Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

No wonder Sony Ericson’s XPERIA X1 is so good, with Windows Mobile inside, you can enjoy your favorite entertainment andwork efficiently on the move. Turbo 3G provides the speed you need.


Design and Construction. A touch-screen and a full QWERY keyboard is a rare combination and Sony Ericsson offers both. Solid stainless-steel construction all around — even the keyboard is made up of polished aluminum. The keys are somewhat beveled and spaced just right although if you have big fingers, you’d end up using your fingernails to press them. It’s pretty easy to get used to with very minimal incidents of mis-typing.

The Screen Real Estate. The front panel features a 3-inch screen with a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Video quality is top notch — crisp with high contrast and has a wide-angle view (you can still clearly see the videos at close to 90-degree angle). Playback is smooth but I noticed a lag of about 2 to 3 seconds when loading up the videos.

The XPeria comes with a stylus (and an extra one) tucked in at the top left on the back side for use to navigate the screen menu. You can use your fingers most of the time but there will be instances when you’ll really need the stylus as the menu items of Windows Mobile get too narrow for the fingers. There’s limited haptic feedback on selected functions.

The speakers are found at the bottom end of the phone. Sound volume is a little low that you’ll will find it hard to listen to any vocal audio even at normal ambient noise. Good thing Sony brought in one of their fine earbud headphones (35mm jack) to compensate for that. The FM tuner gets excellent reception when the headphones are attached.

Multiple Device Input. Aside from the QWERTY keyboard that slides out from under the phone, there’s a virtual keyboard you can activate to use with the stylus. The virtual keyboard seems a bit small despite occupying about 30% of the screen. On top of that, you get navigational buttons on the front panel and the touch screen. There’s no other way to get as much input system as that although sometimes you get confused which one to use.
With the GPS and Google Maps pre-installed, you can basically get turn-by-turn navigation with map data.

Battery life lasts an average of 2 and a half days with normal internet and phone use. The Lithium Polymer battery is rated at 1500mAh, just like the one on the Nokia E71. The phone charges with hooked up to the PC via the USB cable.

W995 Sony Ericson

Catch the action on the bright, clear 2.6” screen. When you want to share views and sounds with friends, use the built-in stand and stereo speakers.

With Media Go™ there’s no need to worry about format, resolution and ‘frame per second’ anymore.” said Alexandre Cardon, Global Marketing Business Manager at Sony Ericsson. “No longer will the video you transferred from your PC to your phone play in low resolution or bad quality. With Media Go™ and the W995 the experience is as good on your phone as it was on your PC.”

“The W995 Walkman™ phone brings together the very best music experiences of any phone, augments this with best in class video and sharing capabilities to offer the most complete communication entertainment package to date.” said Alexandre Cardon. “This powerful mobile phone delivers the best possible video resolution that can fit in your pocket and with enough battery stamina to watch two full length feature films. The W995 also comes complete with the award winning clear audio experience and an 8.1 megapixel camera for the highest quality picture and sound available in a mobile phone.

Camera:
8.1 megapixel camera
Up to 16x digital zoom
Photo fix
Picture blogging
Video blogging
Auto focus
Face detection
Photo flash
Video recording
Image and Video stabilizer
Video light
PictBridge

Music:
Walkman™ player
Clear Stereo
Clear Bass
Album art
PlayNow™
TrackID™
SensMe™
Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
Music tones (MP3/AAC)
3.5mm audio jack
Stereo speakers
Shake control

Web:
Access NetFront™ Web browser
Web feeds
Photo feeds

Communication:
Speakerphone
Polyphonic ringtones
Vibrating alert
Video call

Messaging:
Email
Picture messaging (MMS)
Predictive text input
Sound recorder
Text messaging (SMS)
Exchange ActiveSync
Chat View
Instant messaging

Design:
Picture wallpaper
Wallpaper animation
Auto rotate

Entertainment:
3D games
Motion gaming
Java
FM radio with RDS
Video streaming
Video viewing
Media
YouTube™
Walk Mate

Connectivity:
Bluetooth™ technology
Modem
USB mass storage
USB support
Synchronization
DLNA Certified™
Wi-Fi™

Organizer:
Alarm clock
Calculator
Calendar
Flight mode
Notes
Phone book
Stopwatch
Tasks
Timer

Location-based services:
Geo tagging of photos
Google Maps™
aGPS
Wayfinder Navigator™ (3-month trial version)

Accessories:
In-Box:

W995:
Battery
Battery Charger
8GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
USB Cable
Stereo portable handsfree
Sony Ericsson PC Suite
Media Go™
User book

Facts and Figures: 1)2)
Size: 97 x 49 x 15 mm
Weight: 113 grams

Colours:
Progressive Black
Cosmic Silver
Energetic Red

Main screen: 262,144 colour TFT, scratch-resistant
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
Size: 2.6 inches

Phone memory: Up to 118MB
Memory card support: Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)

Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 9 hrs
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 370 hrs

Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hours
Standby time UMTS: Up to 360 hours

Video talk time: Up to 3.5 hours
Music listening time: Up to 20 hours
Video watching time up to 5hrs

Availability and versions
Networks
W995:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 900/2100

W995a:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100

Sony Ericson W760a

Released for AT&T, the Sony Ericsson W760a is the first truly global Walkman phone with tri-band HSDPA, enabling broadband speed downloads of the latest music anywhere in the world. Offering integrated GPS with Wayfinder Navigator, users can find over 20 million points of interest around the globe.

A GPS-supported fitness application called Tracker can also tell consumers how fast, for how long and how far they’ve ran. Using SenseMe to pick the music, the W760a selects tracks for the just right occasion. Navigate through a playlist with Shake Control – shuffle and skip through tracks, or adjust the volume, with just a shake of the phone.

The Media User Interface rotates depending on how consumers are holding the phone, so they can see everything they need at a glance. Auto-rotate works for photos, videos and games too.

Just twist the phone to change the view. Built for fast-paced action, the W760a’s large 2.2-inch screen is ideal for gameplay and Motion Sensor Gaming allows users to play games in 3D quality, using the motion of the phone to control the game

Design

This handset comes in fancy black, rocky silver and intense red. The model reviewed here is rocky silver from AT&T, which is a combination of light silver on the face and a slightly darker graphite shade on the keypad and a few other parts.

Sony Ericsson kept the face of the W760a simple, with only a few keys and the screen. Just above the screen, A/B gaming keys on the left and right straddle the phone’s ear speaker. Below the screen are two selection keys and immediately underneath them is a large, round, four-way navigation key, which can also be used with the Walkman for play, stop, forward and back functions. To the left of the navigation key is a “call” key and to the right is an “end” key that also turns the phone on and off.

The keypad under the slider is large, with buttons big enough to dial with relative ease, although their relative flatness makes it a little difficult to do so by touch. The top row of keys is right up against the bottom of the top slider component, which can make it hard to dial them at first. However, this may be something users can get accustomed to and does not seem to be a major problem.

Sliding the phone open also reveals the 3.2-megapixel camera, which is cleverly protected when the phone is closed. Sony Ericsson even paid attention to the details of what would be revealed on the back of the slider when it is opened, so there is a shiny textured design – black on the rocky silver model – surrounding the camera and covering most of the exposed back of the slider.

Sony Ericsson W760a Specifications:

* 262k+ color screen
* 3.2 MP camera / camcorder
* Bluetooth stereo
* Music player / MusicID
* Shake control
* Motion sensing gaming
* FM radio
* HTML Web Browser
*Email / Instant Messaging
* Memory Stick Micro slot
* AT&T Navigator
* Video Share