02/10/2008, 1:55pm, EST
Sunday, February 10thSony-Ericsson intros XPERIA X1 'iPhone killer'
Sony-Ericsson opened the Mobile World Congress today by unveiling the XPERIA X1, its first true touchscreen-focused cellphone. Following a deal with Microsoft, the handset is Sony-Ericsson's first device to use Windows Mobile for its OS but also uses a custom interface of "XPERIA panels" rather than the default Microsoft front-end: users simply tap panels with their fingers to access calling, media, and other functions, according to the phone designer. Though dominated by its 3-inch, 800x480 touchscreen, the device also includes both optical and physical navigation pads at the bottom as well as a unique arc-slider QWERTY keyboard that tilts outward for more comfortable typing.
The X1 is also the most Internet-connected Sony-Ericsson device in history, the company boasts: unlike even most advanced 3G phones, it offers HSUPA (High Speed Upload Packet Access) that sends video and other media almost as quickly as it comes downstream. Wi-Fi is onboard for short-range networking and is backed by assisted GPS for route finding. A 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and a microSD slot (versus Sony-Ericsson's favorite Memory Stick Micro format) round out its key features.
The first XPERIA phone is expected sometime in the second half of 2008; with quad-band GSM and an unprecedented five-band HSPA/UMTS connection, the device should be available both in North America as well as Europe and includes the key 1,700MHz band needed for T-Mobile USA's upcoming 3G service.
Filed under: iPhone, gadgets
Other story tags: Windows Mobile, Sony-Ericsson, XPERIA
, 
, 26
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
this is by far the coolest thing sony has done in a long time. I don't care much for Windows Mobile, but this phone looks better than a crackberry/palm/n95 imho - and if it has 'Windoze' I'm more likely to be able to get it supported by my company. (oh yeah, corporations use windows hmm).
btw. it would be good to look into who exactly is labeling these phones 'iPhone killers' -- do you think it's the OEMs? I don't...
The local storage space on these devices will in the end only be useful for media capture, as future networks will have bandwidth to support streaming media remotely (i.e. iTunes/netflix etc). Content redundancy on a mobile is a waste.
Sony needs to think progressively about the convergence trend - they need a device that integrates psp/smartphone functionality with xbox live networkability.
Once you can roll out your updates over the network... it's a whole new ballgame. Who wants to carry around more than one device anyway - and all this cd/dvd/umd media is so wasteful compared to distributed storage and streaming. SD, CF, CD, etc. hopefully will soon all be antiquated and replaced by 3GPPLTE.
FYI MacNN Writers - a killer is defined as something that kills. A product that is not on the market is NOT a killer. A device that is released on the market is NOT killer. A device that steals ALL market share away from another device would be considered a killer.
now when youre going to write the word "killer", replace it with rival, challenger, contender, etc.. better yet, take a f'n writing class.