Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Getting to a party late is one of the most acutely embarrassing events one has to endure. Not only does it give the impression that you don't really want to be there, but it also means you miss out on all the free drink and food. We’re guessing that Sony Ericsson is experiencing similar feelings of awkwardness right now.

Its freshly-released Xperia X1 - the company’s first really concerted attempt to crack the lucrative ‘Super Smartphone’ market that is crowded with entries from Palm, Apple, Nokia and Blackberry - is trying to gatecrash a party that has been pumping for some time now. Does it possess the raw appeal to come across as ‘fashionably late’ or ‘unfashionably lazy’?

First impressions are mixed. The X1 has a considerable heft to its design. Not only is it a chunky customer, at 145g it’s heavy as well. However, the stylish buttons and sleek lines allow the phone to overcome these initial negative vibes. The metal casing and solid build quality also help.

Dominating the front of the phone is the 3” resistive touchscreen display. The TFT screen boasts a resolution of 800x480px, which is incredible when compared to a traditional mobile but somewhat less extraordinary when placed alongside another modern Smartphone. Still, the quality is exemplary, with pin-sharp detail and great colour depth.

Because the screen relies on pressure to register input, Sony Ericsson has thoughtfully included a stylus, which docks snugly on the back of the unit.

Naturally, it’s possible to use a finger to navigate through the handset’s Windows Mobile 6.1-powered menu system, but the high resolution of the display - coupled with the sheer volume of options crammed onto the screen at any one time - means you’ll be reaching for that stylus more often than you might expect.

Holding the phone on its side and sliding the display upwards reveals a brushed-metal QWERTY keyboard. Although the phone has an on-screen keyboard for when you’re typing in portrait mode, the mechanical one is a more appealing proposition - although owners of exceptionally large digits are going to struggle with the tiny keys.

The Windows-based operating system - the first of its kind on a Sony Ericsson device - offers an almost giddying level of customisation. Smartphone addicts will be entirely at home here, but more casual users might be put off by the amount of freedom thrust upon them.

In fact, it’s hard to see how users of ‘traditional’ phones will cope with the X1. When used ‘out of the box’ it has many niggles that can only be overcome by digging deep into the settings and adapting the device to operate in a manner that best suits your needs.

Even doing something as inconspicuous as changing your ringtone requires an almost superhuman degree of mental effort.

Still, the upshot of this is that it allows the X1 to do things that are totally beyond the remit of other phones. The much-hyped ‘X-Panel’ system - accessed by pressing the button on the lower left-hand side of the keypad - opens up a menu with direct access to several different functions of the phone, such as the Home screen, Google’s search page, your calendar and the X1’s built-in media player. It’s a fairly simple gimmick but one that is incredibly practical.

One facet of the phone that we’re head-over-heels in love with is the 3.5mm headphone jack - another first for the manufacturer.

Although it’s highly likely that this was included at the behest of HTC (Smartphone expert and Sony Ericsson’s partner on this project), we sincerely hope that Sony Ericsson will start to roll this feature out on future phones. Proprietary headphone connections really should be a thing of the past by now.

Some elements of the X1 are almost intolerably irksome, however. The 3.2 megapixel camera is unforgivably weedy, and when the phone automatically locks itself, the only way to get the screen to power up again is to press the power button on the top of the unit – a very counter-intuitive procedure that sometimes results in you accidently turning the phone off altogether.

Also, we noticed that the operating system crashed more than a few times during our review and the lag when moving between menus is pretty considerable, despite the X1’s fearsomely powerful Qualcomm MSM7200 528MHz CPU.

However, it’s worth noting that the unit we tested was a pre-retail version and might not be a fair representation of the finished product in terms of firmware.

However, the biggest bummer from our point of view is the lack of an accelerometer, which somewhat curtails the X1’s suitability for hosting the very latest Java games. Still, this disappointment is mitigated by the excellent selection of pre-loaded titles.

Bejewelled 2 leads the pack with its lovely high-resolution visuals (especially adapted for Smartphones) and touchscreen interface; and although it’s painfully simplistic, accompanying title Bubble Breaker is unquestionably great fun.

The X1’s D-pad is a little unorthodox in terms of design to be very practical for gaming, but it’s just about bearable and means that the phone has the upper hand over rival touchscreen handsets such as the iPhone and Renoir when it comes to playing games that require a traditional ‘pad and buttons’ control method.

Sony Ericsson undoubtedly expected to make a sizable splash with the X1, and while it’s not without its faults the phone does enough to distinguish itself from the flood of similar devices already available on the market, and as a first attempt is highly commendable.

While it’s unlikely that the X1 will be able to rely on the kind of support that Apple’s iPhone is able to call upon in terms of gaming, the nature of the Windows Mobile operating system means that owners with a penchant for portable entertainment shouldn’t be too hard pressed to find their next fix.