Looking for a slide out QWERTY smartphone? This one may be right up your street.

Sony Ericssons Xperia X2 is the much anticipated sequel to the X1 but is it as good as the original? Read on to find out if this new version is worthy of you spending your cash.

 

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

 

What’s in the box:

• Device
• Battery
• Charger
• USB Cable
• TV Out Cable

Also have a look at Matt’s unboxing video for more details.

 

The ten second review:

Device: Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

Price:TBC

Summary: A feature filled Windows phone with the bonus of a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Best of: Email, Keyboard, Camera, 3.5mm headset jack.

Worst of: Build Quality

Get it now from: Sony Ericsson

 

 

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Specification:

• Operating System – Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
• Processor – Qualcomm MSM 7200 528 MHz
• Memory – RAM – 256MB / ROM – 512MB
• Display – 3.2" VGA, 800 x 480 pixel, 65,536 colour touchscreen
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• UMTS/HSPA 900/1900/2100
• WiFi
• MicroUSB
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Internal GPS antenna with aGPS support
• microSDHC memory card (up to 16GB)
• Bluetooth stereo (A2DP)
• Camera – 8.1 megapixel
• Geo tagging
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Optical trackpad
• Talk Time -GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 – 10 hours
• Standby Time – GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 – 500 hours
• Battery – Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BST-41)
• Dimensions – 110.0 x 54.0 x 16.0 mm (4.3 x 2.1 x 0.6 inches)
• Weight – 155g (5.5 oz)

 

 

 General:

 

On the top of the device is the 3.5mm headset jack, the power button and a speaker grill.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Top

 

The left side contains the microUSB port and also a battery cover release knob.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Left Side

 

On the right is the up/down volume rocker, the dedicated camera key and the housed stylus.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Right Side

 

Situated on the back of the device is the 8.1mp camera lens and flash.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Back

 

On the front are the function keys and optical trackpad at the base, and at the top is the secondary camera, proximity sensor and speaker.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Front

 

Highlights:

• Wi-Fi/3G
• Camera
• Keyboard
• 3.5mm headset jack

 

Lowlights:

• Build Quality
• Screen is slow to react
• Hardware Keys

 

 

Review:

Out of the box I was surprised by how heavy the Xperia X2 was. At 155g its heavier than some similar devices but this factor has never been one to put me off a phone. The device comes in two colours, black and silver. I had the silver one and its quite attractive to look at. In terms of build quality it doesn’t feel as high class as it initially looks. The battery cover in particular feels flimsy and by pressing slightly on it I could feel and hear it moving. The movement opening the sliding keypad if reasonably smooth but once open the screen section feels unstable and it actually wobbles a wee bit. It will be interesting to see if this worsens over time?

It looks tight but its not!

 

On the front of the device, under the screen there are four hardware buttons. They are not what I would call proper buttons as they are flush with face of the device, although they do give a little click when pressed. These buttons comprise of a call send/end, an okay button and a Sony Ericsson menu button. Between these buttons is an optical track pad.

The slide out QWERTY keyboard has to be one of the main attractions to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2. It consists of four rows (unlike the HTC Touch Pro2 which has five rows) and its not too bad to type on. Its certainly not the best but its far from being the worst. I could type perfectly on it straight away, but I am used to using a Touch Pro2. Its not as comftable to use as the TP2 and the main reason I can give for this is that the keys have very limited space between them. The keys are smaller than on some other slide out QWERTY devices but they are responsive. I really don’t like where they have put the number keys though. Not only is it awkward using them in this position but its also hard to see them. I couldn’t get the keys to light up like on the TP2 so using in the dark may be a real issue.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Keyboard

 

I didn’t review the original Xperia X1 so I am unable to compare my personal opinions on whether the X2 is better than the X1 but at this stage in the review I am a little disappointed in the hardware!

 

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 is a Windows phone and comes with windows mobile 6.5 installed. I’m not going to go into to much detail with the OS as its been covered in several reviews recently but I will cover the changes /tweaks that Sony Ericsson have made.

First off is the home screen. Like the Xperia X1 the X2 comes with the panels option. Here you have a choice of numerous home screens.

 

Above is “Tilewave” from Sony Ericsson. This consists of common used features on the home screen. If you shake the phone the tiles bounce up and down. How exciting!

 

Next we have the Windows Mobile standard screen. Here you can either drag the highlighted bar up and down or if you prefer you can move the whole list. Its not great and the icons don’t bounce but it works.

 

Sony Ericsson have teamed up with SPB to include mobile shell 3.5 on the Xperia X2. This is a decent and extremely popular shell and consists of three home screens sitting side by side. Swipe left or right and stick whatever icons you want on the screens.

 

Above is also SPB Mobile Shell 3.5. Normally when you buy this application you can swipe up or down to switch between a professional shell and a personal one. On the X2 you need to choose one or the other so this is the other!

 

This one was is extremely pretty but not very useful. At first the screen is blank and then the flower grows. This is then followed by a bumble bee flying around the screen shortly followed by a ladybird.

 

 

This one is really clever but there is no way I could use it. The screen is an animated city with people walking about, moving cars and trains and even a helicopter flying around. Certain building are the phones features such as in the above picture the cylinder building accesses the battery status when pressed.

 

There is also a night time version.

 

In addition there are a few other panels such as Facebook and CNN but these are obviously not home screens. One good feature with the panels is that you can set panels to change at different times in the day.

Its nice to have different options as a home screen but certain ones above will be just a novelty and I would imagine most users will probably stick with SPB Mobile Shell after playing around for a while.

 

Unlike the HTC and Samsung Windows phones, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 does not come with Opera Mobile pre installed but just internet explorer. Of course you can download Opera anyway and I would advise it as its better than internet explorer. Mind you, there are lots of browser options now and as the X2 is WinMo it is dead easy to download what you like.

 

As the Xperia X2 is a little smaller in size than a few of its rivals you will be pleased to know it comes with a stylus as you may need it. Sony Ericsson have not customised the OS as heavily as some other manufactures and although WinMo 6.5 is better than previous versions its far from perfect. The supplied stylus slots nicely into the rear of the device but it has to be the thinnest one I have ever seen. Its like a big needle!

 

The music player on the Xperia X2 is quite basic which surprised me. The quality wasn’t too bad though. Not the best but okay. As a 3.5mm headset jack is supplied you can use which headphones you desire.

The camera was reasonable though. At 8.1mp I was expecting decent photographs and the ones I took turned out to be bright and vibrant. Its certainly not as good as a proper digital camera but for being on a phone its pretty special. The interface though is bland and rather unexciting. I also didn’t like the dedicated camera button. It just didn’t feel right. Not sure why.

Camera Sample

 

Like with all Windows Phones setting up email accounts is easy. You can have multiple email accounts using pop/IMAP and also one account using Active Sync and this latter one will offer push email as opposed to the others that with just sync with the server. They all work flawlessly.

 

Like most smartphones these days the Xperia X2 comes with an onboard YouTube client. I’m afraid to say its one of the worst I have used to date. The video playback is terrible. For some reason the videos all appear blocky, kind of like it was when video was first introduced on mobiles. Very odd!

 

You get all the normal Windows phone apps as standard, such as My Phone, Marketplace, Office Mobile and messenger. These all work fine on the X2.

Google Maps is also pre installed on the handset. As the Xperia X2 supports A-GPS you can also run turn by turn navigation software such as CoPilot or TomTom. I didn’t try running them on the X2 as by this stage I had had enough to be honest!

 

 

Conclusion:

I’m afraid to say that I think this is a rather poor effort by Sony Ericsson. Don’t get me wrong, the device is not terrible, its just not as good as other handsets on the market right now. The one thing that really frustrated me about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 is its clunkiness. Its very laggy and although Windows Mobile is not the fastest of operating systems its runs much better on other devices I have reviewed recently of own myself. Its a shame as you would have though that a sequel phone would be fantastic but this one just doesn’t tick all the boxes.

 

Posted by: James