Xperia: God I Love Bejewelled
Read more Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 reviews
Features
Looks
Ease of use
Overall
- Bejewelled
- Decent camera
- Appearance
Pros
- Windows Mobile
- Hilarious mini touchscreen keyboard
- Stupid loading screens
Cons
I’m going to start this review by confessing that I only used the Xperia for about 15 minutes… and 10 of them were playing Bejewelled. It’s not a bad phone – it feels well made, it has a good quality screen… it makes calls and there’s a calculator. That’s 99% of the functionality covered right there. The problem is, moving from the iPhone to the Xperia is the equivalent of moving from a thoroughbred to a flatulent donkey. The interface feels clunky, nothing’s as fast as it could be and you’re a little bit embarrassed at the thought of your friends seeing you using it.
As another reviewer said, the slow load time when using certain features is unforgivable. Why does a screen to take a few seconds to load, all the while displaying a pixilated version of the screen you’re about to see? The exterior of the phone is rather nice, and it feels pleasantly weighty. The whole thing feels extremely durable, so if falling down stairs is a hobby of yours, this is the phone for you.
I found the touchscreen keyboard very funny – it’s so small as to be almost unusable. The Xperia has a physical keyboard. Why insult us with the virtual keyboard designed for primordial dwarves? Oh yeah, and Windows Mobile is terrible of course.
On the plus side, Bejewelled is so much fun that I could almost forgive the Xperia all its faults. You can only use the game 5 times before you have to pay for it but I reckon you could probably play it for the rest of your life, never exiting the game, and thus never have to pay for it.
I didn’t use any of the advanced features because I didn’t know how to access them. Whether this is a failing of the phone or due to the fact that I’m missing a few chromosomes I will leave for you to decide. Overall I will not be rushing to purchase an Xperia. It looks very nice, but using it is just too much of a chore. I was glad to come back to the iPhone. To have it stroke my hair lovingly whilst I whispered false promises about how I’ll never leave it again. Then I played a game of iPint and cried myself to sleep.
