Xperia X10 is more than just good looks

The moment you take the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 out of the box, you know you're holding on to something expensive. With a smooth curvy back and excellent finish, the phone feels solid and fits well in your hands. In fact, it is a very good looking phone but that, of course, is not its only merit.

In terms of design, at the top of the phone is the power button, USB port and headphone jack and on the front is the gorgeous 4inch screen and three buttons – menu, home and back. On the right side, you have the standard volume buttons and a dedicated camera button.

The screen on the X10 is of high resolution (854x480 pixels) and has very crisp colours, making it a pleasure to work on. The display looked brilliant even at 50 per cent brightness levels. The screen is very responsive too and typing on it feels better once "vibrate on key press" is enabled as it gives the users a sense of feedback. As is the case with most touchscreens though, do expect a lot of fingerprint smudges and dust specks to accumulate, so you'll find yourself regularly wiping it.

Pictures taken on the X10 were of high quality, but then they should be considering it has an 8.1 megapixel camera. It has a photo light, instead of a flash but that allowed for great pictures to be taken in dark scenes. The camera features auto-focus and smile/face recognition and it might as well replace the need for a dedicated camera for everyday pictures.

The phone is powered by a beefy 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor – one of the most powerful processors currently – and runs the Android Operating System (albeit an older version – 1.6). (An upgrade to version 2.1 will be released in Q4 2010 which boasts many improvements.) The phone does seem to lag a bit though from time to time but overall it's easily above merely "usable".

Sony Ericsson does bundles many applications with the phone including two of their own – Timescape and Mediascape. The latter is the center for all your media needs on the phone – pictures, music, videos, etc. Timescape, however, is more interesting as it gives you an of all your communication activities – Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, text messages, etc.

These applications aren't enough though to compensate for the lack of the Android Market – the place to view and download apps on Android phones. Neither is the alternative market 'SlideMe' I struggled to get on to the phone that has only two or three per cent of the apps that the Market does. The reason for the exclusion isn't clear but none of the Android phones sold in the UAE have it, so it's not a Sony Ericsson issue.

That problem aside, the Xperia X10 is a great device, even if a little expensive. However, until the Android Market is available on the device, the true potential of the device remains just that – a potential.