Xperia X10: First Impression of an Android Device
Short URL for this post: http://plp.me/clMHWGWow, what an adventure this has been. Getting out of a contract and into a new one with a parent company? Not as easy as you'd think. I'll spare you the story, and instead, direct you to the Twitter rant that ensued the saga. Textual version: I went to a Rogers store during my lunch break to get the Xperia X10 from Sony Ericsson. First off, let me explain what carriers that are available to mobile users in the province of Quebec: Theoretically we have several carriers to choose from: Bell, Solo, Telus, Koodo, Videotron, Virgin, Rogers, Fido and Public Mobile, but technically, those are really only two carriers: Bell and Rogers because Solo, Telus, Koodo, Videotron and Virgin borrow Bell's network and Fido borrows Rogers'. As for Public Mobile, it was granted by the CRTC rights to operate in Canada as an independent carrier. As for the rest of Canada, Shaw, SaskTel and Manitoba Telecomm Services (MTS) are also available.
That being said, I've had a contract with Fido for about four years. I broke/renewed that contract two years ago when Apple's iPhone came out in order to benefit from their "get the iPhone 3G for 149$ with a three year contract" offer. I don't have a thing to say about Fido, they've been great. However, my iPhone is getting old. A new one is coming out in June (presumably). Thing is, I lost my iPhone 3G in a cab recently. I didn't expect to see it again. I was iPhone-less for a week. That week made me think that maybe it was time to look at new devices. Seeing as I'm an open-source enthusiast and a Linux advocate, I looked into Android devices first. A friend of mine then told me he had seen Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 in action through another friend and that, as an avid iPhone user, had been impressed. I figured if he was impressed, being a jailbroken iPhone user, it was worth looking at. I looked up the device, read reviews, specs and videos and decided it was a good choice for my switch to Android. So, after having looked at that alternative... the taxi driver I lost my iPhone in calls me to tell me he's found my phone. I get my beloved iPhone back, but the damage is done. With Apple/Steve Jobs' latest antics against open source and platform accessibility, I had a score to settle. I had already been getting in my head the thought of having a new smart phone, and if you're an iPhone power user like I am, you know it's no small task to find something even remotely as useful as the iPhone. But in my opinion, I had with the Xperia X10.
One thing you should know at this point is that Rogers actually owns Fido - so Rogers is Fido's parent company. Concretely, for Fido customers, that means that at any given point within your Fido contract, you can break your agreement and switch to Rogers. Of course, Fido will fine you a hefty fee for doing so... but Rogers, after 30 days, will reimburse the fee, effectively switching you from Fido to its parent company while getting you a new device (and a 3 year contract) cheaply in the process. That's exactly what I did. However, I ran into some trouble that I will not speak of here as it's been resolved. Suffice it to say that Rogers independent stores are really adamant about their policies.
So after some clerk troubles, I had my Xperia X10 all set up. The switch from Fido to Rogers only took three minutes to take effect - I had both phones activated, the Xperia with Rogers using a temporary number and my iPhone with Fido using my regular number. After a few minutes, I received a text message on the Xperia saying my number had been successfully transferred to my new account. Seeing as I had to be somewhere around the same time I got my phone, I didn't take the time to sit down and play with it immediately. I put the SIM card and the battery in, booted it up and walked to where I was headed.
Well, I was pleasantly surprised by what followed. As I was walking (fast!) on the street, my Xperia was prompting me to perform the initial set-up: online services (Twitter, Facebook, etc), localization (time zone), location services (GPS) and the like. All in all, very, very convenient. The first thing I set up was my Google account. I had read that Android had seamless integration with Google Apps, and it was time to test it so I entered my Google Apps credentials instead of my actual Google (GMail) account ones. Without missing a beat, I had my contacts on my phone, just like that. I then set up my Twitter and Facebook accounts - but all that did was add them to Sony Ericsson's Timescape. Still, pretty cool. So at that point, my Xperia X10 was ready to use, although only half-charged out of the box. The most important thing after my initial set-up, to me, was to have access to my contacts and Twitter account. It did that flawlessly - and that's when I started being impressed and very happy with my new acquisition. Then came the playing around...
Sitting at a bar in Montreal, watching the Canadiens get beat by the Penguins in game one of the NHL semifinals, I started tinkering with the phone, getting a feel of what was where and what did what. First reactions from a 2 years iPhone user? The on-screen keyboard seems slower than the iPhone's. Also, the autocomplete cannot, at this point, rival the iPhone's dictionary completion. Still, it's negligible and there's always the possibility that I'll get used to it as time goes by. The interface is very nice and polished. The screen, bigger than the iPhone's, is much more responsive than what I'm used to. So, this is when I start checking out the default applications. I figure it's better to make a different post for each review, so check out the Android tag archive for it!
