X10 coming to AT&T
Via Laptopmag I’ve learned that the Xperia X10 [specifications] is coming to AT&T in the U.S.A. for $149. I assume there’s a $70-$90 per month contract on that which explains the subsidy. The X10 is running at about 420 Euro ($550) here at the moment – without contract.
A few things need to be said.
1) What a mistake to be releasing it with Android 1.6. Yes, the current build is good (see next point) and yes, many users won’t even know about that but what it will do is taint the first reviews which become important reference points. The comments on Engadget are going to be fun!
2) The above has already happened. Many of the reviews out there highlight the terrible keyboard and extremely poor battery life which, you won’t have read on those reviews, has actually been fixed in 2 firmware updates. (I’ve had 3 since I bought mine.) My recommendation is to wait for the new set of reviews to see what the reaction is to the keyboard and battery life.
X10 firmware update brings noticeable improvements.
I finally got the new firmware (R2BA023) over the air at the weekend and after about 48hrs I’m pleased to say that there are some worthwhile improvements. I won’t go into too much detail here as I’m writing this on the X10 itself but here’s a summary from my point of view.
UI appears to be faster and smoother. I haven’t done a full rebuild so all my old apps are in still in place and there are very few sticky moments.
On screen keyboard improved. I’m writing this in portrait mode and having little trouble with poor hit areas. This is a very welcome improvement.
Battery life. The phone ran for a good 11hrs yesterday and today it looks the same with 25% used in 3.5hrs in a relatively busy morning with the X10. Thats about an hour, maybe two hours more than I usually get and brings it up to the battery life I experienced on the HTC Desire.
Mediascape is smoother all round. I was starting to experience crashes in the audio app and im pleased to see that problem fixed.
UPDATE: No, the Mediascape app is still crashing in the music player. It happens when I scroll through my library and I suspect I’ve got some MP3s or album art in there that it doesnt like.
The image gallery is a whole lot smoother.
A new backup and restore application has been added. I’ve set it up to automatically backup every week.
Browser improvements. The browser remains the same but im seeing some improvement in the javascript processing speed. It’s only 10% but its welcome.
Camera startup time appears to be better
There are probably other changes too but i haven’t experienced them yet.
Update: The image orientation bug is still there. Take a picture in portrait mode and it marks it as ‘normal / horizontal’ which means that if you upload it somewhere that uses the Exif data to auto-rotate, it will show incorrectly. Annoying when you use online sharing services as much as I do. The device has a rotation sensor and should use it to provide correct EXIF data.
Overall the firmware has made some great all-round improvement but i’m still hoping for a firmware build based on Froyo. The browser speed improvements alone are really something to get excited about.
Has anyone else had experience with the new firmware yet? How are you finding it?
Xperia X10 is my primary phone…for now.
You would be forgiven for thinking the Xperia X10 is a piece of trash. It’s not the #1 super-phone and the ‘feature’ timescape application is a load of rubbish. It’s expensive and yes, that on screen keyboard takes some getting used to. Most blogs tend to ignore it in favor of the Desire but I have to say that while the Desire is a better all-round phone, I’m still using and enjoying the X10 a lot more than I might have predicted a month ago. Last week I finally swapped my main SIM-card into the X10 and I’m no longer using it as a data-only device. The X10 has become my main phone and I feel confident enough to recommend it to anyone that either 1) wants a fantastic daylight camera 2) wants one of the biggest and best screens on an Android device (Galaxy S appears to be the leader now though) or 3) Can’t find an HTC Desire.
The turning point came when I was in Taiwan for Computex a few weeks ago. The X10 really really helped a lot with PIM, email, maps and even finding friends through the Google Latitude application. Email, contacts and calendar sync was better than I’ve ever experienced before (I’m a pure Google apps user) and the screen came into its own with maps; there’s no doubt about that.
Xperia X10 Euro-Price Settling Down.
80 Euros. That’s the price I paid for being impatient and picking my X10 from a high-street store because today, prices appear to have settled around the 440 Euro mark. As we reach June, July and the holiday period, you’ll see new offers coming in though so expect the X10 to break 420 or even 400 soon. I expect the price to undercut the HTC Desire after a while as Sony attempt to keep stocks moving. Clearly the Desire is getting better reviews.
I still have my X10. I’ve made a few weak attempts to sell it but I have to admit, I’m still using it a lot. In fact, I’ll be using it as my mobile internet device while I’m out in Computex next week. Days will be long and I’ll have a 3G card in Taiwan so the idea is to go for a 2-device strategy. Rather than use a UMPC as I often do, I’ll use the X10 as a data-only device for quick videos, communications, keeping up with news and even tracking friends with latitude. In addition I’ll take my N82, drop it into GSM mode, turn off data and simply use it for voice, SMS, camera and navigation. With local maps on the SIM card courtesy of the free OVI maps application, I won’t have to rely on being connected. It sounds like a strange combination but I guarantee that I’ll still have voice and SMS capability at the end of the day, without having to recharge. We’ll see about battery life on the X10. I’m not expecting it to last a full day!
One Week Later: HTC Desire or Xperia X10?
Last week, I sent my Xperia X10 off to blogger Guy Adams. In return he sent his HTC Desire to me and we’ve both spent the last week in the great position of being able to compare the two devices. I’ve already put up some first impressions and 6 days later I am able to say that yes, the HTC Desire is a fantastic mobile phone and one of the most complete and rounded superphones I’ve ever tested. Where the X10 has a bite, some features, sex appeal and the occasional let-down, the HTC Desire is just a great all-round package. Nothing stands out as being wildly exciting compared to the X10 but then nothing seems to be a let-down either. The HTC Desire has to be the no-brainer, no-remorse choice in the superphone category right now.
HTC Desire Testing Has Started.
Posted by chippy in Alternatives on May 4th, 2010
Many of you will have the Desire on your shortlist if you’re looking into the X10. It was certainly on mine and so through a swap with blogger Guy Adams I’ve got an HTC Desire here for a weeks testing to see what the main differences are with the device.
I’ve only had the device for a few hours but I’ve already picked up on a lot of differences…
- Full Google set-up on first-time-boot. (Account set-up)
- No cam focus/release button
- Nice build quality
- Poor (in comparison with X10) screen. Size, pixelation, outdoor-readability and viewing angle. It has a horrible blue-green tint when viewed from an angle.
- UI Speed is much the same.
- Browsing speed is much the same.
- HTC Sense is way better than the Xperia X10 skin.
- Double tap to zoom on browser is good (A feature of Android 2.1)
- No video playback application.
- Nice optical pointer/select button. Great for positioning a cursor in a text edit.
- Better (but not good) speaker.
- 3G up/down speeds much the same. (1.9Mbps down, 1.5Mbps up in my case)
- After a good session of testing the device felt warm on the rear. Not uncomfortable but indicative that this phone is using a lot of power.
I haven’t started testing the camera and have no feeling for battery life yet but all that detail will come over the next few days.
Don’t forget to see what Guy thinks of the X10 over at his blog.
Review Round-Up at XperiaX10.net
You can’t beat a good session of reading online reviews to help you make your decision about a device so head on over to Xperia X10.net who have a list of 11 reviews in their latest review round-up. Once you’ve been through that lot, check out their two earlier round-up lists. #1 here and #2 here
My coverage is on hold right now as I’ve swapped the X10 with an HTC Desire for a week. Guy on Technology has my X10 and I have his Desire. [His HTC Desire review here and here] I’ll write a summary here and of course, Guy will write his thoughts there so look out for them.
X10 News? There’s more over there.
There’s a whole lot more going on with the X10 than what you see here. Is the X10 going to get an Android 2.1 upgrade? Is the screen multitouch capable? How do you ‘root’ your X10? What are the best accessories? Where can I speak to other X10 owners?
You won’t find any of that here I’m afraid because this blog is purely for my own experiences with the X10. It’s a journal and should simply be be taken as a stop on your regular X10 info-gathering journey. For the rest of the picture, check out some of these sites.
- XperiaX10.net – Doing a great job keeping up with the X10 news, rumors and related subjects. I see they’re covering the X10 Mini too which is a great little device. I had some hands-on with the Mini Pro at WMC. There’s also a forum over there.
- Esato have a very well-established forum with an Android section. Lots of talk about the X10 there.
- The Sony Ericsson blog has some X10 posts. Clearly this is all marketing copy but it’s worth staying tuned to this for announcements.
- Google Blog Search is always a good place to find recent info. This search will give you some of the most important X10-related posts of the week.
If you have any other links (owner blogs are the best) then link them in to the comments below.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs. Nokia N82 Camera Test.
One of the things that impressed me about the X10 was the ease and quality of the photos I took in my hands-on session just before buying the device. With a LED flash (that turned out to be a lamp) I knew the flash photography wasn’t going to be excellent but what has surprised me and disappointed me is the low-light capability of the X10. In a word, it’s useless. The 2.5 year old Nokia N82 with its 5MP sensor is way better and you’ll easily see it in the results below.
N82 left (1/111 sec, ISO 160) X10 Right.(1/189 sec, ISO 50)
Click for full-size.
Crops and more images below.
My N82 is Back. X10 Downtime. HTC Desire Coming.
Posted by chippy in Alternatives on April 27th, 2010
When the center button on my N82 fell off three weeks ago I was sad. Very sad. The N82 has been a superb, reliable, quality smartphone and still produces some of the best cameraphone images out there. It’s small and relatively rugged and can be operated with one hand in any orientation. Try lying in bed with a touchscreen device and using one hand! You definitely can’t do it with the X10.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Info.
I track the Xperia X10 (and similar devices) over at the Carrypad product database. Click through to get the full specifications along with videos, images and links to other Xperia X10 content on the net.
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