Thanks to Sony Ericsson Canada, we have our paws on this slick little device. Stay tuned for some hands-on impressions in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s a quick unboxing video to whet your appetites:
Please be patient, the video may still be processing so its FULL HD delight might not be there yet…
If you are trying to order from Zappos’ US site using a Canadian credit card, enter the following information:
Yesterday in Vancouver, NorthGeek met with Peter Farmer and Neil Dutton from Sony Ericsson Canada about the upcoming Xperia X10 launch. Canada is highly anticipating the release of this new Android device, and, well, so are we. The news is that we should know in mid April exactly what it will cost and when it will be here, which will likely be sometime in Q2.
THE SPECS
You probably already know that it comes with the blazing fast 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, a mega four inch WVGA display, and a sharp 8.1 megapixel camera… also 13mm thick, white or black, microSD up to 32GB (16GB included). If you want more specs, check them here.
SIGNATURE APPLICATIONS
“Signature Applications” is Sony Ericsson’s label for their Android skin — the front look and dominant applications on the Android platform. On the X10, this is dominated by Timescape, Mediascape, Infinite Button, and face recognition. Learn more about these in their online demo. Basically, the device is focused on aggregating your social media streams. It’s not just SMS, MMS, emails, and photos, etc, but also connecting with Facebook, Twitter, and something called MySpace, so you can visualize a person’s presence and correspondence in one place. Sony Ericsson is not the first to do this, but it’s certainly useful and centrally located on the X10.
However, the links within the apps go to the individual services’ mobile sites, not embedded apps like Hootsuite, Seesmic, or Facebook for Android. Also, there’s no Flickr yet — what other integration will you want? We will have to wait and see how Sony Ericsson continues to innovate and add functionality here. Will these features (a mix of the Signature Apps mentioned above) eliminate the need for standalone apps? I doubt they will — apps like Hootsuite or Facebook are so impressive and complete — so we will see how we might use both options or if they will coordinate well.
WHY MORE THAN A VANILLA ANDROID DEVICE?
Rogers has been recently tweeting about the Google Nexus One becoming available in Canada, so it’s hard to ignore the face-off between these two devices. The Nexus One also has the Snapdragon processor (yes, it does have a smaller 5MP camera and 3.7″ screen), but a bare-bones Android likely offering quicker performance and speed. And the most recent version of Android, always.
The X10 comes with Android 1.6, because the Signature Apps need to adapt to new Android OSs, and won’t have the same battery management, task management, etc. It would be difficult for any Android device manufacturer to keep pace with Google’s quickly iterating OS if there is a skin built on top which always needs revisions.
The X10 is trying to do something different here. With a background in media, hardware, and taking chances with their phones (eg. their attempt to embrace Symbian a few years ago), as well as recognizable brands like Cybershot and Walkman, Sony Ericsson is trying to create a unique device experience here. Their skin is impressive and slick, but it will take some time to determine if it is better and who will embrace it. Is a skin really better for Android?
THE BUSY CANADIAN ANDROID LANDSCAPE
Rogers now has lots of Android devices. They are likely a world leader on this front, and were even the first mobile operator to offer both an iPhone and Android. Sony Ericsson believes that there is room here for multiple Android phones. All this competition is going to be very, very, very good for consumers. Watch out Apple.
OVERALL
This piece of X10 hardware is phenomenal. It feels great in the hand, is good looking, has a class-leading screen, and sports a camera verging on real. We’re still wondering if a skin is a good thing. They are competing with the Nexus One now, which sells without support from Rogers — does this matter? Ultimately, we need to spend more time with the device, but this certainly looks promising for Sony Ericsson in the future of smartphones. Coming soon is NorthGeek’s Nexus One review (the Canadian version with 3G frequency support).
How is this video from my own backyard and getting over 5-million views, but I just find out about it today??
I posted recently about the amazing Ninja Unboxing video that Google sponsored. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should! Check this one out, too – another Google-sponsored video, quite impressive:
This guy, who many on the ‘net think is Ben Folds, is great. He created his own YouTube channel, so I’m hoping he’ll continue to add great “Chat Improv Videos” – like this one:
Journalistic biases be darned, here’s what happens when a Subaru fanatic-cum-talented auto journalist gets to spend a day in the playground of his dreams. Image courtesy of Jalopnik
For those who have been waiting for the next big Android phone (with a Snapdragon processor, for example…) to hit AT&T and Rogers up here in the Great White North, wait no more. Google has announced a version of their somewhat underachieving Nexus One phone that will rock the 3G bands of AT&T and Rogers. Available now and shipping lightning fast, we at NorthGeek are quite excited. So excited, in fact, that we’ve included this awesome Ninja Unboxing video. Sweet stuff:
As taken from Vimeo:
This long exposure, and the making of footage, were shot over three nights in Raleigh, North Carolina as a proposal to Emily Kern.
The words “Emily, will you marry me?” Were spelled out in light writing. The final image is made up of approximately 800 individual 10 second exposures.
Both the Time lapse and video were shot with Canon 7Ds.
See more at http://www.derickandemily.com
Is this what dating was like in 1961?
