Xperia X1 - Software, Forums, News, and Reviews!

N97 geeks recently wrote a comparison the Nokia N97 vs Xperia X1.

I have to admit, I'm quite tempted by the N97 but I'm not sure I'd want to give up my Xperia X1. The spec of the N97 is particularly good, especially the internal memory being a massive 32GB and expandable to 64GB with a microSD card. I'm going to have to play with the phone before I make a decision, though I doubt it will replace my X1, I just love to have the latest gadgets.

So what do you think? Does the N97 offer enough to tempt you away from X1?

Great news for all you social networking addicts using the Xperia Facebook panel; as a new, updated panel was released this week. The original panel was well designed and feature rich, however it came with severe performance issues for most users The improved Facebook panel doesn’t bring any exciting new features; it does however address the performance issues while loading and using the application. Switching back to the main panel screen has also seen dramatic speed improvements. The new application can be downloaded directly from Sony’s panel downloads.

For those new to the Facebook panel, the handy little application allows you to check your friend’s status, walls, and photos; and even allows direct uploading of pictures taken with the Xperia X1 camera. Its great to see support rallying behind the Panel system, and we can only hope to see more developments in the future.

Source: Xperia-X1.com Blog

BBC iPlayer has been a massive success on both iPhone and symbian devices, offering streaming video of their catch-up service, over wifi connections. BBC is now expanding it's support to several new devices including our beloved X1, the first WM device to be supported.

Head of the BBC’s mobile technology, Jon Billings, said of the development of the iPlayer to cater for the Xperia: “These phones have been selected as they hit our requirements of Wi-Fi and 3G support with great browsing and media playback experience, and its also great to broaden our platform support out to Windows Mobile smartphones″.

As well as offering the usual catch-up service, it's expected that iPlayer on the X1 will support Live TV and radio broadcasts. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to the release. I'm a big fan of iPlayer both on the web and via my iPhone.

For those who haven't yet had a chance to use the BBC iPlayer via a mobile device, let me tell you, it's an awesome experience. With beautiful clarity and superb frame rate. Within minutes of watching, I'm immersed and not even aware I'm watching via my mobile phone. The interface makes finding your favorite shows a breeze.

This is a little late but I wanted to point you all in the direction of an incredible Xperia X1 review from the guys over at blog.se-nse.net. Check it out.

It includes tons of video's, pictures, spec sheets, demo's etc. It's arguably the best review out there for the X1. It definitely got my taste bugs watering. Those of you still on the fence, will be sold within minutes of checking out the review. I know it took them a long time to put this together, but I think the end product is well worth it.

Well done to Michell and Paul, awesome job guys.

I was talking to Richard Cridford at mobiles.co.uk earlier about the success of the X1 so far, he informed me that mobiles.co.uk had totally sold out of the X1 within days of getting stock and weren't expecting more stock until the 15th of December. Apparently even the Carphonewarehouse were struggling to get stock. That's when you know a handset is selling well!

The X1 has been a much bigger success than retailers were anticipating and perhaps even Sony Ericsson, evidentially by the current lack of stock. You'd think they'd work harder to produce more handsets with strong competition from the Touch Diamond etc.

I spent some time checking the deal comparison widget earlier and it appears that dial-a-phone and Mobile Express currently have stock of the X1 and actually have pretty good deals on Vodafone. I don't know how long they're going to be in stock for, so grab one now while you can.

For Xperiax1.net, the stock shortages are quite exciting, it proves just how big a success the phone is going to be and in turn the success of our awesome X1 fan site. I reckon can expect the site to grow rapidly over the next few months with thousands more members. We like to think we're already the number 1 Xperia X1 community, so here's to the future.

I've been out and about this week in my search for the X1. My travels led me on a wild goose chase with some phone stores not having stock and others not knowing what an Xperia X1 was. Funny.

One o2 store I found had 1 X1 in stock and wanted me to sign up to a minimum of a £75 ($160) per month contract! Shocking I think. They refused to sell it sim free.

Based on my experience this week, my conclusion is that it's going to be easier and faster to just order online. Most of the big online stores now have the Xperia X1 in stock.

One of the better deals we've found is from o2 via mobiles.co.uk who are owned by the Carphonewarehouse. 600 minutes, unlimited text and a FREE Xperia X1, better still it's only a £30 per month contract. You can't go wrong with that really. 

For more information on this deal, checkout mobiles.co.uk  

There is some sadness seeing a Xperia taken completely apart, especially given the fact that they are still extremely hard to come by. Either way, user CyK1 decided to be the first brave soul to dissemble his X1. Armed with nothing more than a guitar pick and tweezers, this nail bitter is broken up into 4 segments (2 being a reassembly) covering the complete breakdown of the Xperia guts.

For those of us without X1's, this might be a bit painful to watch.

Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4