Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 preview

06 NOV 2009

Launch price £TBC

Stuff says

A smart interface and Android OS leave the X10 straining at the leash to do battle with the iPhone

Pros Amalgamated social networking features. Multimedia prowess. Intelligent face recognition
Cons Only running Android 1.6. Lack of multitouch

PREVIEW

Whereas previous Xperia incarnations were clearly business beasts at heart, the new X10 is cut from the same cloth as the iPhone.

Entertainment and lifestyle are given star billing, and the more stuffy Windows Mobile OS cast aside for the versatility of Android for the first time.

Communication cred
The attention-grabbing UX user interface – soon to appear on both Android and Symbian handsets – revolves around two signature applications: Timescape and Mediascape.

Much like Motorola's new Motoblur, Timescape brings together all your communications – whether they're Tweets, Facebook messages, emails or texts – with a contact in one place, so you can wave goodbye to multiple apps.

Preview continues after the break...

Mediascape acts as a similar hub, this time for your music, photos and video. The great thing about this is that it doesn't just pull together the multimedia stored on your phone, it includes online content, too.

I've seen your face before
Sony Ericsson has developed a prowess in the picture department, and the X10 comes packing an 8.1MP camera with flash. But what really sets it apart is the intelligent face recognition.

Slightly 1984 in its approach, the X10 will recognise up to five faces in a photo and automatically connect them with the contact in your social phonebook.

Storage for all this multimedia goodness is far from limitless with only 1GB onboard memory, but there is at least an 8GB microSD card bundled. Media types will have to fork out for a 16GB card.

We won't deny it, the Xperia X10 has us genuinely excited. Sleek and sophisticated with a killer screen and Android potential, it looks well-equipped to go toe-to-toe with the iPhone and HTC Hero.