Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 user reviews (sensuous black, unlocked)

4.0 stars

"Deciding between X10 and iPhone 3GS" on May 18, 2010 by skylargoldman

Pros: Large and beautiful 4" screen (16:9), Camera is fantastic for the everyday photographer, Sound quality is good, Sleek attractive design, Expandable memory (microSD card up to 32GB), Not bound to media player (e.g. iPod > iTunes)

Cons: No support for multi-touch, battery life could be better, maybe a little too large if you have small hands, Sony is lagging behind with only Android 1.6 (2.1 expected in September 2010)

Summary: [I'm using the X10 in Canada on the Roger's service - not an unlocked version]

So what I was looking for was the all-in-one device; that is, a reliable phone, media player, and camera (might as well throw organizer in there too). I'm no expert with phone specs, so besides good call quality and the basics you would expect from a 'reliable phone', the non-phone elements such as music/video playing and camera features were the biggest factor. This meant:
--16gb or more memory (ideally, 32gb or more)
--5.0mp camera or more
--Decent video capture
--3.5" screen or larger
--Intuitive design (e.g. specified camera buttons and simple media layout).

Being contracted to Rogers, my options were only the X10 or the iPhone 3GS. Both phones satisfied most conditions, here's the breakdown:

Memory:
Both have max at 32gb, but because the X10 uses microSD you can buy extra cards in case you want to carry more music, films, shows, etc with you. X10 was a win on this one, especially because this also means it works as a flash drive (one of my biggest complaints with the iPhone)

Camera:
The X10 boasted an 8.0mp camera vs. the iPhone at 3.2mp. The iPhone does take surprisingly nice pictures compared to other 3mp phones, but it's still barely facebook worthy. At 8.0mp, the X10 takes photos nice enough for 4x6 prints (maybe larger). The quality difference is noticeable, but the decision depends on what you take photos for. If all you want a camera for is facebook, then both are quite adequate. However, there are times when I personally prefer a nicer camera, e.g. a wedding, a trip to Europe, intention to print hard copies of your photos, etc. If this is what you want, X10 wins.

Video capture: I haven't messed around with the iPhone 3GS video capture enough to say much, but seeking out videos taken from the iPhone versus the X10, the video capture quality is again noticeably different. Especially considering that when the X10 gets its upgrade to 2.1, it will have HD video capture 720p.

Screen:
The X10's screen is GORGEOUS. It has a higher pixel resolution (though lower number of colors) than the iPhone, and is 4" 16:9 screen vs. the iPhone's 3.5" 4:3. This makes only a slight difference of quality/clarity when watching TV shows (4:3), but the difference is HUGE once you start playing widescreen material. Because of its 4:3 aspect ratio, when you watch widescreen material on the iPhone it actually shrinks to a 3.21" display! Now the difference is between a 3.21" and a 4.0" screen. So, if you only watch 4:3 material, then whatever, both will display at 3.5". But if you plan on watching movies on your device, the X10's screen is unmatched (ok, the HTC HD2, whatever). The X10 might get smudges a little easier than the iPhone, but it's hard to say because I was using an invisiscreen on the iPhone and haven't received mine for the X10 yet (highly recommended by the way).

Design:
Perhaps a toss up, both phones are sexy, no denying it. I'm not a big Apple guy myself (though I do love iTunes), so I personally liked the sleek black look of the X10 (the white model is hideous in person though). I think the camera buttons are slightly better laid out on the X10 (feels more like a digital camera), but the difference is marginal. In turn, I like the media layout of the iPhone slightly more than 'Mediascape' does on the X10 (but you can always opt for another app, thanks Android!).

Battery:
I haven't used the iPhone 3GS for long enough periods of time to feel like I can account for it, so I'll focus on the X10. The X10 battery life is below-average with out-of-the-box settings, but if you play with it you can pull 20-30 hours. Check these links:
-- http://www.sonyinsider.com/2010/04/13/how-to-fix-the-battery-life-on-the-sony-ericsson-xperia-x10/
-- http://www.xperiax10.net/2010/04/14/improving-your-xperia-x10-battery-life/
Also, if you want extended battery life, consider these products:
-- http://www.zagg.com/accessories/zaggsparq.php
-- http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/mugen-power-sony-ericsson-xperia-x1-1800mah-extra-eros-akkumulator.html
Overall, the battery is decent enough. I get at least a full day with moderate use including maybe 1.5 hours of talk, 2.5 hours of music, 1 hour of video, with some games and web browsing. People who complain about the battery life have not taken the effort to fix it themselves.

Multi-touch:
X10 doesn't have it. iPhone does. This is a huge problem for gamers, but not a big issue otherwise (pinch zoom is definitely cool, but not worth a lot to me).

CONCLUSION:
Overall the X10 provided me with more than the iPhone. Multi-touch and more existing apps are the selling points for the iPhone, but not enough to oust the X10's screen size/clarity and it's camera functions. Also, I imagine someone who doesn't like to mess with their phone at all may find the X10 (and Android) irritating. Even novice tech users (like me) won't mind though.

2.0 stars

"Phone is like a pretty Girl with serious problems." on April 26, 2010 by LostSkillz

Pros: Great Screen, takes good pictures (no carl Ziess) great screen size, awesome speed on WIFI. 1GHz processor which can sometimes be slow.

Cons: BATTERY SUCKS! screen not scratch resistant, front dress shirt pocket it abrasive apparently, the apps are not good, the speed issues happen, timescape needs more features, wifi can be spotty with dynamic inet, if signal is low performance can suffer

Summary: Nice pretty phone with a good camera and high speed..... sometimes, still not good enough to beat an iphone, even though the iphone is not getting flash and the programming is strict, it's still more fun and more reliable. My X10 has terrible battery life, the screen is poor after 5 days and always keeping it in my front pocket it already has scuffs and tiny knicks...... from dust I'm guessing???? I was expecting far more from this phone. Seriously disappointed in it's performance. Also standing outside in the sun makes this phone a little hard to read. I could keep going but I think you get the point, don't waste your money!

Updated on Apr 26, 2010

just found out some more seriously flawed issues with the phone, the auto brightness adjustment feature, must be due to the camera seeing if it's dark or light outside, because I am texting with both hands and it gets darker and darker on the screen, I move my fingers (so I am holding it like a dumb grizzly bear) and the screen gets brighter...... seriously????

0.5 stars

"Very bad phone." on January 24, 2011 by hristoh

Pros: None at all

Cons: The camera takes really bad photos, the video is not good either, powers up slow, and works sluggishly. Antenna is bad, I CAN'T END CALL, also I CAN'T use the dialpad during call. Can't connect to some bluetooth devices such as my Motorola ear piece.

Summary: In November 2010 I bought the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 black model from AT&T. I don't have anything positive to say about this phone, only negative things. The camera takes very bad photos the quality is disgusting, the video is not good either, the phone is not as fast as advertised at all, powers up slow, and works sluggishly. The phone doesn't have a good antenna either, when I go inside a store, the signal is gone. Two weeks after I bought this dinosaur, it started to give me serous problems, when I am in a call I CAN'T END CALL, I have to wait for the person I am talking with to hang up on me, also during a call the touch screen dialpad will lock up, and I CAN'T use the dialpad. Also I can't connect to some bluetooth devices such as my laptop, printers, and my Motorola ear piece using the phone's bluethoot. I have called AT&T and reported all those problems, it is now almost the end of January 2011, and I am waiting my 3 replacement handset from AT&T, hopefully the 4th handset will work and I will finally have a phone, if it doesn't I will buy another phone, since the X10 is garbage.

0.5 stars

"Never hated a phone this much!" on December 31, 2011 by axhernan

Pros: It has a neat design...that's it

Cons: Overheating battery
Phones turns off/resets whenever it decides to, then resends old messages to people.
Uses up dataplan while you are not even using the phone
Extremely slow
Freezes all the time

Summary: My experiences with this phone: From the beginning the phone was good, but that's always the case when you get something new. The longer I had this phone the worse it got.
1) Occasionally the phone starts to heat up and the battery quickly dies. I would have to take out the battery and put it back in. Then the phone would go from 60% to less than 2% of battery life left.
2) This is very annoying. The phone would just reset itself, even if I'm not using it and it's sitting on the table or even when I'm talking on the phone, it just randomly resets. For the last couple of months when the phone resets when it comes back on for some reason it decides to resend old messages that I've sent to the people I've talked to. For example, if I was texting a friend one day (let's just say 30 texts) and then the next day my phone resets, 20 of the texts get resent again. I have had 38 messages resent to an ex-girlfriend of mine and the same thing happened to my other friends and it gets very annoying and even embarrassing.
3) During the first few months of having the phone, out of nowhere I'm paying extra for dataplan. I had no idea why it was doing that and here's the crazy thing, I was ASLEEP! All I did was plug in the charger and sleep, then the next morning I get a message saying I have used 100% of my dataplan and will charge me for more. I felt cheated out for my money when I never used the internet at the time.
4) The phone gets slower. Regardless of the amount of apps you've bought (I restrained from buying any because it slowed down my phone at first) the phone will soon become very slow. When I go onto mediascape or if I want to take a picture it will either takes minutes for it to come up or the screen will just turn black and it would sometimes reset.
5) Freezing is a common thing on this phone now. Whether your on the internet or just trying to bring up the dialpad the phone freezes up and then it will reset. Yes, my phone resets probably five times a day.

This phone is absolutely horrible. There are so many times I want to throw the phone at the wall or run over it with my car, it is that frustrating (and no I'm not crazy lol). I have returned it and got a new phone after the second week of just buying it, this phone just sucks whether you return it for a new one or not. If I could go back in time I would have never even thought about buying this phone. Even my friend who bought the same phone before I did had switched phones because he was having problems with it. I've had this phone for about a year. This is the worst phone I have ever had.