Ok, well, I said I said I’d believe it when I saw it on the real, actual phone. And now, it turns out the leaked interface, which I didn’t believe was pukka, is actually the genuine real deal. Yes, folks, the Rachael has been announced, and not only do we now know its real name (it’s the Sony Ericsson X10), but we know that the custom interface that was leaked months ago is, in fact, the genuine article.
Isn’t it a good job I’m prepared to admit when I was wrong (grumble, grumble, mither, sulk)?
So, the question is… is the Sony Ericsson X10 unremittingly awesome? Well, no, not yet, since they only had a non-optimised prototype to show everyone at the launch, and the software was still a bit laggy. Is it, though, an incredibly sexy phone, that will be unremittingly brilliant when they get the interface and OS running at full speed?
Oh hell yes!
I mean, just look at it, it’s all purdy.
Lovely slim body, massive 4.1 inch touchscreen, what more could ye want? Specs? Okay, well, it’s got a 1GHz Snapdragon processor (just like in the HTC HD2), so it’ll absolutely fly when you’re using it. Oh, and an 8MP camera. Granted, the camera hasn’t got a flash, which is a bit of a let-down, but apart from that, s’all good.
[UPDATE: It turns out early rumours have ended up being incorrect, and the Sony Ericsson X10's camera does have an LED flash after all!]
The big killer feature is the interface, however, that beastie that I said I wasn’t convinced was real, when it got leaked months ago. And I was wrong. Ah well. I don’t mind being wrong on this occasion, because the interface, called UX (for User eXperience), is a blinder. It is, of course, all touch-friendly, and with slick animations between different screens (as you’d expect from, ooh, every single interface on the market, today). There are two bits that really set it apart, though, called Timescape and Mediascape. First up, there’s Timescape, which isn’t a million miles away from the ethos of MOTOBLUR, found in the Motorola DEXT. In other words, it’s designed to aggregate all your communications together in one screen, whether it’s your Facebook feed, your Twitter feed, your text messages, or whatever.
The other big bit is Mediascape, designed to do the same lumping together as Timescape, only this time, it does it with all the multimedia on your phone. I won’t dwell on it, since that’s pretty much exactly how the media browser works on current Sony Ericsson phones, and the fact it’s carried over into the Sony Ericsson X10 is a good thing, because their current media browser rocks.
But anyway, you don’t just want me to talk about it, do you? You want to see it for yourself. So, here’s the video promo for it, direct from Sony Ericsson:
Nice, eh? Now, sure, at this early stage, it still needs work doing to the actual phone, to get it up to speed, but once that’s done, I have no doubt this will easily take the crown of “best Android phone on the market”, much the same as the way the HTC HD2, that I mentioned earlier, has taken the “best Windows phone” crown, and for basically, the exact same reasons.
Massive screen and fast processor. It’s the new black…
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