Sony Ericsson’s landmark first Android smartphone will miss the holidays of 2009 in favour of a more stable handset due in the first quarter of 2010. That seems like a prudently tactful move from the 3rd largest mobile phone maker on the planet. Rather than suffer the same embarrassment releasing a half-baked p990i a few years back, company engineers will most likely be busy during the holidays addressing the complaints about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 prototype that was both a disappointment and a delight among smartphone pundits during its official launch in early November.

Getting Rachel to Work

Attending a brief presentation from Sony Ericsson, the new handset delivered on some but was short on others. It does work, but not at its best. The Xperia 10 is your most talked about Xperia X3 speculated on in many online mobile sites since its production leaked online by stealthy enterprising bloggers.

The Rachel UI has been renamed the UX – short for User eXperience. The specimen we played with has a sluggish Rachel; it had no multitouch capability we expected from high end smartphones in this class and its battery life was just pathetic. Sony Ericsson seems to be stuck with it for all the investment in manhours it has made.

Porting it to the newer Android 2.o seemed a more astute option as most other Android makers are already using it. But Sony Ericsson is sticking with the older 1.6 version. We hope the UX can do wonders on it in time for its Q1 2010 launch the way the new 2.0 version is doing for the new Android phones coming out during the holidays. In the meantime, the delightful aspects of the X10 was certainly noticed and if Sony Ericsson can deliver on its promising features, the first few months of 2010 is sure to see a real Xperia winner.

Elegance and Sophistication

It’s common to see flagship handsets as bulky and monstrous as makers try to put every conceivable features in them. But the Xperia X10’s upscale features are housed in a slim glossy black body dominated by a large 4” capacitive touchscreen that is sure to appeal to the fashion conscious techies in the market. For sure it has its equally competent and beautiful rivals in the Nokia X3, LG BL40, Motorola Droid/Milestone and HTC HD2, to mention some. But this is a Sony Ericsson’s first Android smartphone the market is waiting for.

Running on the powerful Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, the X10 ‘s hardware specs is nothing short of remarkable. With 3G and HSPA for fast internet surfing and downloading, and apart form its 4” display, you get an upscale 8.1 megapixel autofocusing camera with LED flash, 8x digital zoom, face recognition and VGA video recording at a cinema quality 30fps. This makes the X10 one of the best camera smartphones the will launch early next year. It the usual WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and A2DP, capable media players, a stereo FM radio, microSD support for up to 32GB, TV out and 3.2mm headphone port. Video calls on 3G are supported by a secondary VGA camera in front.

Availability

Expansys predicted a January release for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, but we won’t be surprised if it happens later in the quarter. Pricing information is not yet available but as any Android phone goes, and this one is a flagship Android phone, we expect the X10 to carry and hefty price tag.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Reviews