Categories

News (37) Tutorial (16) Applications (10) Knowledge (10) Review (6) Games (4) Rumours (4) Health (1)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

XperiaX10 Review




This is my first and my only blog. It couldn't have been possible without the help of one special person in my life, without who I wouldn't be here where I'm today. I do hope she realizes that she is and will always be there in my heart even if im not in her's......
Will always miss you Aliza ..This blog is for you chweetu :)


This is my first Android Phone, Although before this I have used(Not Owned)Google Nexus One, Galaxy from Samsung.So Knew what I was buying. Anyway lets talk about SE Xperia X10.

First Look:
If you happened to visit a mobile store, X10 wouldn't go unnoticed. X10 is simply beautiful and everyone(almost) agrees to the fact. Although my girl thinks it looks like a brick :(

Design:
When you hold X10(Switched off mode) in your hand.It feels solid with great built quality just like the best of  HTC phones you can think of. 4"inch Display adds to the design. X10 has a beautiful Sony Ericsson written on the top front and Xperia on the bottom middle which is perfectly placed.X10 has three Hardware keys on the front bottom middle.. option, home and back keys respectively. The back of the phone feels nice and well covered and doesn't look empty with SE and Xperia Logo.Camera lens on the back of the phone is unprotected, So one needs to handle it with care.

X10 is simply beautiful when the screen's turned off :)
I have a Black Version of X10i.

Powering it on :

When you power up your X10, You will be welcomed with an Sony Ericsson animation and it takes about 20 sec to reach the home screen, Thanks to 1 Ghz processor of X10. SE has a beautiful animated slide mechanism to unlock the screen which can further be customized to suite if you're left handed.If you happened to have a chance of exploring Android OS 1.6(Donut) before on a different phone, you will notice that X10 doesn't look like its running on Donut. Thats due to SE custom UI it has back ported many features from Android 2.0.The Display looks top notch without letting you feel you're running it on a Donut version of Android which has only 65k color. So should be thankful to SE for not making us notice the 65k limitation of Donut. Moving on ...slide open the menu , you will notice the screen response which is brilliant.. better than Iphone 3GS :) You will notice there are few apps which are new and not seen on other android phones. These are trademark sony apps namely Mediascape,Timescape and Play now also you have Moxier Mail to name a few. Mediascape is your in house Entertainment Gallery where you have your pics,Videos,music listed. Mediascape itself is brilliantly designed and looks amazing. Timescape is mainly your social networking app for twitter and facebook. Timescape is unique and a great app to view or get updates from your social networking accounts. Moxier Mail is an extra app apart from your email app, gmail app on your phone. Moxier Mail app provides push email feature. Play now is an SE store equivalent of Android market.


X10 Features :

1) X10 is great phone to watch videos thanks to the 4"inch TFT screen.Note X10 doesn't come with a default Divx playback.*

2) X10 has one of the best camera(8MP) for an android based phone. Camera clarity is simply outstanding in day light, a little weak under low light condition but still outshines other phones. X10 comes with an LED light and there is no auto flash** by default.

3) Video Clarity is decent nothing to boast about it but you can shoot a video at low light condition thanks to the LED light.X10 will get a 720p HD Video shooting capability by Q3.You can view the leaked sample video's which is available on youtube.

4) X10 is great if you're a social networking freak and want to update your status on one go and get all your updates in one place thanks to SE Timescape app.

5) Music Quality is great. Sony is a pioneer in this field as you know :) Walkman series was a major hit if you remember. X10 doesnt come comes with noise isolation earphones like those of walkman series one might have thought of. But Still the earphones are on power with walkman one's and I prefer these ones than the noise isolation earphones from walkman series personally. Earphones are great and nothing to complain about. 

6) Web browsing on X10 is an experience itself, also due to the fact it has a 4"inch screen,it adds to the pleasure.Default Browser is the best I have seen so far on any phone. Note X10 doesn't support flash*** due to Donut Android. 

7) X10 is an Android based Smart Phone and you can virtually customize everyting on the phone, download and install any app you like from over thousands of apps thanks to Android Market.

8) X10's new firmware comes with backup and restore app which helps you backup your phonebook contacts, SMS's, Settings on to your SD card/Memory Card.

9) X10 allows Bluetooth Transfer of files/pics ..etc even though this was not a part of Android 1.6 capability.  

This feature has been one of many features back ported from Android 2.0.

Although there are many more features and I might have missed a few imp ones too..sorry about that.


*Divx playback can be achieved by installing ywplayer from Android Market.
**Auto Camera Flash can be achieved by installing Vignette app from Android Market.
***Although flash is not supported by Android 1.6 you can install skyfire browser which has an inbuilt flash player to view certain flash videos.X10 will be updated to Android 2.1 this Q3 and you will be able to backport flash to android 2.1 by some tricks.


X10 Complaints/Rumours:

1) Battery Backup : Yes, Since its a Smartphone with 1 Ghz processor.Battery drain has been a major issue since its release. SE has released many firmwares to get it fixed and has been able to contain it to certain level. At this moment on a normal usage one can get a good 2 days usage. But if you have a gf and you talk to her day n night on gtalk messenger along with push email being activated and your phone being connected to internet 24/7..Dont expect it to last more than 7-8 hrs on single charge :) But its still advisable to update it to the latest firmware. Please note battery Backup increases only after 6-7 charging cycle from the time you purchase it.

2) In Call Volume : If you have this phone just out of the box you will notice it, Please update it to the latest firmware R2BA026 and you will find some improvement to the incall volume. But still the issue persists to some extent and has been confirmed by SE and they are looking in to the matter.As of now I can say its manageable :)


3) Loud Speaker Volume: Yes its not one of the best when it comes to speaker volume but the Quality is great.

4) Multi Touch: Yes its still a rumour, Some say the hardware supports it and its just the software which doesn't. But officially its been denied by SE that X10 supports multi-touch numerous times. Although they just made a blunder in the advertisment in US that it has multi-touch screen.As of now just keep in mind it doesn't support multi-touch to be on the safe side.

5) RAM: X10 has 384MB RAM as far as hardware is concerned, since its running on Donut Android. Its limited to 256 MB Ram.

6) Colour Display : Due to Android 1.6, color has been restricted to 65k, someone in the XDA forum asked SE and they replied X10 does support 16M colours...This is the same case with Google Nexus one when it was released with 65k. 

7) No Radio: You can buy MW600 earphones and some X10 are shipped with MW600 in few countries. MW600 has an inbuilt radio transreceiver.

8) Cheap Plastic Quality: No way,Have been using X10 for past 3 months and it doesn't look like a cheap plastic in any way.Love the build Quality which is why I bought it. Screen is scratch resistant and is made of the same material that of an Iphone's screen.X10 comes with an screen protector from factory itself & you have 2 extra screen protectors which comes with the box :) 

Please don't buy rumours just search for official release statements.


X10 must have apps:

1) Handscent sms
2) Adfree
3) Android System Info
4) Astro File manager
5) Barcode Scanner
6) Barnacle Wifi Tether
7) Bluetooth File Transfer(useful for multi-sending)
8) CacheMate (Requires Root)
9) ColorNote
10) Contacts GroupU (For multi SMS sending)
11) Documents to go
12) Gesture Search
13) Google Goggles
14) Google Sky Map
15) NetCounter
16) Nimbuzz
17) Open Home
18) Photo Express
19) PicME(Requires Root)
20) Raging Thunder 2
21) Retro Camera
22) Skyfire Browser
23) Slide It Keyboard
24) Titanium Backup (Requires Root)
25) Universal Root( To get you the root access..PS:It voids warranty)
26) Vignette
27) Weather and Toggle Widget
28) yxPlayer.

X10 Rooting:
Although the X10 has been rooted, the bootloader has yet to be hacked. Because of this, developers are not yet able to load the latest version of Android onto their device. Custom ROMs will not boot without access to the bootloader. So with current rooting you can install/uninstall apps on your phone which require root access.

X10 Update:
The latest firmware is R2BA026 and The current OS Version is 1.6.
X10 will be updated by Q3 to Android 2.1 along with few added features like 720p HD video Recording.

Summary:
Sorry for the long Review. Tried to keep it short. But anyway X10 doesn't fit everyone's need I agree but its a great phone and its looks stands out from the rest and I love my X10. You simply cannot resist to ignore it. It may not have everything that you need, but no phone is perfect as u know. So ask yourself what you need the phone for ? and choose wisely but Android is the way to future and is here to stay. 


Regard,
Ravz


P.S: Feel free to ask :)

22 comments:

  1. good review, well ur giving one of the best reviews

    -new nk

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ravz,

    Nice review, especially the apps part, very useful to me. Thanks...

    Regards,
    Roar

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Roar: Will post a new Section on Apps :) So it will be easier to maintain :)
    Gsmarena isn't allowing me to reply to u for some reason :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. hey ravz very good job you are very honest too, cause we are in love its difficult but its true.. atte jack x10 pd keep the good work

    ReplyDelete
  5. Woooooohoooooooo, Well done Ravz, Great job! it's really awesome!!

    finally somewhere safe to comment :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Jack X10: Thanks bro... :)

    @Phoenix : Thanks mate, yeah this place ain't moderated lol :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. yeah mate, silent here.

    ReplyDelete
  8. hey ravz.. i was thinkin to root it by curiosity but, i was thinking that i dont need it now, thetering and other interesting things can wait , until the long waited update arrives, i dont want to do bad things errors , well its a risk i dont want tohave now, maybe in 2 months, to see what happen maybe root is alot of freedom but who guarantize that it its not going affect the update process, maybe its secure and reversible easy but ill wait friend, other thing is maybe with 2.1 we are going to need something different to root the new system

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Jack X10:

    Don't worry rooting is 99% safe. I have made a tutorial for the same.It can always be unrooted even if the rooting app(universal root) fails to unroot your phone, u need not worry as whenever you update your phone via seus or pc companion it removes the root :) and it won't hamper your update process :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. hey Ravz,
    What happend to Aliza?

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Anonymous: Who is this? Sorry mate can't see your name :( ...Nothing happened to her :) She is doing great..Just been out of touch that's all :(

    ReplyDelete
  12. September is comming guys, gear up and get ready to FLY :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. Xperia X10's Android 2.1 Update to Boost Speed and Performance

    http://www.techremixed.co.cc/2010/08/xperia-x10s-android-21-update-to-boost.html

    Justin Timberlake carrying an Android 2.1-powered Xperia X10?

    http://www.xperiax10.net/2010/08/19/justin-timberlake-carrying-an-android-2-1-powered-xperia-x10/

    ReplyDelete
  14. hmm links are not usable here, are they?!

    ReplyDelete
  15. @NewNk : Yep bro..plenty check on the Right side of the page , you'll find apps,tethering sections...

    @Phoenix: Yep :) September, finally long wait is gonna end soon... 2.1 is coming ur way :P

    ReplyDelete
  16. Whow Ravzy quaite a nice set up you got here to bad it's for an outdated trash phone....your friend Sun

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hmmm... nice review :)

    But I kinda feel u stressed more on the pros of the phone and didn't discuss much the cons.

    N hey i love the Xperia x10, im a sony fanboy xD
    but I wish there was more about the cons too.

    And also how much wud u rate the X10 on a scale of 1 to 10 ?

    Do reply with the score :D

    ReplyDelete
  18. @Sun: Thanks mate :)I disagree with your views though.

    @Anonymous: Have considered both the pros n cons, stated where I think the phone falls short but then it can be overcomed by all the work arounds.
    If you're looking for something specific that I might have missed you can go ahead and ask :) will be glad to answer.
    Umm Score? Well I can't give any phone a perfect 10 coz none is near to what I call as perfect. For X10 I would say 9 looking at the current market and the phones available, also considering value for money,user experience,design,hardware ...etc :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hey man!

    Thanks for the useful review ! God bless you, you continue to support and assist people in a well mannered and behaved way :)

    Keep it up bro, and I must agree that se did a terrific job with the X10, and we are really looking forward to the upgrade to 2.1 to see what this baby can still offer the users :)

    Cheers!

    Yours,

    SE 2010

    ReplyDelete
  20. @SE2010:
    Thanks mate. God Bless you too and hope to catch u soon..tc pal :)

    ReplyDelete