Inside View from Ireland: An X10 Flagship Experience

FIVE DAYS OF USING the SonyEricsson X10 have transmogrified my index finger into a stylus. As much as this disrupted my old school relationship with small computers, the X10 has given me ideas about touching and swiping my way through a more productive work day. After I checked with Xperia X10 reviews, I discovered I could change my keyboard to "Android" and get fatter keys with no predictive text, I was happy using both hands to type slowly. Although I really miss the tactile feel and speedy function of a real keyboard, the X10 can run applications simultaneously and those apps provide me slices of information streams that I really should monitor. It pushes updates from my email, twitter stream, Facebook newsfeeds, and Picasa. When combined with direct SMS messages, phone calls and occasional short multimedia clips via MMS, the X10 can be can be a source of information overload. So I established another Twitter identity pruned the number of my Facebook friends. After five work days, I now have a mobile device that effectively leverages SonyEricsson's on-board Timescape in a visually appealing and time-efficient manner. Timescape alone makes the X10 worthy of consideration as a work phone. But then there's the Android marketplace with free applications that worked their way onto my X10 after the first day.

Google Mail. This is the fastest way I have to check my Gmail account. After I saw how quickly someone could tap into my account, I added another authentication to my X10 home screen so now I have to make a special swipe of my finger to get into the screen where the Gmail icon sits.

Qik. I'm addicted to Qik but on my X10, Qik lacks most of the features I use to best effect on my Nokia cameraphones. Specifically, it does not stream so that means there are delays between recording the Qik clip and having it upload. More importantly, I cannot figure out how to force Qik to use wifi and that seems to result in clips uploading a little bit at a time, revealing themselves on the Qik site before they're completely finished.

Opera Mini. I returned to using the helpful screens of Opera Mini with the X10. I get more things done by forcing myself to use personal Mini screens on the Opera browser's start page.

Facebook. A nice and stable application that provides newsfeed and notifications as well as a way of snapping a photo and uploading it in the application. It also has a helpful logout button--something several developers don't seem to have coded into Android 1.6 applications. It does not offer Facebook chat.

Twicca.The best Twitter application I've found for Android.

Google Maps with Latitude. My X10 tells my blog, my Google profile and others connected to me on Latitude where I am. It also tells me where the X10 has gone, in case someone takes it with them. Latitude also makes local search easier.

Audioboo. The highest fidelity audio recording application I've ever discovered. Making subscribeable five minute audio clips on Audioboo is as easy on Android as it is on the iPhone.

Evernote. This is a limited application on Android 1.6 because although I can upload things, I cannot manage them like I can on my Series 60 third edition Symbian phone.

Foursquare. Easy to check in and earn badges.

SonyEricsson Sync. I don't have many contacts on the phone but knowing the SE Sync is backing up the phone over the air is very helpful. I can back up several parts of the phone's database but I'm sticking with contacts at the moment.

TasKiller. You need a Task Killer if you want to keep memory free for 3G activities like YouTube streaming (totally excellent on the X10).

And now the bad news. I pushed the X10 through several business days. It never lasted more than six hours but that's because I was normally listening to music while letting Timescape run its updates. Because its 1 GHz Snapdragon processor takes everything I can throw at it, the back of the phone starts to get warm after 20 minutes of watching video on the 480 x 854 screen while the phone's pulling down tweets, Facebook updates and email. By comparison, I get 6.5 hours of use out of an iPhone when I push it hard during the day but the iPhone can't deliver the same continuous stream of information as the X10.

Recommendation. Get this phone if you're due for an upgrade to your primary business phone. It's a true 8 Mp flagship phone with a compelling video playback screen that keeps my toddler mesmerised for 20 minutes at a time. The X10 does more than I've cited in this short blogpost. I've dropped it once on concrete during its short stay in my care and nothing cracked because it landed on its back. If you're an iPhone user, you will miss some of the clever multitouch capabilities on the iPhone but as each month goes by, you'll probably discover many of your favourite applications are in the Android market. And if you put your iPhone side-by-side my X10, you'll probably have screen envy.

Disclosure: SonyEricsson loaned me this phone. It will be used by students on the creative multimedia degree programme in Tipperary Institute if it survives a splash test and a camera-toss test. Check back in the middle of May for my report "One Month with the X10." Or subscribe here for everything I post about the X10.

Cell Compare lists several SonyEricsson X10 features that often go unmentioned in short-form press reviews of the phone. The X10's Mediascape and Timescape have proved more compelling than I first imagined.