About Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android smartphone

The Xperia X10 is Sony Ericsson’s first Android handset and it’s got all the features you’d expect: a 4in, 480×854 resolution screen; and an 8.1-megapixel camera with a LED flash, auto-focus and facial recognition.

It currently runs the older 1.6 version of Android, although an update to 2.1 is expected in September. This should bring support for the full 16 million screen colours, but it won’t bring multi-touch support, which Sony Ericsson says is limited by the hardware.

The Xperia X10 is controlled by two main apps. Mediascape collects all your photos, videos and music together in a library format, replacing – and improving on – the separate Gallery and Music apps that ship with Android. Timescape is a social aggregation utility that brings together all your contacts from Google, Facebook and Twitter. It displays updates from these services, along with texts, calls, emails and even music you’ve played recently.

As well as the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, there’s 384MB of RAM and 1GB of internal storage, plus a micro SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32G6 more memory. A micro-USB port handles data transfer and charging duties. The Xperia X10′s battery lasted just under 20 hours in our light usage test, so you’ll need to recharge it every night.

In video mode, you can shoot in WVGA (800×480 resolution) at 30fps. The 8,1-megapixel sensor takes reasonable pictures and video, with strong colours and good performance under artificial lighting. There’s much less noise than you get with other mobile phone cameras, but it’s still significantly worse than a cheap compact digital camera.

With the kinks ironed out of early versions of its latest smartphone and custom Android skin, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 finally reveals itself to be a contender in the blood-soaked gladiator floor of the smartphone world. And this model should have substantial appeal for a younger, socially focused demographic.

Primary among those fixes are massive improvements in performance and battery life that turn the Xperia X10 from a clunky brick into a surprisingly capable handset.

The Xperia X10 marks Sony Ericsson’s big push into Android, skinned with two features called Mediascape (for managing your music collection) and Timescape (for managing your social network updates and more). Mediascape is just an overblown music manager, but Timescape is more ambitious, a bit reminiscent of what Microsoft tried to do with the KIN. Basically it puts everything you do into a chronological stack, whether that’s photos you’ve snapped, Twitter updates or phone calls. It takes a little getting used to, but it quickly becomes an enjoyable way to skim through your recent past, provided you’re not a compulsive update junkie.

Other features on the phone are compelling. The Xperia X10’s 8.1-megapixel camera is as good as any you’re likely to find on a mobile phone (and the selectable “photo light” - don’t call it a flash!- is useful when you’re up close to your subject), call quality and audio playback are both quite good, and the display is exceptionally bright.

The tall screen (big at 4 inches diagonally) is great for wide-screen content, but Sony Ericsson does nothing with the format when it comes to input. Data entry is certainly this phone’s greatest weakness: Touch typing is erratic and almost impossible to get right without going embarrassingly slow despite the available space. Your iPhone-touting friends will be giggling as you try to tap out a text only to end up with something illegible for your trouble. (Hint: It’s actually easier to type in portrait, even with the narrow, baby-tooth sized keys.)

In short, the fun and promise of Timescape mostly outweigh the problems with the phone’s interface. And with upgraded battery life that now tops 6 ½ hours, the Xperia X10 now at least has enough power to enter the realm of usability for a full day of work. Or play, more likely.

WIRED Nice camera, even including face recognition and a variety of camera modes. Impressive audio quality and loudness, if you’re one of those people that still talks on his phone.

TIRED Troubling data entry problems. Sony skin can get overwhelmed for heavy Facebookers and Twitter friends. Ancient Android version (1.6) installed. Still suffers from a few performance stutters here and there.