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The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is one device that’s not afraid to brag.  It’s got the looks stylings of a sophisticated modernist, an interface to temporarily boast, and the price tag that’ll blow up your mind and your surrounding minds.

So how does this device actually stack up?  We give it a good review and we blow it up as well, to find out whether the boasting continues on from inside the device.

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As a bit of context, Sony Ericsson has been stuck in a rut for the past couple years with slim successes on all mobile fronts, and it doesn’t help that the economy has been, well, in shambles lately.  With R&D centers closing down left and right, they need hope.  The XPERIA X1 is hoping to be that hope, with HTC driving a lot of its development on the hardware side.  It’s fully launched in the UK, with a pending release of the X1a in the US.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Review

Greats

This device is one of the most gorgeous devices I’ve seen.  Not only does it look good, it feels like a million bucks (it actually does cost a lot though).  The sliding mechanism is the smoothest and most solid mechanism to date and actually tilts the screen slightly towards you.  It works, and it works well.  There’s absolutely no give to the device due to its brushed aluminum components.  Heck, the battery door is fully aluminum, the base of the keyboard is aluminum, even the keys feel aluminum (we’re not sure they actually are though).

Sony Ericsson/HTC has also done an amazing job on the fine details.  Look at the hidden notification lights!  There are accented front buttons, rubberized feet, and the curved sliding is gorgeous.

And of course, the screen.  The X1 sports one of the first WVGA (800×480) screens, and it’s beautiful.  Colours are vibrant, small texts are clear and very visible, and watching the included Casino Royale trailer is more than satisfying.  It’s sad that they’ve chosen to run with a resistive touchscreen rather than a capacitive, but Windows Mobile 6.1 is definitely a beast to run without a stylus, especially with the small fonts that it so brilliant displays.  Of course, they’ve given it one of the best resistive displays, with very fine film-to-screen gaps.  It’s also quite responsive.

Finally, thank you SEMC/HTC for including a 3.5mm headphone!  Media is a pleasure to use with one of the “Panels” (more on that later), sporting an interface very similar to Sony’s Xross Media Bar employed on the PS3 and PSP.  It makes it easy to sort through your videos, music, and pictures, with an elegant background.

So-So

Unfortunately we had to rate the widely touted “Panels” as so-so, comme ci comme ca, or the officially official “meh”.  While it’s brilliant in concept, it’s less attractive in implementation.  The Panels interface essentially provides you with up to 9 different “desktops” that you can use, customize, and even download.  Many of these actually look very cool and are dedicated for various functions (Calendar, Media, RSS Readers etc.), but that same fact is also the bane of its existence.  Constantly using it is a pain as it’s takes up to SIX seconds to fully load a panel!  Fun Fact:  In the time it takes to load a panel, Usain Bolt can run 62.4m!  The Panels interface actually uses a pixelated screenshot that it brings up with the animation.  After the animation, it’ll slowly load your actual interface.  The fact is, using Panels is a nuissance to use regularly.

Another so-so, is the keyboard.  The 4-rows of keys is definitely useful for regular typing though, and it’s even laid out with a staggering QWERTY effect that makes it easy to get used to.  Unfortunately, this keys are very flush and rather soft, giving it subdued tactile feedback.   Technically, this is a general complaint about slide-out keyboards, because they have to be nearly flush so that the screen can slide on top.  Nevertheless, it still hinders this from being a great keyboard.

In-line with the keyboard is the front keypad and navigational buttons.  The optical joystick is easy to use, and rather fun, actually.  However, it’s imprecise and requires you to use the actual arrow keys for quick, snappy, decisions.  What gives everything a really bad flavor of mediocre, is the cross-use of these two.  When using the keys, the overly senstive joystick senses your thumb and typically makes you over-traverse during menu selections.  It’s quite annoying, especially when the items are too small for your finger.

Finally, processing.  The processor in this device is able to chew through most applicational functions without a sweat.  However, it seems that it has trouble running the Panels interface, for reasons listed above, and the the laggy and jagged animations switching from horizontal to landscape.  Our guess is that graphical capabilities of this processor are not up to par with its intentions, while its raw computational abilities seem rock solid.  We also tried some sideloading benchmarks, transferring movie files from PC to MicroSD card, and we were max out at 2MB/s through ActiveSync.  In Mass Storage mode (activated through options), it was able to pull out close to 4MB/s.  Decent, but definitely not up to par when compared to other phones.

Gripes

This phone doesn’t have too many gripes, since the complaints are usually validated by some design virtue.  The resistive touchscreen is one of the best in its class, is gorgeous to watch, but a pain to stab at something small.  The buttons are well laid out, easy to use, but a pain to type quickly without functional feedback.

Our largest complaint about the device, has to be the use of Windows Mobile 6.1.  It’s natural flaws really have most to do with the annoyances of the phone.  What Sony Ericsson has done is provide a simplistic overlay, but in the end, its a Windows Mobile phone through and through — built for functionality, robust, but rather old and crusty.

Conclusions

The Sony Ericsson is a rather pleasing device and feels rock solid.  The greatest satisfaction from using it is that its aluminum shell, just feels so good.  The screen is gorgeous and the Panels experience gives mobile UI a whole new flavor.  Sony Ericsson’s first attempt at a Windows Mobile phone is definitely respectable (with HTC’s help), but these phones are really in dire need of Windows 7 or even 6.5.  While Panels covers all the initial functions, anything deeper requires you to use Windows Mobile at its core, which is rather unpleasant.

phoneWreck Score: 8.5 panels out of 10

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Teardown

For this phone, we had to be particularly careful when we tore it open (we love our gadgets, after all).  It was relatively easy, but hidden screws are always deadly.  Luckily, the shielding on the chips were easily removed.  But first, as always, the block diagram!

What’s interesting to note is the really smooth sliding mechanism.  This is achieved through a curved backing of the screen with rollers clipped to the inside tracks.

Next up are the internals.  The actual chips being used are very similar to the ones found on the G1 (teardown).  Instead of the Qualcomm MSM7201A, it runs the MSM7200A.  Included in this particular Qualcomm chipset is the PMIC, Qualcomm PM7540, and the RF transceiver, which we believe to be the Qualcomm MXU6219.  Qualcomm transcievers are typically labelled with RTR, and we’re actually unsure what MXU stands for.  But nonetheless, there’s no other IC big enough to be a transceiver.

The X1 also uses a Micron NAND Flash + RAM MCP, sporting 256MB RAM and 512MB storage.  The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are run by TI with similar chips found on the G1, the BRF6350BL (G1 uses BRF6300C) and WL1251B (same as G1).  The Wi-Fi is also managed by the same power amp, TI WL1251FE.  Power amps, like the G1 are run by Avago for UMTS bands, and TriQuint for GSM bands.

Another interesting thing to note is the Mini-USB port.  It’s actually eerily similar to HTC’s traditional ExtUSB ports.  In fact, it looks just like it except that it’s symmetrical enough to only fit a Mini-USB connector inside.

There’s not too much to note on the front except the USB PHY, which we believe to be developed by SMSC.  Again, similar chips with similar markings were found on other devices.

On the screen, there’s actually two PCBs.  One controlling the main front buttons, the optical joystick, and a logic microcontroller from Atmel, and the other that we believe houses an Epson controller for the resistive touchscreen.  Finally, on the right, there is a connection to the front CMOS camera.  Both camera modules are shown side by side, below.

So there you have it!  Hope that teardown helps some of you folks unwilling to open up such a pricey phone.

If you have questions, comments, concerns, humorous anecdotes, be sure to let us know in the comments or through e-mail (phonewreck@gmail.com).  Also be sure to visit the wiki for more pictures (http://www.phonewreck.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sony_Ericsson_XPERIA_X1)!  Thanks!