For a change, a blog post about the hype geek world of smartphones. Pardon the disgression!
I've been swapping phones with a friend in early august. He got my iPhone 3G (of which I was getting sick tired of) and I got his brand new Sony-Ericsson XPeria X10.
Android, I kept telling myself, will be a wonderful and refreshing change. I was quite promptly put back in touch with the cold reality… after a day of using the phone!
It is not often that I loathe openly a product, but this device has reached peaks of annoyance that make me regret my iPhone 3G.
After a month of usage, here is my opinion of the phone. I will start with the minuses:
Minuses
– exceptionally short battery life (really incredible by smartphone standards)
– no multitouch
– clumsy Sony-Ericsson proprietary interface
– impractical applications (Mediascape)
– Screen auto-orientation is badly implemented (excruciatingly slow)
– Outdated implementation of Android OS (Mathusalem build or something like that)
– no flash
– imprecise touch interface
– exceptionally annoying keyboard, some letters (such as those on the edge) almost never work properly.
– no offline GPS navigation program (specific to Android platform)
– no audio controls on the headphones
Pluses
– amazing screen resolution
– great camera (both for photos and videos)
– great apps (specific to Android platform)
– integrated SD card, easy to manage files on SD
How Sony-Ericsson intends to adress the issues?
– exceptionally short battery life: reduce screen brightness, turn off wifi, data, gps, bluetooth (basically, turn off the phone)
– no multitouch: no plans as of now
– clumsy Sony-Ericsson proprietary interface: no plans as of now (had to install ADW to get rid of it)
– impractical applications (Mediascape): no plans (got rid of mediascape and got DoubleTwist)
– Screen auto-orientation is badly implemented (excruciatingly slow) : no plans as of now (fixed in Android update?)
– Outdated implementation of Android OS (Mathusalem build or something like that): planned june 2010, delayed july, august, september, october 2010 and now probably delayed Q1 2011
– no flash: no plans to activate in future upgrade
– imprecise touch interface: no plans as of now
– exceptionally annoying keyboard, some letters (such as those on the edge) almost never work properly: possible fix ?
– no offline GPS navigation program (specific to Android platform)
– no audio controls on the headphones: not aware of any alternate headset doing this
Conclusions
Overall, with Sony-Ericsson's XPeria X10, my Android experience has turned into a sad farce.
I will abandon this mobile happily and without a glint of regret. I have a strong feeling that my future mobile will be either my good ole iPhone 3G, or better an HTC running Android (or a Samsung Galaxy?)… Time will tell. For now, let the gloom rain.
I must say that otherwise the Android OS is really nice and offer a lot of smart tools and programs, but once again this cannot be put to credit of this specific device.