Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (Unlocked)

Like many tech fanatics, I eagerly looked forward to the release of this phone over a year ago when it was first announced. But after all that wait, I must say that I am a little disappointed with the final product. Sony definitely delivered a great looking and solidly built cellphone. However, the choice of using Windows Mobile on the Xperia X1 is the real failure of this phone.

If you have used the iPhone (OS X) or the HTC G1 (Android) and then you used a Windows Mobile phone such as the Xperia X1, you will be blown away by how poor an operating system Windows Mobile is. It is slow, buggy (even after its been out for ages), prone to crashes and restarts and not designed for finger touch.

The panel interface does little to mask the ugliness and user unfriendliness of Windows Mobile. With the exception of the sbp panel and the Sony designed media player panel, most of the other panels that are available at this writing are nothing to write home about. At the end of the day, the panels are just eye candy and are not enough to improve the user experience significantly.

That said, the phone is well appointed with GPS, a beautiful screen (800x480) resolution, nice keyboard, FM radio and a very handsome design. The screen clarity will impress you. I was able to watch a Divx encoded movie on the Xperia X1 and I was thoroughly impress with its clarity.

In my opinion, this phone would be better served if it ran Android (Google OS) instead of the crappy windows mobile operating system.

Pros:
1. Great design.
2. Very stylish and will grab positive attention.
3. Excellent screen. High resolution (800x480) Crystal clear, excellent for movies.
4. GPS, WIFI (802.11b/g), bluetooth.
5. Very good battery life.

Cons: (all the negatives are due to windows mobile)
1. Sometimes slow and buggy.
2. Archaic user interface.
3. Poor finger touch implementation (forces you to use stylus).