There have been many changes in the Smartphone field since my last article. I have been doing some more digging into “The” smartphones of Q1 2010.

The Nokia N900 has since dropped off of my must-have list. Nokia is now backpedalling more than I am comfortable with, mentioning in press releases and interviews that Maemo 6 will ‘fix’ the issues of Maemo 5, that they will only be releasing one Maemo unit in 2010, and that Symbian will still be their primary focus. These setbacks will keep the Maemo platform from going mainstream, and will limit it to a developer or ‘geek’ oriented OS. As far as Symbian, I understand that they do not want to throw the years of development they put into the OS down the drain. There are still many Symbian developers, and it is still one of the most proliferated smartphone operating systems in international markets. If you want my two cents, they shouldn’t have made the jump into Maemo without being sure that it was a direction they were going to focus on. Releasing one handset and relying on the development community to carry the software end is not the solution that the largest handset producer in the world should be accepting. Nokia is losing market share faster than any other major player in the wireless sector, especially now that Motorola is back on the top of their game with the Droid (and upcoming Sholes).

With regards to the HTC HD2 – it has some major competition hot on the young phone’s heals. There are rumors in the wind of a new handset (Codename HTC Bravo, Dragon, Passion etc) that will have similar hardware but will run on the Android OS and have a more manageable screen size (3.7 AMOLED Display). To me the unit doesn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as the HD2, but the new hardware combined with the great OS should make things VERY interesting.

Sony Ericsson has been out of the upper-tier smartphone game for the last couple of cycles, but their newest handset shows that they’ve been paying attention. The Xperia X10 sports a 4 inch Capacitive display, the impressive 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, and a revamped Android skin simply named “Rachel”. Videos of the demo (running early Pre-prod software) unit show the OS to be very laggy, but the implications and possibilities can clearly be seen. The intuitive and customizable interface would bring most other smartphones to their knees, but the Snapdragon-running hardware should keep things running smoothly. The impressive 8.1 megapixel camera will also be interesting to play with. Yeah, yeah I know- more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better photos (especially in smart phones). Higher numbers do, however, indicate a positive upward trend in hardware, which is always a good thing for a tech junkie!

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 at a glance

Camera

• 8.1 megapixel camera
• Up to 16x digital zoom
• Auto focus
• Intelligent face recognition features
• Geo tagging
• Image and video stabilizer
• Photo and video light
• Send to web (photo and video upload)
• Smile detection
• Touch focus
• Video recording
• Recent shot tray

Music

• Album art
• Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Media player
• Music tones (MP3/AAC)
• PlayNow™
• TrackID™

Web

• Bookmarks
• Google™ search (from standby)
• Web feeds
• WebKit web browser

Communication

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™
• Speakerphone
• Vibrating alert

Messaging

• Conversations
• Email
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Text messaging (SMS)

Design

• Auto rotate
• Gesture control
• Picture wallpaper
• Touchscreen

Entertainment

• 3D games
• Media browser
• Infinite button
• Video streaming
• Video viewing
• YouTube™

Organiser

• Alarm clock
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Flight mode
• Infinite button
• Office suite
• Phone book with dialer
• World clock

Location-based services

• A-GPS
• Google Maps™
• Wisepilot™ turn-by-turn navigation* (free trial version)

• *The service may not be available in every market. For more information, go to www.sonyericsson.wisepilot.com

Connectivity

• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Micro USB connector
• Synchronisation
• USB support
• Wi-Fi™

Preloaded applications

• Sony Ericsson Timescape™
• Sony Ericsson Mediascape
• Sony Ericsson Home with clock widget
• Sony Ericsson Sync
• Android Market™ Client
• Gmail™
• Google Calendar™
• Google Maps™ with Street View
• Google Media Uploader
• Google phone-top search
• Google search widget
• Google Talk™
• Google Voice Search™
• Network Location Provider
• Set-up Wizard
• YouTube™

Screen

• 65,536 colour TFT Touchscreen
• 4.0 inches
• 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA)
• Scratch-resistant

Accessories
In-Box:

• XPERIA™ X10
• Battery
• Stereo portable handsfree
• 8 GB microSD™ card
• Micro USB cable for charging, synchronisation and file transfer
• User documentation

Optional:

• Hi-Fi Wireless Headset with FM Radio MW600
• Car Charger AN300
• Screen Protector ET902

Facts 1)2)

• Size: 119 x 63 x 13 mm
• Weight: 135 grams

• Phone memory: Up to 1 GB

• Memory card support: microSD™

• Memory card included: 8 GB

• Operating system: Google™ Android Donut, version 1.6
• Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ QSD8250

Availability and versions

• Networks

• UMTS HSPA 900/1700/2100
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

• UMTS HSPA 800/1900/2100
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

• Available in selected markets in Q1 2010

Colors

• Sensuous Black
• Luster White

The only numbers that don’t seem to be going up is battery life. There are all kinds of theoretical advances in the field of energy retention, but not many practical ones that apply to mobile tech. What good is a phone if you have to keep it tied to an outlet? Kind-of makes it lose that whole ‘mobile’ moniker. I understand that 3.5”+ screens and touchscreen technology are notorious battery drainers, but to get me to drop completely out of the Crackberry club, they’re going to have to do better than 8-12 hr. standby times.

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