These days it’s not merely how speedy a mobile’s OS is or how well the handset is designed that could make or break its sale. The user interface plays a very very significant role in determining just how good a mobile handset really is for the money you have to shell out. Sony Ericsson recently introduced their Timescape and Mediascape UI’s in the Xperia X10 Android phone and here’s what my experience was with the handset.
Form Factor
Employing Sony Ericsson’s Human Curvature design the Xperia X10 in both Black and white are sleek looking handsets. It’s easy to manage and quite the contrast to Motorola’s MILESTONE, from its light weight and smooth form, to the larger 4.0-inch scratch-resistant capacitive touchscreen display. The resolution is almost the same, although at 480 x 854 pixels, the Xperia features 65k colors while the MILESTONE’s is 16 million, not that you can tell the difference at just a glance. Viewing data, messages, videos etc. in broad daylight is not a problem, the details are all clearly revealed. The three keys below the display – sub menu access, home button and previous screen key make getting around the system an easy task.
The Screen Lock/Power button is placed on the top beside the 3.5mm hands-free port and the micro USB port. Volume/Zoom keys are on one side above the 8MP (with LED flash) camera’s shutter release/activation button. Like the MILESTONE, the Xperia is devoid of a hot swap slot for the microSD card. Then again, it’s not a cause for concern as the bundled 8GB card plus 1GB of internal memory and easy USB access won’t require you to remove the card at all.
On the whole, the Xperia a funky looking handset that is designed to be comfortable to use and easy to manage, delivering on both counts. Read on to find out just how well it functions.
Features and Performance
Interface
The standard Android UI (v1.6) works out just fine and all actions work smoothly enough, thanks to the Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz processor. It’s quite smooth and there’s no visible lag. I could have used a few more default widgets for the multiple desktops but it’s not something all users would take an issue with. I did have one major problem with the first piece I was sent though, it refused to allow me to send text messages and there seemed to be no way to access the messages center settings to check if the right number was inserted. I had the very same problem with the second test piece I received and after almost a week of usage, it just switched on by itself rather mysteriously. If you’ve had a similar issue, do let us know. Facebook and Google integration with contacts was not as well managed as it was in the MILESTONE and all of HTC’s handsets. Multi-touch is also absent. Keeping the home key pressed pulls up the list of all running apps.
Timescape and Mediascape are very intuitive interfaces that offer quite a bit of functionality to the social networker and media lover. However, it seemed like both of these UI’s take quiet a heavy toll on the 1 GHz processor as switching screens, updating yours status etc. was a bit sluggish. If either of these UIs were running in the background, the entire handset seemed off balance. The virtual keypads became sluggish and unresponsive requiring me to type and retype all messages, e-mails, updates etc. I suggest removing the ‘periodic update’ option, as things will work out much smoother that way.
Timescape allows you to easily access and update your Facebook and Twitter accounts and also shows for your e-mails, phone’s Log, messages and recently accessed media – photos and music. Mediascape sorts out all of your media files and you can also have online albums etc. on hand for quick access. One truly unique feature that I found very handy with Mediascape was the linking and search option. With music files you can find corresponding information on the artist, song etc. with a direct YouTube link or though Google searches. Using facial recognition software Mediascape allows you to track photos with the same people and tag them as well for easier access.
Media
The handset’s audio capabilities are just about average. Audio quality is not in question neither is the decibel level at which it’s delivered. However, other than the extras like locating extra information about the track or artist, the music player doesn’t offer much else. The UI is just slightly funkier than the native version to suit the look and feel of Mediascape. The large screen facilitates comfortable video viewing if you can find the right conversion software for the same as DivX and XviD support for the handset is still not something Sony Ericsson has adopted yet. There’s no FM radio which again, could quite a drawback for some. There is also no image editing option or voice recorder available.
Sony Ericsson was also supposed to have provided an exclusive MTV application with the X10, at least that’s what they announced at the launch. That was not available either. Sony Ericsson’s TrackID feature comes preloaded though. The PlayNow Arena still seems quite un-ready for India as a ‘No content available for your region’ error popped up every time I tried accessing it.
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