Sony Ericsson confirms Xperia X1 UK launch

Numerous dates have been sloshed about for the UK release of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 Windows Mobile smartphone. But the firm’s finally given panting punters an official arrival date - and it’s soon. Sony Ericsson Xperia 1 Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1: coming this month The phone will hit UK shops on 30 September. An …

[Ralph B]

Oooh the excitement

> In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, the

> Xperia X1 runs on Windows Mobile 6.1

And is that seriously supposed to excite me?

I'll get back under my rock now ... still waiting for a worthwhile replacement for my old Psion Series 5mx.

[Robert E A Harvey]

Looking for something like that

I'm looking for something like that, except I want one that does NOT run windows.

Any suggestions?

[Malcolm]

It's cheaper at play.com

'Only' £499:

http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/5192163/Sony-Ericsson-XPERIA-X1-Sim-Free-Unlocked-Mobile-Phone/Product.html

[Steve Button]

RE: Oooh the excitement

"... still waiting for a worthwhile replacement for my old Psion Series 5mx."

Me too! Except mine's a Revo, but still I haven't found a worthy replacement. Perhaps Android will be worth the wait? Somehow I doubt it, and I'll have to settle for an iPhone at least until something really good comes along.

Steve

[Anonymous Coward]

Available through O2?

Does anyone know if the Xperia will be available through O2 in the UK? If so what kind of release date do they have on it?

[Jim Coleman]

@Ralph B

The HTC Touch Pro is a more than worthy successor to your Psion. I had a series 3, 3a, 3c, 5, Revo and 7. I loved them all but honestly, the Touch Pro pisses all over them. I'm no Windows Mobile lover but to be perfectly honest, after falling out of love with Symbian after owning a P800 and a P900 and being frustrated by the lack of functionality (such as being able to create and edit Excel spreadsheets for one, and decent Outlook sync for another), I tried Windows Mobile despite my reservations and it does everything I need and more. I suggest all you naysayers give it a spin before you diss it. I'm sure the Xperia will be a great phone but I chose the Touch Pro over it for several reasons I've already gone into before on another X1 thread.

Don't diss stuff you haven't tried. If you have tried it and still hate it, fairy snuff.

[eddiewrenn]

So close

I've bee excited by this phone for months... Was going to get one within a week of launch... But the camera specs have stayed at 3.2mp and sadly that's not going to cut it with me anymore. I want my next phone, which needs to last two years, to be a camera-killer, so with regret I'm going to leave SE after six happy years.

[Lol Whibley]

this

is the same spec hardware as the HTC touch pro.. and it's manufactured by them too i think..

i just want to find a decent carrier for wither and i'll have one..

[M]

To be fair

I upgraded my Tytn2 to 6.1 and its a lot nippier than 6.0

[jonathan keith]

O2

I asked 02 about this a little while ago - apparently they aren't going to be carrying it because it competes directly against their own brand smartphones.

Swines!

[Euan Houston]

@ eddiewrenn

Dont leave SE just yet, coming soon is an 8.2mp camera stuck on a phone. Not had a chance to get more details as yet, but initial specs look good.

[Mattew Gaunt]

RE: Oooh the excitement

To the guys with Psions...

Great machines. The only problem though is that no matter how hard you shout into them, the person at the other end of the phone line struggles to hear you.

Their camera tech is shit too. You have to look at the person and draw their picture with the stylus.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Looking for something like that

If you don't mind it not being touchscreen then the Nokia E90 is a good bet and also has a larger screen. It's Symbian S60 v3 by the way so there is quite a bit of software/games available to add to it.

Loving mine for the large screen for web browsing and watching DVD's I've transferred onto it. I've had it for nearly a year and it's generally pretty stable.

Having seen the X1 in action at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year I will admit it looks like a nice piece of kit though!

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

I was going to wait for this...

But then I decided that my Samsung Omnia is better because:

1. It has 16Gb onboard memory as standard.

2. Has a 5Mp camera.

3. It isn't made by Sony.

OK, the Omnia doesn't have a slidey out keyboard but it works pretty well with what it has.

Also, I agree with Jim further up, I've used Windows mobile for a while now and haven't had any problems with it either.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Anonymous Coward - Available through O2?

The O2 customer forums seem to suggest it will be out in October. However, if you are an existing customer you will not be first in the queue.

I'm a existing O2 customer and have had an XDA Ignito on order since 29th Aug. On equiry they say they are out of stock. Strange that it's in stock on the online shop isn't it?

[Nick]

T-Mobile

I'm hoping it appears on fleamobile fairly soon, the contract is up on my HTC Athena, and I'm looking for a less pocket ripping replacement. The SE seems to be ideal for this and ticks my boxes of:- GPS (for tomtom), An OS that you can run your own applications on, FM Radio, A normal headphone socket, >3mp camera and MicroSD support.

Both the HTC Diamond and the Apple iPhone just arn't quite there, and the Googlephone still seems to be some way off.

[Andrew Fenton]

@aristotle

Different markets/capabilities. The Omnia is a consumer grade phone, with 400*280 res screen. The X1 is an expensive gadgetmonkey phone, with 800*400. Makes a huge difference in web browsing - that res is only slightly less than most netbooks.

As for all the gibberish about camera megapixels - all you do is add noise when you increase the megapixel count, and the optics are still as garbage as ever. A camera on a phone means rubbish pictures, full stop. There simply isn't space there for a decent sized sensor and particularly for a decent lens.

[Steve B]

Similarities to "HTC Touch HD"

Before rushing out and ordering one, I think I shall take a good look at the HTC "Touch HD" rumoured for release before year end.

Apart from the lack of a keyboard on the HTC device, there seem to be many technical similarities to the X1. Perhaps this is not so surprising as I gather that the X1 is designed by HTC.

[Graham Lockley]

@Andrew Fenton

>A camera on a phone means rubbish pictures, full stop.

There are a couple of Nokia models with Zeiss ( if I remember correctly) lenses that are far from rubbish. A friend who is an ex-pro photographer is happy to keep his in his pocket for those moments when he doesnt have his EOS to hand. The results are excellent and he can make calls with it as well !

The point is that no camera/phone is ever going to be as good as a dedicated camera but some of them will come close enough to be acceptable.

Oh and to the Psion lovers/ WM haters... try it sometime, its a flexible platform that allows almost infinite customisation and has a sh*tload of software for almost every need. Ironic really, of the all the mobile platforms its the MS one that is most open :)

[Groz Bat]

"Graham Lockley

> Ironic really, of the all the mobile platforms its the MS one that is most open :)

S60/Symbian is open source (or will be shortly). I can't see MS going open source for a while yet :)

[Jimster71]

@Graham Lockley

Maybe this is why your friend is an ex-pro photographer. Phone cameras are handy for a quick snap to illustrate something but you wouldn't want to be printing the images for your wall. The sensor is way too small to offer the quality that any real photographer would want.

[Ian Watkinson]

Windows Mobile

It's great, everyone should try it, I get loads of work done with it, mostly when phone.exe dies, and nothing tells you apart from meeting someone in the same building who tells you that they've been trying to call you all morning. Still it's nothing a reboot doesn't fix for 24 hours.

WM, Windows you're stuck with no updates for, until you pay for a new phone...

So yes, that would be like Windows XP, with zero updates to it, or Windows Vista with no updates to it, and we all knew how good they were.

[Giles Jones]

Camera phones

Sensor size is the crucial thing and camera phones always have small sensors. I can't see the point of 8mp on a phone when half of the pixels will be chroma or luminence noise.

No amount of post processing on a camera phone shot will give you detail and low noise. You have to pick one or the other.