The Xperia X1, which marks Sony Ericsson’s entry to the smart phone market, is now available for purchase in Canada through Rogers Wireless. And it works with Skype.
The X1 was first announced in 2008 and released in the United States in February this year. Unlocked versions were available to U.S. customers through Sony Style.
Rogers is the first cellular carrier to offer the X1 to Canadian customers. Pricing starts at $249.99 with a 3-year contract.
Users have several options for interacting with the device: a 3-inch WVGA touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, an optical mouse and a stylus.
The stylus is handy for navigating through cells in an Excel spreadsheet, pointed out Farhad Esmail, channel and product analyst for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, during his demo of the device.
The X1 features panels instead of apps and the interface is designed to display nine panel options at once. Twenty five panels are displayed on Sony Ericsson’s site, but ten are Oxford phrasebooks, one is an update to an existing panel and two are listed as “coming soon.”
But the existence of a Skype panel might make up for all of this.
While the Skype app remains unavailable to iPhone users with Canadian iTunes accounts, Canadian Xperia X1 users are free to download and use the Skype panel from Sony Ericsson.
Panels that are available as of today also include the following:
- On the Road: uses GPS to
determine traveling speed, length of travel and track your route on Google
Maps
- Evernote: share and sync files
between phone, PC and Web
- Dashwire: backup and sync phone
contacts and settings with PC and Web
- Cool Hunting: daily update on
art, design, culture and technology
- Slideshow: for slideshows
- Windows Live
- Spb Mobile Shell: an
alternative interface
- Spb Traveler
- Spb Weather
Auto-rotate capabilities allow users to watch movies, for example, horizontally. Stereo Bluetooth helps make watching a feature film on a cell phone more exciting, as users can wirelessly connect the X1 to a pair of portable Bluetooth speakers like Esmail did for the demo.
The X1 features a 3.2 megapixel camera with a touchscreen UI, touchscreen focusing and image stabilization. The phone also allows for videorecording.
The 3G/Wi-Fi device runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional platform and includes Microsoft Mobile Office and support for Microsoft Exchange as well as remote wipe capabilities. There is also an open SDK for developers.
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