Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is the first Sony Ericsson phone in the world to use the Android OS, and as such, a lot rides on it. The manufacturer also chose to make the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 a top-end superphone; they've done a really good job, too, because the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is seriously impressive - it has four-inch touchscreen display, Timescape so that all your contacts and communications are in one place and an 8.1-megapixel camera.

Design - 10/10

If there is one word that sums up the design of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, it is 'sleek'. Yes it is a big phone, because of the 4 inch screen, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is also remarkably thin, and the angular front (when combined with the rounded back panel) makes the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 look truly mouth-watering.

Operating System - 8/10

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 runs on Android 1.6 (upgradable to Android 2.1), and although this is a lower version than other Android superphones, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 makes up for it by including Sony Ericsson's new Timescape UI (pulling together all your messaging and social media apps) and Mediascape UI (for all your music, video and photo needs), as well as various enhancements throughout the Android UI. However, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 does lose marks for not including Android 2.1 out of the box.

Hardware - 10/10

Make no mistake: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 does not skimp on the hardware, and here, it really earns the title of 'superphone'. It has a 1GHz processor, but above and beyond that, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 also includes 1GB of built-in memory, combined with a microSD card slot which will take up to an extra 32GB. In fact, it's virtually impossible to find any fault with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's hardware.

Camera and media - 9/10

Sony Ericsson have a long history of making great camera phones, and it really shows; the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has an 8.1-megapixel camera, and the picture quality is superb. It is a shame that it does not include a Xenon flash, as that would have made the camera virtually perfect, but as it is, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 merely has a very, very good camera. With such a huge amount of storage space, it also makes the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 perfect for carrying a lot of media around with you. And top top all that instant face recognition means your X10 can spot up to five faces in a snap and automatically store them under your friends in your phone. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's impressive music player supports a host of file formats including AAC and MP3. And finally, Mediascape keeps all your downloaded content in one place. It accesses all your music, photos and videos from everywhere, whether it's your phone's Xperia X10's memory, YouTube or PlayNow.

Screen - 7/10

The screen on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is something of a mixed bag. Although it comes in at four- inches, and has a super high resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 only displays 65,000 colours, and this is a little disappointing. Thus, although the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's screen is good, it could have been better.

Social - 7/10

It has to be said that, because it comes with a lower version of Android, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 doesn't have the same level of social features as is available in later versions. This can be rectified by updating the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to version 2.1, but as this calls for extra work on the part of the user, the phone has to lose marks because of it. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 does however make up some marks thanks to the Timescape UI, which makes browsing contacts a nicer experience and allows you to keep up with chats in Facebook, Twitter, your email and texts all at the same time. But again, this area isn't one the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 particularly excels at.

Overall - 8/10

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is, without a doubt, an impressive phone, but there are a couple of things which disappoint about it, mainly the fact that it comes with Android 1.6 out of the box; as such, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is not as accomplished a phone as some of its peers, like the HTC Desire. However, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is a solid, reliable phone, so it is easier to overlook these flaws.