Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Review – Power packed and expensive

Well we have got the Sony Ericsson’s most anticipated and awaited phone the Xperia X2, the original Xperia failed to deliver as with most initial versions. So we expect the Xperia X2 to perform much better in this regard. Lets have a closer look at this powerful phone.

Sony brings most of its products with advanced features and almost always leading by example, and hence there is nothing short of that here with the Xperia X2, it has a powerful 8MP camera in a full QWERTY keyboard phone all packed into rather compact phone. It is also worth to note that cameras in Sony Ericsson phones usually perform better than its competitors like Nokia and Samsung. Ohh and dont bother to compare it with Apple.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Front View dexternights
Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Front View dexternights

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 –   110 x 54 x 16 mm
Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 -112.6 x 57.8 x 16.2 mm
Nokia X6 – 111 x 51 x 13.8 mm
Nokia N97 mini – 113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm
Nokia N97 – 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 (18.2 max) mm

Well the Xperia X2 already has a competition in Nokia X6 in the dimensions area, though Nokia X6 only has a 5MP camera, in terms of other features and 40% lesser price, Nokia might get one ahead on the Xperia X2.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 with qwerty keyboard
Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 with qwerty keyboard

The phone looks good but the expected pricing of around $1000 is little too much for any phone, especially considering that this Xperia X2 doesnt bring anything totally new to the table other than a 8MP Camera on QWERTY phone.The phone has a Qualcomm MSM 7200 528 MHz processor and runs a Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Edition. It has a RAM of 256 MB and ROM of 512 MB. The performance should be slightly better than the competition, but it ultimately depends on the OS + hardware combination, so its justified to compare Nokias running symbian OS and Xperia X2 running WinMo 6.5.

But a big letdown is the internal memory of only 110 MB and supports upto 16GB in memory cards. Unlike say N97 which comes with a 32GB inbuilt memory, this might leave many wondering why was the mass memory ignored.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 back view
Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 back view

Apart from the above differences it has typical features of high end phones like A-GPS,3.5mm audio jack, v2.1 Bluetooth with A2DP support,mini USB and a 1500 mAH battery with a 10 hour talk time on GSM.

The Xperia X2 still has a Resistive touch screen unlike the Apple Iphone and Nokia X6 model’s Capacitive touch screen which allows multi touch. So even in this respect the powerful X2 lags behind.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 back expanded_dexternights
Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 back expanded_dexternights

We dont expect the phone to be the best seller by any means, but will definitely come as a much improved phone overall compared to the first Xperia.

Below is the Full technical Specifications

XPERIA™ X2
Live life without boundaries

Facts and Figures

  • Size: 110 x 54 x 16 mm
  • Weight: 115 grams
  • Colours: Elegant Black, Modern Silver
  • Main screen: 65,536 colour TFT
  • Resolution: 480 x 800 pixels (WVGA)
  • Size: 3.2 inches
  • Phone memory: Up to110MB
  • Memory card support: SanDisk microSD™ and microSDHC™, up to 16GB
  • Talk time GSM: Up to 10 hrs
  • Standby time GSM: Up to 500 hrs
  • Talk time UMTS: Up to 6hrs
  • Standby time UMTS: Up to 640hrs
  • Music listening time: Up to 20hrs
  • Availability and versions
  • Networks:
  • XPERIA™ X2
  • GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
  • UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100
  • GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
  • UMTS/HSPA 900/1900/2100
  • Available in selected markets from early Q4 2009.

Camera

  • 8.1 megapixel camera
  • Up to 16x digital zoom
  • Auto focus
  • Geo tagging
  • Image stabilizer
  • Send to web
  • Touch focus
  • Video light
  • Video recording

Music

  • Album art
  • Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
  • Equalizer
  • Sony Ericsson media player
  • Music tones (MP3/AAC)
  • Equalizer
  • Sony Ericsson media player
  • Music tones (MP3/AAC)
  • PlayNow™ arena*
  • Stereo speakers
  • Windows Media® Player

Web

  • Bookmarks
  • Google™ search
  • Internet Explorer®
  • Pan & Zoom
  • Web feeds

Communication

  • Call list
  • Conference calls
  • Polyphonic ringtones
  • Speakerphone
  • Vibrating alert
  • Messaging

Email

  • Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync®
  • Handwriting recognition
  • Instant messaging
  • Picture messaging (MMS)
  • Predictive text input
  • Text messaging (SMS)

Design

  • Auto rotate
  • Media
  • Picture wallpaper
  • Touchscreen
  • Wallpaper animation
  • Windows Mobile® 6.5

Entertainment

  • 3D games
  • Java™
  • Motion gaming
  • Tracker
  • Video streaming
  • Video viewing
  • YouTube™ application

Connectivity and Softwares

  • A-GPS
  • Bluetooth™ technology
  • DNLA Certified™
  • Google Maps™
  • Modem
  • Synchronisation
  • TV out
  • USB mass storage
  • USB support
  • Wi-Fi™
  • Organizer
  • Adobe® PDF Reader
  • Alarm clock
  • Calculator
  • Calendar
  • Flight mode
  • Microsoft® Office Mobile
  • Notes
  • Phone book
  • Stopwatch
  • Tasks
  • Timer

Accessories
In-Box
:

  • XPERIA™ X2
  • Battery
  • Battery Charger
  • Stereo Portable Handsfree MH500
  • USB cable
  • TV out cable
  • 4GB SanDisk microSD™ memory card
  • User guide

Optional accessories:

Bluetooth™ Headset PV740
Car charger AN300
Video Viewing Stand IM920


Nokia N900 Internet Tablet – A sneak Peak

Nokia is going to launch its 700$ Tablet the N900 in October 2009 . Many in the media  have projected it as a totally new device, but the truth is it is an highly upgraded version of its N800 and N810. Unlike the previous model Nokia has added the “phone”  features to the Nokia N900. The earlier version Nokia N810  also had Maemo Linux OS (2008 version)  and most other features except the main feature of a phone.

Nokia N900 a highly refined Nokia Internet Tablet
Nokia N900 a highly refined Nokia Internet Tablet

So now additionally you can use this device as a phone and also it comes with A-GPS. The Maemo OS 2009 , is also refined and more features have been added. Though many have complained the device is too big,  it is actually not that big. It has almost similar dimensions of the Nokia N97 and matches Iphone 3G in Length and width. But its thickness is almost 2 cm (20 mm).

Here are the dimensions of N900 compared with Nokia N97,Apple Iphone 3Gs , Nokia N810  and Nokia E71.

N900 Dimensions
N900 Dimensions

The dimensions are given in mm as height x width x thickness

Nokia N900 – 110 x 59.8 x 18 (19.5 max)
Nokia N810 – 128 x 72 x 14
Nokia N97 – 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 (18.2 max)
Iphone 3Gs -115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3
Nokia E71 – 114 x 57 x 10

As you would have noticed the N900 will occupy a smaller footprint than the N810 as its length and witdth have been reduced considerably. But added thickness is the only concern. But then  the device makes it up with so many features and a Mobile version of Linux.

The increase in thickness can be attributed to 5MP camera (Carl Zeiss lens) and Full Qwerty keypad.

In terms of weight (in grams) it definitly is heavy.

Nokia N900 – 181g
Nokia N810 – 123g
Nokia N97 – 150g
Iphone 3Gs – 133g
Nokia E71 – 127g

Once a device gets a full touch screen, the looks factor subdises considerably. Most times you cant notice big difference between various Full Touch devices except in dimensions. So N900 looks almost like N97 including the dimensions.

Technical Specifications and Features
This is where N900 scores against its competitors and is almost similar to N97 except for the OS. Actually I did not notice any major difference between N900 and N97 in the features section.

N900 being run on Linux (Maemo on Linux) supports wider range of Audio and Video codecs, also comes with Mozilla powered Maemo browser. And its browsing capabilities resemble a ultra mini Netbook. Also has a bigger battery than the Nokia N97. Has inbuilt memory of 32 GB and 256 MB RAM (+768 MB Virtual Memory). Also the tablet runs on a faster processor than Nokia N97.

Other Main features of the specifications include

* 3.5″ Bright WXGA 640*480 resolution screen
* Graphichs Accelerator with OpenGL support
* Bluetooth version 2.1
* Mini USB.
* 3.5 mm Audio jack.
* GSM,GPRS,EDGE and 3G Support.
* HSPA, maximum speed up to 10 Mbps (DL), 2 Mbps (UL)
* WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
* 5MP Camera with Carl Zeiss Opticals.
* aGPS with Maps
* Supported Email protocols: Mail for Exchange, IMAP, POP3, SMTP
* Flash,AJAX,RSS,HTML,xHTML support in Web Browsing.
* Office Suite,Adobe PDF reader and typical Nokia apps.
* Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263
* Video streaming: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263 in .avi, .mp4, .wmv, .asf and .3gp containers
* Music playback file formats: .mp3, .wma, .aac, .m4a, .wav
* FM radio / Tuner
* TV out with free cable