One of the most anticipated Android phones — of last year — has been the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. In all honesty, it should be available by now. But we continue to wait. Anyhoo … what you have here is a solid phone. It feels great in the hand, the way you expect an Xperia device to feel. It’s running Android 1.6 (Donut) here, but SE said it would be on the upgrade path after launch.
The user interface looks like something out of Avatar. There’s a whole lotta blue going on. It’s not unbearable, it just kind of wears on you after a bit. And despite being powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, transitions weren’t as quick as we’d expect them to be — something we’ve had to deal with before on Xperia devices. It’s almost as is the lofty UI goals can’t be met by the hardware, and that’s really saying something when you’re talking about Snapdragon. Perhaps it’s just a coding issue, but it’s one that was apparent here.
But any lag aside, the Timescape UI completely skinned Android. Sure, there’s an app launcher, but it definitely doesn’t have the same feel as stock Android. Not a bad thing, just different.
Timescape’s “Infinite” button was interesting, too. Say you’re looking at a contact, and you choose to see that contacts Facebook updates. Hit the Infinite button, and you really will see ALL of the updates. Search for an artist in the music app and hit the button. You’ll see ALL the hits on YouTube.
But all this is kind of moot until we actually see the Xperia X10 made available for purchase. In the meantime, check out the pics after the break. (Update: Hands-on video added)
