Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 review: A new experience

There's a lot to fall for in Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. Possibly the hottest looker of a PocketPC is also heavy on skill. Heavy enough to not just scratch out a living as a one-hit-wonder but aim for the WinMo top. 

The extra solid metal looks, gorgeous screen and the right pinch of novelty called XPERIA panels look to us as good enough reasons for the X1 to be hyped and romanticized. By the way, romance or not, Sony Ericsson and HTC have hit their perfect shape with that one. 

The XPERIA X1 is surely the most eagerly anticipated device in the world of Windows Mobile. Getting our review out was surely quite a wait too, we know. Better late than ever, as some folks say. We'll still have our say 'cause for the XPERIA it's a load of high expectations to live up to. 

   
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 official photos
Key features:
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus HSDPA 7.2Mbps 
3-inch 65K-color WVGA touchscreen 
Qualcomm MSM7200 528 Mhz CPU and 256 MB DDR SDRAM 
3.15 MP auto focus camera with VGA video recording 
Four-row full QWERTY slide-out keyboard 
Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS 
X-Panels interface 
Optical trackpad 
Exquisite and solid metallic body 
Standard miniUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP 
microSD memory expansion 
FM radio with RDS 
3.5mm standard audio jack 
MS Office Mobile document editor 
Opera 9.5 web browser 
Excellent video playback performance 
Superb audio quality 
Main disadvantages:
Body is a bit on the bulky side 
User interface is hardly thumb-optimized 
Mediocre camera performance 
No built-in accelerometer 
Poor display sunlight legibility 
Records low quality VGA@30fps video in 3GP format 
No TV-out port 
No full Flash support for the browser (hence no full-featured YouTube) 

The XPERIA X1 is one of the best-equipped Windows Mobile devices to ever set foot on the market. But hey, is it not the most elaborate and charismatic PocketPC too? As to skills, the high-res 3" screen and the full QWERTY keyboard seem the most important parts of its magnificent ammo though its processing power is not to be neglected either.