Negative Xperia Reviews

[xperia_rx]

Based on all of the reviews that ive read, and all of the videos ive seen, it seems that the Xperia has alot of problems... From what i hear, its choppy alot of the time, it freezes alot and even crashes numerous times a day on average. Im not trying to talk down about it or anything, because ive been hyped up about it too and have been waiting day by day for it to come out just like everyone else. But lately ive been second guessing weather or not i should even buy the Xperia, because of all of the negative things that people have said about their experience with using the Xperia... Even here on inxperia under the first impressions section of the forum alot of the feedback is negative, and i for one certainly dont want to pay almost a thousand dollars to buy a phone thats gunna be choppy and freeze up on a regular basis. And thats what seems to be the case, based on almost every review that ive read...

What do you guys have to say about all of this? Do you think its worth it? Like i said, ive been going crazy over the Xperia for months, waiting and waiting, reading everything i can find on the internet, watching every video i can possibly find... But now that the phone has actually been released, im not so sure its worth the money because of all the negative reviews....

Anyone care to chime in?

[bharat4ever]

Most of the reviews which are out there are of not of the final product. It is the C & J model which is not final, and a lot of the issues have been handled in the final product. As fas as i know, the CNET review

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 - silver (unlocked) Smartphone reviews - CNET Reviews

and the Engadget review

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 review - Engadget Mobile

are the only ones of the final product.

In CNET's words
"Overall, the Xperia X1 was a responsive device. There's a slight lag when you activate a new panel, and some sluggishness when we had numerous applications open--typical Windows Mobile behavior. No system stalls or crashes, however"

In engadget's words
"Our only major cautions before buying blind revolve around the lackluster reception in fringe areas of coverage and the lag / hiccups associated with WinMo 6.1. "

So i don't think any major problems will be there, and i feel it's worth the cash...
then again, it's only my personal very biased opinion...What do other people think???
bloob back me up

[dc1162]

Mine will be in my hands tomorrow........ I'll let you know after the weekend.
I've already downloaded a heap of apps to put on and try, so I'll be able to really test and push it as hard as my Diamond Touch. Should be an interesting few days!!

BTW, total cost: aus$1400 including an 8g card & screen protector.

I think it'll be worth it!!

[bharat4ever]

Hey can you gimme the list of a few apps you've downloaded, i really have no idea what to download being a newbie to windows mobile. ..

[gunzy]

You know...being the perfection level geek that I unfortunately am...how is it even possible to be satisfied with any piece of hardware?

Granted that the X1 has problems and bugs are gonna appear for the next few updates that are bound to come out, however, it is still by far one of the best phones I've ever owned. I've loaded more programs on my X1 in the last week then I did on my P1i in the entire year and a half that I own the thing.

Granted that alot of the problems can be attributed to the fact that the X1 is the first WinMo phone from SE, and thus alot of the issues that we have seen do not stack up to the standard that SE is known for most of the time. However the question is, are they fundamental problems with the device itself? Or because some programmer somewhere drank one too many redbulls and screwed up the code he was working on...

I remember when people were bemoaning the 64k colour screen...have you guys seen how frakking beautiful the display is? You truly truly truly do not notice that it's only 64k colours.

We all have individual requirements for our phone, and just like I like to sneer at the iPhone sheep herds, I realize that it's actually a great phone for a certain segment of the market, as is the X1. Getting a phone like this is like having a small computer in your pocket, and like all computers, it's gonna have it's tantrums.

It's not a perfect phone, but as a package, I can't see it's competition anywhere.

[cksdud89]

amazingly put. I've had my share of doubts.

Not anymore. Thank you.

[bharat4ever]

Originally Posted by gunzy

You know...being the perfection level geek that I unfortunately am...how is it even possible to be satisfied with any piece of hardware?

Granted that the X1 has problems and bugs are gonna appear for the next few updates that are bound to come out, however, it is still by far one of the best phones I've ever owned. I've loaded more programs on my X1 in the last week then I did on my P1i in the entire year and a half that I own the thing.

Granted that alot of the problems can be attributed to the fact that the X1 is the first WinMo phone from SE, and thus alot of the issues that we have seen do not stack up to the standard that SE is known for most of the time. However the question is, are they fundamental problems with the device itself? Or because some programmer somewhere drank one too many redbulls and screwed up the code he was working on...

I remember when people were bemoaning the 64k colour screen...have you guys seen how frakking beautiful the display is? You truly truly truly do not notice that it's only 64k colours.

We all have individual requirements for our phone, and just like I like to sneer at the iPhone sheep herds, I realize that it's actually a great phone for a certain segment of the market, as is the X1. Getting a phone like this is like having a small computer in your pocket, and like all computers, it's gonna have it's tantrums.

It's not a perfect phone, but as a package, I can't see it's competition anywhere.

Really well said!!!

[Sonic]

Greetings all,

I've been viewing this forum for a while, so I thought I'd add something for a change.

I've had an X1 since the end of Oct, my first impression was mild anoyance*. I was expecting WinMo, having used a WinMo device before, but when my K750 started dying, I had to make a decision for my next phone.

I'd been reading up on the X1 for sometime too, and this seemed one of the better devices out there, all things considered.

So I was looking forward to having a useful/customizable device.

One day out shopping with my wife, i met the iPhone and it was great, but I wasn't converted. I did like it, so my strategy was to buy it for my wife to really check it out. She loves it, but as she doesn't use her phone all the time, it's good for her. Little obvious things like not having a landscape keyboard though annoyed me.

Skip forward, and the day I got my X1, I compared it to her iPhone. Perhaps I couldn't get the iPhone's ease of use out of my mind.

Anyway, I'm away at work now, no iPhones around and after about a week, I really started to love the X1.

For me, the keyboard is quite good, I can type almost as fast as I can touch type on a normal keyboard. The screen is also great too.

All the reviews you come across regarding the panels seem to be moaning about nothing. Think about it. If you understand what a panel is, it's an alternative user interface, like a customizable today screen. It's something that sits on top of the OS, so a slight loading delay when changing between them to me is acceptable. If your using the phone you won't be changing panels every few seconds when your trying to get something done.

Perhaps it's SonyEricsson's fault for marketing the panels wrongly. But lets face it, it almost gives you a different UI that you can change as your mood or your need changes, and most phones can't do that.

*Oh, the mild anyoance came, when I was driving and had to make a call. Such a long winded process, trying to flick though the sim contacts to make a call with one had on the wheel, it just wasn't going to happen. I know most will have commets about that, but I guess I was doing that on my K750, so I expected it to be similarly quick on my X1, after all, the primary use of a phone, is a phone. You could argue that the X1 is a small computer though.

OK, so the Spb panel, with the contacts screen was the solution for me regarding an easy way to make calls. Having a touch screen though, really leads people to think that they can use the device easily without resulting to the stylus. Here the iPhone is the winner.

Let me put it this way, given a choice, James Bond would use an X1 over an iPhone. I'm discovering lots of neat stuff for it. And when I occasionally get annoyed trying to press the WinMo's 'x' in the top right corner with my big hands, i just draw a 'V':

Winterface - Next Generation Mobile Shell for your Windows Mobile device

All in all, if future OS's were designed from a mobile phone/finger navigation point of view, not a PC/mouse, more people would use such devices.

I think the X1 really stands out from the crowd. I think SE did a really did a good job. If you have a chance to use the X1 for a while, rather than only reading articles (which can never give you the whole story), you'll see what I mean.

[i_will_not_buy_iphone]

[b]

Originally Posted by Sonic

*Oh, the mild anyoance came, when I was driving and had to make a call. Such a long winded process, trying to flick though the sim contacts to make a call with one had on the wheel, it just wasn't going to happen. I know most will have commets about that, but I guess I was doing that on my K750, so I expected it to be similarly quick on my X1, after all, the primary use of a phone, is a phone. You could argue that the X1 is a small computer though.

First: Press the phone button, then type the name of the person like you would with T9. It selects the contact automatically.


Okay, another X1 owner here.

I've had the device for 2 weeks now and what can I say:

THE BAD
- it is slow
- WLAN sucks, the range is very very very very weak. (weaker than iPhone)
- No Cisco VPN, only IPSEC+LT2P and PPTP, but a lot of companies use IPSEC+something else from Cisco, which doesn't work on the X1. On the iPhone it does.
- Generally limited connection options to WLAN, I still can't connect to our campus network, but all the iPhone people have no problem.
- panels are crap, the placeholders aren't even updated, they're all in English although I have German (the panel itself is then German)
- Basic WM concepts: for example: Error boxes have a close button (tiny), but can be dragged around (whole box). Why, I ask, why? Who would want to move an error box, instead of closing it???
<--- update: you can press the optical joystick to close em)
- Recessed screen (not too recessed, it's ok)
- Small icons on the top.
- Media player sucks, no gapless playback, no EQ, etc.

THE GOOD
- Amazing touchscreen. Very very precise, and I can do everything with my finger.
- Amazing speed on WM core applications (file manager etc)
- WM good PDA capabilities: Tasks/Calendar/Mail all work very well.
- SPB Mobile Shell
- Keyboard is good & usable I think.
- Camera is good, but a tad slow.
- Active sync is okay.
- Office Mobile!!
- PDF Viewer <--- very good
- Sound quality over headphones is good, radio is very fast.
- Optical joystick is very good. You don't have to press the keys, just flick it with your finger.
- Never crashes (maybe twice in two weeks when installing stuff...), it just gets very slow.


SUMMARY
Panels suck bigtime and WLAN sucks. Everything else is okay or good. The X1 is an okay purchase, but waaaay too expensive in comparison with an iPhone.
The bling bling is missing and it gets slow sometimes.

RECOMMENDATION
- DON'T get it for your girlfriend/wife/grandma. It's utterly complicated to find out how something works, nothing is intuitive.
- GET it if you want to spend A LOT of money on a device which is worse than for example an iPhone in most areas, but has a few missing features you really need (for me it's tasks, screen res and video)

ADDITIONAL NOTES
I got the Swiss (German) version X1i, but didn't get my SIM card yet so I can't comment on call quality.
I ditched the panels (they suck), and am using all SPB Software now (Diary, Shell, Phone Suite, Insight RSS Reader, Weather, etc).

[xperia_rx]

See, now take a look at the review that "i_will_not_buy_iphone" just posted ^above^... He seems to have ALOT of bad things to say about the X1...

Being that the X1 was marketed for its panels, its a big let down for me to hear that the panels are (quote) "crap". He even goes as far as saying he has completely dropped them and doesnt even use them anymore!

On top of that, he claims that the phone is very slow (just as most reviews, including the cnet and engadget ones do)... Also a big deal to me.

He also claims that the X1 is worse than the iPhone is most areas.

For a thousand dollar phone, it seems to get alot of negative reviews (as i said before) which makes it very hard for me to take the plunge and buy the phone...

Sure its got an amazing display with touch screen... But from what im hearing thats really the only thing that really "stands out" on the phone. Even the camera was rated as just "decent" and slow on top of that, and as cool as the arc-slider keyboard is, even THAT has gotten a little bit of negative feedback.

So after reading that last post/review, im even more sceptical than before, and am very hesitant to fork out the money for this phone.


*********** On a final note - what does everybody think makes this phone worth it? I would like to see everybody reply to this question if possible. There are alot of phones that do most of the things that the X1 does, so with all things considered including the negative reviews, what does everybody think (in their own opinion) makes the X1 worth it?