Sony Ericsson X1

[Mustang]

Anyone bought one of these? What do you think of it? Don't know much about Windows Mobile - is it worth it?

[voodooflux]

I think someone else asked a similar question recently, here.

There's another thread with some more mentions of Windows Mobile phones here.

[Spacecadet]

got one over the weekend and posting from it now

seems to work pretty well, wm6 is not as bad as some people will make out, it does hang for a moment occasionally but nothing i can't live with.

xpanels work pretty well although sometimes it would be nice to stay in the panel rather than being thrown back into the windows app. this is most noticable when texting. it would be nice if the xpanel would handle readingand writing of messagesto help one handed operation

media playback and browsing are fine just make sure you reformat any videos first to an appropriate size.

keypad is small but useable, i'm typing this out on it.

gps built in if you need it

over all i'm pretty happy with it, the phone is the right size, performance isn't an issue and it's so far dealt with everything i've thrown at it inc. full size pda ebooks

[Mustang]

I went ahead and upgraded to it a few weeks back. I am now slowly getting used to it and actually quite like it. I have to say it takes a bit of getting used to!

It took me a while to set up the email correctly but now I have I like the way you can switch easily between the accounts. I have not done much texting from it but have sent/received emails. I find the keyboard small but manageable.

The panels are OK once you get the concept. I actually like the idea of having information to display and being able to customise what you see. Not sure I like the idea of how it reverts back to a default panel when you boot it up!

Ironically the hardest bit to grasp was the phone!! Doh! When on a call I find it shuts off the display and it took me ages to work how to get it back on again! Frustrating enough but even more so when you rely on the virtual keypad. Bad enough when you want to hang up but worse if you need DTMF tones such as during voicemail interrogation. It also seems to terminate a call quicker if you press the red virtual key rather than the physical key on the outside, or is that my imagination.

Bottom line: a good phone that I am getting used to. It's major flaw is the documentation. It really could do with a detailed booklet (not just the CD) of instructions but also an overview pack on how to do the basics. For such a techie phone, a demo video could be done. This could be on a DVD or stored on the phone itself with instructions on how to run it. This would be cheaper.

Hmm....maybe I should give that idea to S-E directly!!

[Spacecadet]

i found email very easy to set up, only thing that slowed me down was that i was still getting used to the keyboard.

have you downloaded any extra panels from SE yet? the spb mobile shell is possibly better than the other pre installed panels

[blacjac]

Not sure I like the idea of how it reverts back to a default panel when you boot it up!

Ironically the hardest bit to grasp was the phone!! Doh! When on a call I find it shuts off the display and it took me ages to work how to get it back on again! Frustrating enough but even more so when you rely on the virtual keypad. Bad enough when you want to hang up but worse if you need DTMF tones such as during voicemail interrogation. It also seems to terminate a call quicker if you press the red virtual key rather than the physical key on the outside, or is that my imagination.

Had one for about 4 weeks now, love it!.

With regards to the above points.

1. I have bee using windows mobile phones for about 3 years now, and in that time only ever booted them up about a dozen times. You can turn the phone off in the connection manager, leaving the device on if you want to.

2. Screen turning off on a call is a common feature of touch screen phones, it's to prevent you running things with your ear.
The end call button should still work when on a call and the screen turned off though, mine does.
There is a program out there called X1 Tweaks wich allows you to disable this feature, but I haven't tried it myself.

[Spacecadet]

i just installed a very nice haptic feedback application for the X1

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=450256

needs registration to download

[Svalbaard]

Yes I have one of these and like it very much.

Good points - Great screen. Slideout keyboard is a godsend. Free SPB Mobile shell makes the front end very easy to use, and mobile email and web is a breeze.

Downsides - carp GPS. Camera shutter is very slow, standard headphones are rubbish and for some reason, the recent firmware update has reduced standby time by a lot.

[Spacecadet]

Downsides - carp GPS.

upgrade to Salmon GPS - much more reliable

[Svalbaard]

upgrade to Salmon GPS - much more reliable

Will check it out - cheers.