The Motorola Milestone, or Motorola Droid if you’re in the US, and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 are squaring up to do battle in the next-gen Android wars. Can’t decide which one comes out on top? Take a look at our stat clash to see which of the mighty mobiles packs the most punch. We’ll warn you though, it’s a mighty close call.
Screen:
With 480×854 WVGA screens slapped on both the Motorola Milestone and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, it comes down to screen size. Moto’s effort clocks in at 3.7-inches, more than ample space for video snacking on the morning commute and since it’s a bit smaller than Sony Ericsson’s it’ll actually appear a bit sharper too. However, Sony Ericsson’s extra space, maxed out at 4-inches, should make for a comfier viewing experience. Motorola has made one last throw of the dice though, chucking in multitouch pinch zooming for good measure. We’d say they’re about evenly matched, all things considered.
Winner: Tie
Connectivity:
HSDPA and Wi–Fi are both present and correct on both the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the Motorola Milestone. Bluetooth and USB are also on-board, with both phones rocking a 3.5mm headphone jack too. That’s a great move by the usually proprietary-mad Sony Ericsson and pulls it up to par with the Milestone.
Winner: Tie
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10: hands-on photo fest!
UI:
The Motorola Milestone isn’t packing the same MotoBLUR skin found on the Motorola DEXT. However, Android 2.0 does promise a seamless smartphone experience, and packs in Google’s Google Maps Navigation to replace your satnav too. The fact is though that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has Rachael, the next-gen UI which has had tech tongues wagging for months. With Mediascape and Timescape, it’s set to redefine the way you contact your mates and listen to music on the move. What’s more, it’ll get the Android 2.0 upgrade at a later date, letting it do everything the Motorola Milestone can, and more.
Winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Speed:
The Motorola Milestone packs in a 550Mhz processor. More than enough, you might think. But the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has the uber-hyped 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon inside, which should keep things zipping along nicely when Android’s doing more than one thing at a time.
Winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Operating system:
While both the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and Motorola Milestone run Google Android, there’s one key difference. Moto’s next-gen handset packs in Android 2.0, also known as Eclair from the start, although it won’t come with Google Maps Navigation in Europe for some time. Meanwhile, the Xperia X10 is chowing down on Android’s previous version 1.6, otherwise known as Donut. Sony Ericsson says that’ll change “in time”, but it’s still a deal breaker for us and straight out of the gate The Motorola Milestone just edges a lead.
Winner: Motorola Milestone
Motorola Milestone: UK left out of European launch
Camera:
Sony Ericsson is the king of camera phones and things aren’t set to change with the Xperia X10. We’re talking an 8.1 megapixel effort with 16x digital zoom, face recognition and smile detection. The Motorola Milestone has an ample 5MP snapper, 4x optical zoom and Dual LED flash, but on paper at least, the Xperia X10 wins out.
Winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Storage:
Neither the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 or the Motorola Milestone come with major storage on board. 1GB is all you get, although there’s an 8GB card slung in the box with each handset. It’s a bit of a blow for those who like loading up on movies, although both will support 32GB cards to put them narrowly above even the iPhone 3G S in the storage stakes.
Winner: Tie
Overall winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
I wonder what would be the battery life of a phone that has 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip…
Ditto – sadly that’s one thing we can’t test from a short preview with the Xperia X10. Rest assured we’ll put it through its paces though in a review nearer launch.
I think one aspect has been left out in this comparison, the fact that the Motorola Milestone will be packing a qwerty keyboard.
I can’t say in general how big of a deal that is, but for me personally the deal breaker up until now for buying any Android based mobile, has been the lack of a slide-out keyboard. Up until the X10 when I thought the larger screen and resolution might be enough to overcome that hurdle with an on-screen keyboard.. But then came the Milestone (and even launches before the X10), which had the same resolution _and_ qwerty keyboard – for me there is no doubt that the Milestone is the winner in any showdown of Android phones.
I’d hold off until you get a chance to test the Milestone keyboard yourself if you can. Like you, I prefer a dedicated QWERTY keyboard, though I’m not convinced they’re all born equal. I’ve not played with a Droid/Milestone, but those keys look very difficult to differentiate between. I am impressed with how thin Moto has managed to make it still though.
I know android 1 doesn’t support multi-touch; are you saying that existing xperias – when they’re available – will get multitouch, as well as all the rest, when android 2 upgrade is available – ie it’s a software not a hardware limitation? Also, if they have the same screen res, how come sony say android 2 doesn’t yet support their screen – which I think I read yesterday
Only the Xperia 10 will get Android 2, we’re told. Likewise, we’re not sure about multi-touch, but it’s certainly a possibility. As for screen resolutions, Android 2 is specifically designed to work over a wider range of screen sizes, types and resolution.
Existing Xperias don’t run on Android, and use not so hot screens, so multitouch is out of the question for them I fear. It appears Motorola simply got to use Android 2.0 in the Droid earlier than other manufacturers – it has a very close relationship with Google. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly 2.0 ROMs for the Xperia X10 emerge after release though.
You’re correct. Qualcomm has not released an Android 2.0 version for Snapdragon, hence why X10 and Acer Liquid for now must rely on 1.6. Not SE’s fault but rather Qualcomm/Google …
Curious approach from Qualcomm considering it makes the processors in so many Android handsets. Hope it hurries up!