On top of the Android 1.6 operating system, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 uses a custom UX interface, starring the Timescape and Mediascape media and social networking browsers. They help you navigate around the phone’s contents, but are they up to the task? Read our Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 user interface review to find out.
Read the rest of out Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: overall verdict
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: design and build
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: screen and media
Timescape is the star of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10′s social networking show. It lets you view your emails and updates from Twitter, Facebook and Myspace as a single stream, all with a simple entry of your login details for each. Timescape also shows you separate streams for all of those, plus text messages and calls with a quick left or right swipe.
There’s also a Timescape widget that shows you the latest update, but if you want to flick through everything that’s happened on the social networking scene in the last few hours, you’ll have to delve into the Timescape app, It doesn’t let you browse updates right from your Xperia X10′s home screen though, unfortunately.
Mediascape dumps the idea of attempting to fit its multimedia skills into a widget. You can place a shortcut on your Xperia X10′s home screen, but to get access to Mediascape’s media-playing functions, you have to head into its full app.
As these two key UX interface experiences are more like separate apps than core parts of the Xperia X10, much of the phone’s interface feels like vanilla Android. It’s not such a bad thing though – glide your finger up the screen to pull the app menu up, or swipe sideways to switch between the three home screens. Yep, unlike the HTC Desire with its five home screens, the Xperia X10 only has three.
Head into the Mediascape and Timescape apps and you’re struck by how swish they are. Slick animations and undulating backdrops are the order of the day. Positively laden with cherries-on-top, both of the Xperia X10′s ‘scapes make a great impression, but are too many sweet things bad for you?
After a while, you start wishing these apps, especially Timescape, would drop their glitzy looks in favour of something a bit more practical – like the HTC Desire’s Friend Stream, which can sit on your home screen, is ultra-quick and looks great without resorting to anything remotely flashy.
Ultimately, like wearing stilettos or worrying about whether there’s enough gel in your hair, an obsession with looking cool slows the Xperia X10 down. And you don’t opt for a phone with a 1GHz Snapdragon under the bonnet if you want to be slowed down.
Read the rest of out Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review:
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: overall verdict
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: design and build
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review: screen and media
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10: Robot and Android phone snuggle up
