Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

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Review

The Xperia X1 is Sony Ericssson’s first proper attempt at a smartphone since, well, ever. The P800, P900, P910i and P990i all had their plus points, but these Symbian-powered peculiarities stuck too much to the quirky R380 formula to seriously compete against the heavyweight Windows Mobile.

The Xperia X1, on the other hand, is much more straightforward.  It’s a sexy-looking slider that runs Windows Mobile 6.1 – but that’s not to say Sony Ericsson hasn’t slipped in a few special features of its own.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Xperia X1 is its design – it is stunning. With just about every exposed surface clad in either brushed or polished aluminium, it looks more like the kind of improbable film prop that has geeks muttering “if only…” than a fully functional smartphone.

There’s some nice attention to detail too, most notably the sliding mechanism itself. Rather than fix the sliding screen to a mere hinge so that it can be manually angled for typing (as on the HTC TyTN II), it slides open on a curved track that leaves it in the ideal position when it’s extended. Clever stuff.

Once the initial dazzle has worn off though, there are few less appealing design touches that come to light. First are the shiny black plastic buttons below the screen. Not only do these cheapen the look of the Xperia X1, but they’re also tricky to press, which is a pain when two of them are used to answer and end calls. The two soft keys that sit just below the screen are metal, but they’re extremely narrow and again, more awkward to press than they should be.

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