My Next Phone Upgrade: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

I have a limited company that I put my blog expenses through to reduce my tax bill. I haven’t put my phone into the company name, because T-mobile wanted to put me on a new 12 month contract if I did so, which would have meant I wouldn’t be able to upgrade my current Nokia N95 until May 2009.

I’ve had my Nokia N95 for 12 months and I need something new to play with.

So, I’ve been looking for something long and hard for a new phone to upgrade to in the autumn. I’m a bit disappointed with the spec of the new N96 as it’s far too similar to my N95. I imagine that there will be several bug fixes in the N96, but the headline upgrades are too minimal for me:

• Display: 2.8″ on the N96 Vs 2.6″ on the N95, still at 240x320 pixels. That’s still worse than on my old N80
• Video: Only new feature is a DVB-H tuner in the N96, which I don’t need
• Music: N96 will display album art (nice)
• Storage: 16GB onboard on the N96 which could be handy

I think the spec of the N96 just goes to show how groundbreaking the N95 was, as 18 months later Nokia are struggling to better it. Even though the N96 doesn’t excite me, I

was resigned to getting one until I stumbled upon the latest handsets from Sony Ericsson.

I used to be such a big fan of Sony Ericsson, but it’s been so long since I’ve owned one and because my recent phones have been dominated by Nokia (my phone history: Nokia Communicator/Nokia 3310-->Sony Ericssion T68-->Sharp GX-10-->P900-->Nokia 6630--> Nokia 6680-->Nokia N80-->Nokia N95/HTC Touch (workphone)-->????) I haven’t been keeping an eye on their developments.

I think the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 or Sony Ericsson P5 will be the answer to upgrade dilemma. Just check out these videos showcasing the X1’s sexy interface:

Both the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and Sony Ericsson P5 feature full QWERTY keyboards, big screens and 3G access. These are my main requirements in a phone, as I only occassionally use my camera and mp3 player. I’m still stunned that Nokia haven’t produced a decent prosumer QWERTY device, with only chunky business orientated QWERTY devices.

I’m also excited by the prospect of getting a landscape orientated QWERTY keyboard again like in my Nokia Communicator, as I hate struggling to use the small QWERTY keyboard on my HTC Touch. The Nokia communicator may have been a brick to carry around back in 2001, but it was an amazing email device.

Let’s just hope that T-Mobile offer the X1. If not, then at least I’ll be out of contract in the autumn so I can switch to whichever network is carrying it -- as long as I can get unlimited data!

Read Related Posts

1. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Video Preview
2. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Android Phone: First Look
3. Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia Delayed Until Oct 13th
4. I’m Swapping My Nokia N96 For A Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
5. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 – My First Impressions

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