In fact, despite the complex hardware and software, the Xperia is one of the most stable Windows Mobile Pro phones we've used in the past year. We can definitely say that the months Sony Ericsson spent working on panels has made all the difference, and the lag is now quite tolerable at 1 to 2 seconds switch time between panels, and we’ve had no crashes. We played with the Xperia over the past winter and spring, and the panel interface was a bit slow and sometimes buggy. Of course, this means there’s no contract required, nor is there any carrier bloatware on the phone. Note that no US carrier currently offers the Xperia, it’s sold as an unlocked GSM phone (it works with AT&T and T- Mobile in the US) only for a hefty $799.
Our only niggle is with the auto screen brightness setting, which is too dim (we changed to manual brightness). The Xperia’s 800 x 480, 3” display is sharp, colorful and higher resolution than anything else on the US market. Here's a video walk around of the Xperia X1a and a detailed demo of the panels: That might sound like a lot, but given that the phone is loading (in some cases) an entirely new Today Screen theme or user interface program in the case of Spb Mobile shell, that's actually pretty darned good. It takes 1 to 2 seconds to switch to a new panel. Unlike TouchFLO 3D, there's no Today setting to disable panels altogether. That said, if you don’t like panels, you can simply stick to the standard Windows Mobile panel, but we think they really add something to this PDA phone’s experience. Quite interesting and in the end more innovative than HTC's TouchFLO 3D. For those who have a variety of needs (and isn't that the point with a feature-rich smartphone), there are interfaces tailored to multimedia, the web, and standard business today screens. For those who get bored with the same old user interface, the Xperia should entertain. Select the Spb Mobile Shell panel, and you're interacting with the device through that popular interface (surprisingly, Spb isn't charging for this panel, thanks Spb!). Select Sony Ericsson's enhanced today screen and you're in a slightly different world. Press the hardware panel button, and you're back to a view of all installed panels. The Xperia then acts just like your average WinMo Pro phone.
Tap on it and it fills the screen and takes over the user experience. What does that mean? The standard Today screen is indeed one of the panels. Even when you're looking at the standard Windows Mobile today screen, it's really just a panel.
Panels are more than skin deep they're a new way of interacting with a smartphone. Friends whose images are grayed out don't have any new status updates. The Facebook panel- friends are shown by their photos rather than a text based list. There’s a web shortcut that takes you to the latest panel downloads, so finding them isn’t hard. Sony Ericsson opened up panels to 3rd party developers, so we should see more as time goes by. We downloaded a few, including a condensed version of Spb’s Mobile Shell and a wondrously good Facebook application. That means you can not only remove ones you don’t like, but you can add new ones on. Unlike Samsung’s TouchWiz UI found on the Samsung Omnia, Eternity and Behold, with its palette of home screen widgets, the Xperia’s are expandable. These panels are a grid of applications in mini-view that handle the web, Sony Ericsson’s multimedia player that looks much like that found on SE Walkman phones and the Sony PSP, the FM radio, standard and enhanced Today screen views and more. The Xperia, though somewhat delayed, is still a cutting edge Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional phone with impressive specs and Sony Ericsson’s unique “panels”. In fact, there are some HTC goodies here like their Comm Manager and Streaming Media Player.
Sony Ericsson designed the phone and its software and the phone is made by HTC. Its casing is mostly metal, and fit and finish are suitable for a James Bond movie.
The Xperia has a very high resolution 800 x 480 pixel 3” display, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, WiFi 802.11b/g, push email, full web browsing, a microSD card slot, an FM radio and GSM 3G HSDPA.
Don’t confuse the Xperia X1a with the overseas version Xperia X1i (no “a” for America) that lacks all of AT&T’s 3G bands (it has 1900MHz but not 850MHz). The Xperia is sold in the US at SonyStyle stores in silver and at Best Buy stores in black (Fry's, J&R and other retailers also offer the silver version). That’s the US version with 3G HSDPA on the US AT&T bands. Well folks, it’s finally here: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a. Home -> Phone Reviews -> Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a Sony Ericsson Xperia