your finger along the display and the cards will fly by. Timescape also displays your latest social media alerts on the home screen, though we chose to remove that option. Like with the "Happenings" widget in MotoBlur, we just didn't need to see what was going on with our friends at every moment.

Xperia X10 WiFi Bug: Cause Found!

As is customary with new Sony Ericsson devices, several irritating bugs can be expected until updates start to be rolled out and the Xperia X10 is no exception. The bug I'm pertaining to at the moment is the dropping of the phones WiFi connection for seemingly no reason, even while in use, only for it to then reconnect and operate normally after 10-20 seconds or so.

Some of you may have experienced this strange loss of WiFi connectivity, other will not. It's currently unclear whether this bug was introduced with the R1FA016 firmware update or if the R1FA014 version is also affected but I have managed to track down the apparent cause of the problem.

Since updating to R1FA016 I had been noticing frequent WiFi disconnections even while actively browsing. Being in an area of poor GSM coverage at home this was particularly irritating with little or no network connection to fall back on for continued browsing. Shortly though it became apparent that this poor coverage is not only a separate irritation but is in fact directly causing the problems with the WiFi on the X10!

As you can see in the video below the WiFi is happily connected until the phone loses network coverage. At this point you would usually expect your WiFi to carry on regardless but the X10 mysteriously decides to turn off it's WiFi before reactivating it and reconnecting to the network automatically:

lock xperia x10, padlock xperia x10,peria X10 lock screen

how to secure xperia x10 data?

The phone lock code protects your phone against unauthorized use if it is stolen and the SIM card is exchanged. To be able to switch the phone on, you need to enter the four-digit phone lock code. The Sony Ericsson default phone lock code is '0000', but you can change this to any 4-8-digit personal code. When you buy the phone, the phone lock is by default turned off.
Note: For security reasons, your operator, retailer or Sony Ericsson Contact Center cannot retrieve the lock code through the phone or the network. If you forget the code, locked phones must be sent to a service centre.

the screen or by using a screen unlock pattern every time your phone is turned on or every time it is activated from sleep mode.
To create a screen unlock pattern
1 From the Home screen, press for menu.
2 Tap Settings > Security & location > Set unlock pattern.
3 Follow the instructions in your phone.

A Proof For Anything !

Sunday, May 2, 2010