I got my Xperia on 1st November this year. It is my first Windows Mobile device, but my third Sony Ericsson.

Although the handset looks and feels good, there are build quality issues:

• The back drops off at the slightest knock, as it's only held on by two little tiny metal blips on the inside, that go 'flump' instead of 'click' when you push the back on...
• The plastic cover over the lens already has three cracks in it. As far as I know I didn't whack it. The transparent cover plastic is incredibly thin.
• The varnish started falling off the four-way direction pad in chunks a week ago. The up/down on the pad is so thin that I suppose I must've used my nail to try and hit it...

.

Although the specification is incredibly up-to-date, it is deeply flawed by being wrapped in Windows Mobile. I hadn't experienced this operating system before, but I thought I'd not let my natural prejudice against Windows affect my buying decision. How bad could it be? I thought. Oh boy...

It's buggy, it crashes, it's inconsistent, it's a nightmare to use. It's often really sluggish.  Usability issues are completely normal in every single corner. Here's one: when you talk on the phone, your ear touches the screen and causes random things to pop up to surprise you when you finish the call... Assuming the phone hasn't crashed: receiving a call seems to be the top event for causing freezes and crashes... I don't want to go into a huge list of usability problems, as that's Windows' fault, not the X1's.

One thing I was sad to see go was Sony Ericsson's Escape/Back/Cancel button, which would work in every context. In Windows Mobile there is a different way to bail out for practically every situation, for every application.

So - unless you love Windows Mobile and are happy to wrap your handset in cotton wool, I'd give it a miss...

Duncan Cragg, December 2008