I attended a local XPERIA X10 press event earlier today, and just wanted to share a few pictures and thoughts of the brand new XPERIA X10. Let me just tell you right now that this thing is smoking hot. There’s no doubt whatsoever that it’s the most powerful and impressive device announced to date. Unfortunately I could not take one of them with me back home [sob...], but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get one some time ahead of its launch anyway. You’ll you have to do with my hands-on experience for now 
Here are a few photos from the initial presentation, primarily done by Rikard Skogberg, product manager for the X10.
I simply love the Timescape application. It seems to work brilliantly. Note that it’s a separate application developed by Sony Ericsson and that the default home screen is the ordinary Android home screen. You can however set Timescape to be your home screen, if that’s what you want. An awesome thing is that it’s modular, meaning you can check which tabs to show and you’ll even be able to install plugins to add additional tabs.
Face recognition seems to be an excellent feature, capable of tagging people in the photos you take and receive on your X10. Like Rikard said, it makes browsing photos of people a lot more interesting, because you don’t have to do all the hard work yourself first.
Here’s the overview tab in the Timescape application. It displays all content feeds, whether it be Facebook updates, tweets from Twitter, messages or missed calls.
There are currently around 15,000 applications for Android, all of which are free. According to Sony Ericsson, that number expands by around 800 – 1,000 applications per week. I had a couple of applications demonstrated, including Alice, Barcode Scanner, Facebook and Google Sky Map and all of them looked very impressive. The phone does come with a built-in magnometer (compass), and coupled with the GPS you can use augmented reality applications. I was shown one application in which you could add several different layers on top of the camera view. Quite cool.
The Mediascape image viewer was not fully developed yet, and still lacked the transition animations as shown in the X10 product video. It felt a bit sluggish, but that’s because it’s early software. Much improved from the first videos we’ve seen, but nowhere near being completed yet. It’ll be released with Android version 1.6, but a future firmware update will introduce Android 2.0. The major improvements in 2.0 have however already been added to the X10 by Sony Ericsson, i.e. Bluetooth file transfer, Exchange support and social media services support.
The 8 megapixel camera on the back seems to be a decent camera for still photography. I can imagine mainly using it for videos though, as it records in 800 x 480 pixels (WVGA) with 30 frames per second. Michael Fahlén and Gustaf Brusewitz from Sony Ericsson confirmed that it’s capable of using auto focus when recording videos – it’ll be fixed when you start recording though, so it’s not yet possible to change focus during recording. Both of them are great lads, by the way. Same goes for Rikard and the rest of the team, of course!
As you can see, it’s quite thin and it actually feels surprisingly good in your palm. Especially the black one as its back is rubberised, whereas the back of the white phone is a glossy surface. The phone is pretty light as well.
The three keys on the front are the ones you’ll use the most. There are also a few other keys on the sides. The display will be your primary source of user interaction though.
Mediascape handles music, videos and pictures. The three types of content are split into three tabs and it’s all very user friendly. A feature I like a lot is the inifity view in the music player. This will automatically do a Youtube search for more content by the artist and you’ll also have options to do a Google search or a search on other search engines.
A video playing on the device. It loaded very quickly and looked absolutely smashing. The on-screen controls disappear after a few seconds of inactivity.
I’m sorry, but I didn’t record any videos. I simply forgot about it. Hope you’ve enjoyed this little preview anyway though! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.
Oh, by the way. The pricing of the X10 will be roughly the same as the launch price of the Satio. In Denmark that’s about the equivalent of £480.
Nice preview! Guess you’ve not asked about Kurara or future Satio firmware features?
Kurara uses the same iconset as the X10.
The Satio update is coming within a few weeks. As far as I understood, it’s already completed, but they wouldn’t say when it’s out.
None of them would say anything about Kurara
They may not be studio standard, but your hands-on photos are far superior to any other website – the majority of whom seem to regard the iPhone as the pinnacle of photographic technology. Good work! Now all I have to do is decide whether to splash out on the X2 or wait for this one.
Cool, thanks.
Nice pics, Mizz
Way better than mine 
These pictures suck
The conditions weren’t that great for photographing with flash – or without flash for that matter!
Come on, no conditions are too bad for a D700!
Excellent images and info, btw. Thank you. I think I’m gonna change my earlier preference and get the black one!
Hehe, that’s true, but the ceiling was metallic, which means that the light from my bounced flash became rather hard and edgy. Not at all pleasant.
The black one is definitely the coolest one!
I can feel the excitement from the article. Good job!
1. How does the screen compare to other phones (ie; iPhone, Droid)? There’s been some confusion to how many colours the screen can produce, or if it is OLED or not; but the most important is how it looks to the human eye, so I’m interested to know what you think of it.
2. I’m also interested in battery life and availability in North American markets, but there probably isn’t an answer to those questions at this time.
1. The display looks absolutely brilliant. It has to be the best display I’ve seen on any mobile device, period. I’ve handled the iPhone, HTC HD2 and the Samsung Omnia HD (i8910), if you’d like a few non-SE references.
The display is capable of showing up to 65k colours, but it looks superb none the less. I think it’s a TFT display, but I’m not sure. The surface seems to be mineral glass.
2. No idea about battery life, as I haven’t had it for more than a few minutes. It’ll be available in the US. Got confirmation on that.
Do you know if it’s going to have carrier backing in the US? I’ve heard rumors about AT&T.
Kickass phone i will surely buy this phone.
SONY ERISSON ROCKS…..\m/
Are you sure that X10 will cost around 450 euros??will it be same all over world[price]??
If its around 450 euros i will surely buy this phone as soon as it comes to India
Your Blog is amazing.keep up the gud work.
U rock…
I guess the pricing depends on the local market, but it should be around the launch price of Satio. That’s around 540 Euro when converting from DKK to EUR
Gr8 job Michell!
I was a bit more interested to know if we can have theme options to change the color and animations in Timescape and Mediascape.
Another thing, i liked bout it is we can add tabs to timescape and mediascape.
P.S.
Does it really feel good to have a ruberised back than the glossy one and did you really mean that its light!?
Thanks!
I’m not sure if it’s possible to change either of those, but I highly doubt it.
Yep, the rubber back adds to the quality feel of the handset. And yeah – it feels light!
Hi Mizz.
Great work on the X10.
I have a few Q.
1. How is the build quality like, and is it metal around the edges?
2. Beeing the first of more Android devices from SEMC, how did the SEMC team find working with the Android in general?
3. The LCD looks great, the viewing angles looks good as well.
But why is there “only” 65k colours, and will it be upgraded to 262k or more when the X10 will be given the 2.0 update?
4. Will the 2.0 update provide multitouch as well?
Great job on your blog mizz.
Hope to hear more about this device, i’ll opt for a black one thank you!
Regards Ron.
Thanks, mate.
1. It felt incredibly well built. Have to admit that I didn’t check if it’s metal. Sorry!
2. I think they’re really enjoying it
3. Not sure if it’s a software or hardware limitation. I’ll see if I can find out for ya!
4. Not sure if the current display supports it or not, but it’s definitely being considered by the “guys up high”.
Great work Michell!
I don’t supose that since you know about the price you also know something more about the launch date? (something more specific than Q1 2009 i mean..)
Congrats on the blog again..
Early Q1, so I’m guessing late January or start of February.
SE are known to delay their launch dates!
The word is, that the HW supports multitouch, i guess it’s something that will be included when the 2.0 will be implemented.
Looking forward to this device mizz, and it looks like you enjoyed it as well.
Keep up the good work!
Ron.
Ehm, 2010 that is.. :-S
Great pics and updates
Getting me all excited for the X10 all over again
I wonder why they chose to make the white and black one with different material. I wanted to get the white one so that it is distinctly different from all other phones out there.
With the given hardware, could it be capable of recording in HD? And if so, will there be a future firmware that will provide that?
There’s no doubt that the hardware is capable of doing it, but I don’t think they think of it as a necessity. Honestly, I’d prefer using WVGA resolution for video clips even if it did have a 720p option. Not that I wouldn’t like the option, but I don’t think I’d use it. Files will double in size, you know
Great coverage Miz!!! Really excited about X10… I wasn’t this excited even when X10 was announced…
WOW!!!
sadly, this smart-phone is without radio
Thankfully the radio issue can be worked around by usign the MW600 headset with intrenal radio! It will be launched with the phone. It is a bletooth headset with OLED and a 3,5mm jack.
Probably not bundled though….
Hey mizz, sorry for being OT. but, is SE really going down? i mean mobile-today is giving SE the most pathetic publicity one can think of. And according to them, the Aino is bug ridden and recalled too. Is it true? And also, the mentality at SE is really down.Everyone wants to leave. True again?
The people running the UK networks/operators are a bunch of you-know-what’s and my guess is that at least 90 % of the UK mobile customers know absolutely nothing about the products they buy. Actually, that’s probably more of a fact than a guess.
Aino does have bugs, but I haven’t heard of any general bugs that are serious.
Really doubt that the mentality is down
I had read from other android site, the 65k color is a limit from android 1.6 , the screen itself supports more than that [not sure but probably 16m]
Well, mobile-today has actually posted an article. Anyways,should I get the satio or wait for the X10? Had the satio for a few days, the Aino too, but i need a good camera. What say?
If you can’t have both Satio and X10, then I’d wait for X10. Else, get the Satio now and X10 when it arrives
Thanks for all the info, by any chance do you know if the x10 will have an alpha-numeric keyboard option wen txting
I actually don’t know if it’s available preloaded, but I’m certain you will be able to download a third party application that will enable that option, if it’s not preloaded.
T-mobile
T-mobile
T-mobile
T-mobile
T-mobile
NO AT&T!!!!!!
Hi there, thank you for the photos – i posted them in the biggest german android board, http://www.android-hilfe.de – http://www.android-hilfe.de/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10/11072-fotos-videos-vom-sony-ericsson-xperia-x-10-a.html – thanks
So you said it will be priced at 480 in DKK (Denmark). well if you convert that to USD (United states currency) it equals out to be around $96. There’s no way it would be that cheap over here. so I’m just gonna asume we will receive a MUCH higher price for it, hopefully not as high as the X1 or satio. Please let me know your thoughts on this, I’m basing my decision to save up my money till then and wait on that phone from your thoughts. thanks!!!
I said 480 GBP
Not DKK.
Ohhh….. ewwww….. lol. I definitely liked it better in DKK. That’s a little up there. Any idea on when an American version of the phone will be available? I’m wanting to buy in March, but that’s if it’s even available unlocked to the U.S. I’m assuming that they would make it usable on T-mobile too. I really love this phone and reading this made me fall hard for this phone. Thanks for the amazing information and awesome pictures that show just how sexy this phone is!! Keep up the great work.
I think Kurara will be for mid range people and below with X10..but I see the X10 will be the greatest SE phone i ever see
Brilliant pictures! I am following every website thats reviewing the X10. I am quite facinated by Android and its simplicity. I loved this phone the first time i read about it. Any idea which carriers will bring it out in the UK?
I spoke to Vodafone and they have confirmed that they will be getting it – which is great but I am looking at leaving o2