Comments on: Sony Ericsson's New Android Phone Is Sleek, But Has a Hole

By: duck apple

duck apple — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:28:51 +0000

>> The ad seems to target X10 to women. The 4″ screen may make it too bulky for men’s pockets!!!

But, 4″ is too bulky for comfortable holding in the palm of average woman, and, combined with its thickness, largely excludes possibility of single handed operation even in men’s hand. I would go so far as saying that any phone larger than iPhone is going to be somewhat annoying in daily usage.

I know that you need to pack feature to knock iPhone down, but It’s really difficult to craft an optimum design in form factor for these ultra-high resolution display staffed in this wave of Android and WM 6.5 phones. In the end, it’s a phone, not a tablet.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:27:07 +0000

They won’t need to rev the hardware to support Android 2.0. Expect an update following the initial release within 1-2 quarters.

By: sergey lossev

sergey lossev — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:06:22 +0000

Seems like Sony Ericssons UX,TimeScape, custom camera software, and mediascape plugs the user experience difference between 1.6 and 2.0. As a disclaimer i am impartial, i am an iPhone user and dont intend to switch until contract is out. But Lets go through the list of differences you listed:

1.combined inbox. Timescape connects to fbook, twitter, SMS, and multiple emails. same or beyond 2.0
2.UX has its own custom keyboard, with different spacing from what i can tell. Same or beyond as 2.0
3.Quick Contact. Again Timescape creates a single thread for SMS, fbook, twitter, email call per contact.
4.Host of Camera improvements. X10 has 8.1 megapixel cam w/ face recognition, smile recognition, zoom, flashlight, video etc. One thing i trust SE to do is nail their camera apps. Their cameras have been top notch for a long time.
It seems like the layer of software SE has created anticipated the shortcomings in android 1.6 and created their own custom solution(s). Not having used SE’s solution but judging from the video/ x10 website, it seems like their solution has more design in it and is visually slicker. It has all of the advantages of 2.0 but in a better package that is unique vs. the vanilla 2.0 interface that everyone else will have as more 2.0 phones come online.

By: Sebastian Rupley

Sebastian Rupley — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:31:02 +0000

@Powel–Actually, Android 2.0 is a big upgrade…we covered some of the additions here: http://gigaom.com/2009/10/27/android-buzz-grows-as-droid-launch-nears/

“a combined inbox for multiple email accounts, a virtual keyboard with an improved layout and word completion, email and contact sync from multiple accounts including Exchange, and “Quick Contact,” which enables a user to call, email or send an SMS simply by clicking on a contact photo. Android 2.0 also includes a host of camera improvements and browser upgrades including a tappable address bar and double-tap zooming.”

By: powel

powel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:27:43 +0000

“Android 2.0, which has a slew of advanced features” … yea, like what? 2.0 seems more about marketing than anything else, no technical substance. tell us otherwise …

By: Sebastian Rupley

Sebastian Rupley — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:17:16 +0000

@Albert–thanks, that was corrected.

@Eideard–Thanks, glad to see a CrankyGeeks viewer here!

Sebastian

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:06:32 +0000

iPhone 3G uses a 412 MHz Samsung Processor and the 3GS uses a 600 MHz processor. Snapdragon is a 1000 MHz processor. So, may be X10 could be faster…

The ad seems to target X10 to women. The 4″ screen may make it too bulky for men’s pockets!!!

By: Eideard

Eideard — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:53:03 +0000

Irrelevant comment – just noting it’s great to see content from you, Sebastian.

Enjoying your work as co-crank is insufficient display of your talents, bro’. Love what you’re doing at GigaOm.

By: Albert

Albert — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:13:59 +0000

This phone is really exciting, but I can’t wait any longer, so I’m getting a Droid. If only they could bring it to market sooner!
By the way, the article says that the iPhone runs on a 1GHz Snapdragon, but it doesn’t. Unless you know something about a future iteration that we don’t.
Android FTW!

By: Richard Marsh

Richard Marsh — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:29:45 +0000

The iPhone 3GS has a ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz chip not the 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in the Droid or X10. These new phones should smoke the iPhone on pure computing power, not “keep up with it” as you say.