Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 preview: Getting closer

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 360-degree spin

Here goes our Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 360-degree spin to give you a better visual impression of the device.

The 4 inch screen is a treat

Being a full-touch handset the Ericsson XPERIA X10 had little room for maneuver as far as the design is concerned. The huge touchscreen covers most of the front, while the back is pretty plain. The rounded edges certainly give it an added attractiveness - much like the wavy metallic pattern on the side.

The design of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is pretty standard

What we are particularly happy about is the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 display. The 4" capacitive touchscreen unit packs a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels and great picture quality.

Of course, that 65K-color limitation of the Android 1.6 Donut takes its toll on some occasions, but unless it's single-color gradients that you are looking at, it won't really bother you in day-to-day usage. The default UI graphis have been carefully chose not to reveal this weak spot.

The display contrast is nice and the sunlight legibility is the best we have seen on a Sony Ericsson handset. In fact out there in the bright sun, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is as good as the Apple iPhone. The X10 brightness is bit below that on the iPhone, but still higher than on most other full touch phones. So the XPERIA X10 display gets a well deserved compliment.

The sensitivity of the display is great as well - quite as expected from a capacitive touchscreen. You don't need a push but only a slight touch for a click to be registered. The snappy Snapdragon also matters as the perceivable responsiveness of a device is screen and processing power in equal shares.

Getting to know the details

The three keys below the display are nicely comfortable with good tactile feedback. The left button opens the menu, the middle takes you to the homescreen, while the right one is a Back key.

The X10 sports Menu, Homescreen and Back buttons under the display

The right side of the handset features the camera key and the volume rocker, which also doubles as a zoom control. Those are both a bit too small, but nothing you cannot get used to pretty quickly.

Camera and volume are controlled from the right

The left side of Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 features no controls whatsoever.

It's pretty boring on the left

The top of the X10 hosts the 3.5mm audio jack, the power key and the microUSB slot. The universal connector is covered by a small plastic lid to prevent dust and dirt accumulation. We are extremely pleased that Sony Ericsson are ditching their proprietary Fast port connector and moving to the standard microUSB instead. We should see more of that on their 2010 products.

The microUSB slot is covered by a plastic lid, unlike the 3.5mm jack

At the bottom of Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 there's a pretty large whole. That is where the lanyard should go if you happen to use one.

The lanyard eyelet

The back of the handset features the 8 megapixel camera and its companion - the LED flash. As you might have guessed taking photos in complete darkness is not what the XPERIA X10 likes to do, but the occasional close-range shot of your buddies might be saved by the tiny LED.

The 8 megapixel camera is only treated to a LED flash

Unfortunately there is no protection for the camera lens, so you should be particularly careful not to scratch them. It's recessed enough but any sharpo objects in your pocket might get dangerously close.

The microSD card slot is below the battery and that means it's not hot-swappable. Having to restart the handset every time we need to access the card is not really our favorite thing but, alas, Sony Ericsson didn't find room for it elsewhere.

The microSD card slot is located under the battery cover

It's got a handling we liked

The build quality of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is pretty decent.The plastic on the back is quite fingerprint resistant and it's only the front panel that takes on an increasingly smudgy appearance as the day goes by.

We really enjoy the rounded edges on the back. They can easily make you believe that the phone is slimmer than it is. XPERIA X10 is about the size of original HTC Touch HD (but much lighter) so you can guess its size is on the border of crossing the line of convenient single hand operation. We can however assure you, it feels perfectly all right in a man's hand.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 held in hand

So that's about as much as we can tell you about the hardware right now. Join us on the next page to take a peek at the software side of the deal.