Sony Ericsson Launches Xperia X10 Android Phone

How time flies. We first saw Sony Ericsson's Android-powered Xperia X10 cell phone in November, 2009 and ran a full preview of the phone in April of this year. But it's taken until August for the X10 to find a home here in the U.S. with AT&T.

In the meantime, the phone has gone from being a mind-blowing Android world-beater to a midrange competitor. The X10 is a slab-style Android smartphone with a 4-inch screen, running a highly customized version of Android 1.6 on a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It's a competitor for Samsung's Captivate, costing $50 less and with various pluses and minuses: an older version of Android than Samsung's phone, but with a higher-megapixel camera and a very, very different UI skin.

hat UI skin is going to be controversial; Sony Ericsson's "Timescape" and "Mediascape" integrate social networking and media experiences into the phone with a lot of complicated animations. In our preview, contributing editor Jamie Lendino found those animations to slow the X10 down - we'll see how they do on the final model.

Sascha Segan, PC Magazine
The AT&T model of the X10 also has Microsoft Exchange integration, free Google Maps Navigation, and AT&T Navigator on board. The phone syncs with Sony Ericsson software for PCs to make it easy to put your music, videos, and photos on the X10.

Check out our preview for more details on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10; we'll have a full review of the AT&T model later this week. The phone goes on sale on August 15 for $149.99 with a two-year contract.