Xperia is to Sony Ericsson as Lexus is to Toyota…same manufacturer with an upscale orientation. This really is a premium smartphone that has a full suite of features and performance that places it among the best. That said, its enormous drawback is, that as an unlocked GSM phone, it isn’t offered by a U.S. carrier so its price is outrageous. Even if you were to decide to bite the bullet and pay the unsubsidized price, the X1’s price tag is so high that you could opt for unlocked versions of the higher rated Apple iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Bold, or Samsung Omnia and still have a couple hundred bucks in your pocket.

Standout features

• Brilliant Touch Screen
• 400MB Flash Memory Plus Included 2GB Expansion Card
• Wi-Fi and GPS
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS

Features
To 3G or Not to 3G
Since the Xperia X1 is an unlocked GSM phone and is 3G capable, you should be able to get any SIM card and have broadband access, right? Wrong. The X1 supports only the 850/1900/2100 UMTS/HSDPA bands. T-Mobile’s 3G network operates on the the 1700/2100MHz bands. In short that means that, in the U.S., you’ll have to use an AT&T SIM card to get services at broadband speed.

Brilliant Touch Screen
The Xperia X1 features a 3-inch touch screen with whopping 800 x 480 pixel resolution. That translates into a display image that is second to none. That’s great for web surfing and the phone has both the Windows Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera Mini browsers preinstalled. The screen also features nine installed panels that you can change to meet your needs or mood. They include multimedia, Google, and Microsoft Today, among others. Most navigation is done, however, via the slide out keyboard. Unlike most touch screen devices, the Xperia X1 doesn’t have a virtual keyboard option.

Advanced Document Handling
Running on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS, the X1 is loaded with the complete MS Office Mobile suite of applications. It provides support for MS Exchange and Outlook. Personal POP3 and IMAP email applications are also available.

Multimedia Features
The Xperia X1 has a 3.2-megapixel camera that has more real camera features than most phone devices. It produces better still pictures and videos than most comparable units. It also has a media player which supports most popular audio and video file formats and has a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and support for Bluetooth stereo. It features 400MB of built-in memory and comes with a 2GB MicroSD/SDHC card. It is capable of handling cards up to 16GB.

Battery Life
Talk time is rated at 360 minutes and standby time is an estimated 480 hours.

Design
The Xperia X1 is sleek and slim, unusually so for a phone that is so packed with features. It also comes in attractive black and silver options…but the silver is $140 more than its less glamorous cousin.

Summary
This is an excellent smartphone with features to rival those closer to the top of the ratings; nonetheless, its exorbitant price puts it in the not worth the money category.
 

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