X1 marks the spot in smartphone cosmos

Without a doubt, 2008 has been the year of the smartphone. Competition has never been as intense at the top end of the mobile phone market as it was in the months following the launch of the iPhone 3G.

BlackBerry, HTC and Palm have all sought to take on Apple's slick wunderkind with their own interpretations of the touchscreen interface. Then Google entered the (US) market with its own open-source alternative called Android.

However, the excitement is far from over. HTC has more in store but it's Sony Ericsson that has one of the most highly anticipated handsets of the year (apart from the iPhone, of course). It's called the Xperia X1 and I've had decidedly non-tech friends hound me about whether I've had my hands on one and when it's going to be released. Well, now I can answer yes to the first question and mid-December to the second. Why the excitement? Well, Sony Ericsson has been billing the X1 as having the unlikely combination of being a Windows Mobile phone that's actually easy to use. This claim, of course, needs to be backed up by substantial customisation of the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Although, as we've seen in the case of the HTC Touch Diamond, clever interface improvements alone don't necessarily make Windows Mobile easier to work with. Prettier perhaps but not better.

I'm happy to report that Sony Ericsson has done things differently. Rather than being yet another iPhone-clone, the X1 has made some innovations of its own. Its interface is centred around the concept of "panels", which are kind of like active desktops that display a particular set of information, such as time, weather, calendar, search bar etc. Up to nine panels can be customised for different purposes. For example, you can have one for work that displays your email inbox, calendar appointments, different time zone and links to the Mobile Office applications and one for after hours that's less business-focused.

New panel themes can be downloaded and end users will have the ability to build their own. It's an excellent concept that's a delight to use in practice.

The X1 is the first Windows Mobile-based device from Sony Ericsson and the Xperia brand is one it hopes will stand for a "premium experience" that stands above its regular models. Just think of it as the Lexus of smartphones.