Using the 3.2 Megapixel Camera
Given the popularity of mobile Twitter clients and the sharing of pictures through Facebook, you may want to have a good camera on your smartphone. On paper, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 offers just that with a 3.2-megapixel shooter complete with autofocus and flash. Unfortunately, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be as you can see below…
While I appreciate the ability to use selective focus by tapping on the screen, the resulting picture isn’t exactly the best. That’s a sample shot above. This was with a fair deal of natural light and no flash, but the result has a distinct blue hue to it. Given the quality of Cyber-shot camera phones, I thought Sony Ericsson would do better than this.
For now, the reigning smartphone champ in the camera department still seems to be the iPhone 3GS.
Introducing the Panels Interface
And this is really what is supposed to set the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 smartphone apart from its competition. While it still utilizes Windows Mobile 6.1 at its core, this phone comes with a new user interface overlay called Panels.
On the surface, this may sound like it’s same idea as the HTC TouchFLO 3D, but it really is something else entirely. Instead of having a single home screen, you can dynamically swap between different specialized home screens by hitting the Panel key next to Talk button.
Several different Panels are pre-installed on the phone. My personal favorite, based on its sheer utility, is the Sony Ericsson Panel 2. This offers an at-a-glance look at the calendar, upcoming appointments, time, weather, RSS feeds, to-do lists, and shortcuts to your frequently used applications.
Some of the other Panels include the Google Panel, which looks just like the Google homepage and adds in quick access to Gmail, Google Maps, and more; the 3D Fish Panel, which simplifies everything down to a few fish that are meant to indicate different status items; the Media Xperience Panel, which provides non-stop access to all your media; and the XperiaRadio Panel, which is designed with FM radio in mind.
These are all kind of neat, but there is noticeable lag when you swap between the different Panels. The Panels interface also thinly veils the Windows Mobile 6.1 platform, so you don’t have to go far into the menus before you find yourself in generic Windows-land.