Best of Symbian vs Latest Android: Samsung i8910 HD vs Sony Ericsson X10

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With the arrival chez-Phones-Show, Spring 2010, of the Sony Ericsson X10, the very latest from the world of Android smartphones, I wanted to pitch it head to head against the current flagship in the Symbian world, the Samung i8910 HD. On paper, there's a good match here... Smartphones to your corners: Fight!

Sony Ericsson X10 and Samsung i8910 HD

Hot off the Sony Ericsson product line, the Xperia X10 represents a cutting edge Android smartphone in every way except the raw OS version currently used. Choosing a Symbian-powered phone to pit it against was easy - it's almost an exact match for the Samsung i8910 HD, which I've recently tricked out with everything available. The Samsung is a year older, but until Nokia's new Symbian^3 devices become available, it's the closest I have to a 2010 flagship.

(As usual, I've tinted with green the cells in each row that indicate an obvious 'winner' for that attribute, for interest sake. See below for comment)

  Samsung i8910 HD Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Latest firmware HX 3.29 (based on official JB2 firmware, but with five times the free system disk space) - up to date, but not official Android 1.6 (2.1 update promised for the future) - official, but not up to date(!)
Form factor, materials Plastic, but very solid full-face glass capacitive touchscreen, 148g Plastic with glass capacitive touchscreen, tapered sides enhance the thinness (13mm), 135g
Input mechanisms Virtual qwerty landscape keyboard (with no writing aids), plus virtual numeric and handwriting options, all with super haptic and aural feedback. Compatible with most Bluetooth keyboards (with downloaded driver) Two (different) virtual qwerty keyboards (depending on app) in both portrait and landscape modes, with basic writing aids, let down by a tiny 'space bar' (which slows down corrected typing), plus voice search in Google search box only. Compatible with one Bluetooth keyboard, or with more via a commercial driver
Display  3.7" (360 x 640 pixels) AMOLED, gorgeous indoors, but hard to read in direct sunlight 4.0" (480 x 854 pixels) transflective LCD, great indoors at full brightness (though default auto-brightness is very dim), and easy to read in sunlight (same as iPhone)
Interface  S60 5th Edition, kinetic scrolling everywhere but in the main Applications folder Android 1.6, three homescreens, heavy widget and shortcut customisability, finger control only but designed for finger touch from day one
Speed  Symbian flies here, with an OMAP 3430 chipset to power all the graphics, transitions, etc. and with 150MB free RAM for the OS to work in. Video playback is terrific, with a wide range of codecs supported.   Nippy, as you'd expect from something powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, graphical effects and overlays all work well (such as they are), though video playback is disappointing, with limited codec support so far.
Memory capacity (storage) 85MB of (C:) system disk, plus 8GB (or 16GB) mass memory and microSD expansion. Apps can be installed on any disk. Around 440MB of internal storage is plenty for most purposes, though apps have to be installed into this space. A big microSD card is essential for media though - an 8GB card is supplied
Camera (stills) Superlative 8 megapixel stills, but only LED flash for evening shots. Exposed (but recessed) camera glass Slightly disappointing 8 megapixel stills (poor handling of sunlight extremes and general detail), very exposed camera glass and, unbelievably (as on the Symbian-powered Vivaz), no LED flash - you have to go into 'Advanced settings' just to turn on the continuous 'Photo light'!
Camera (video) HD (1280 by 720) video is very good, though audio is either noisy or slightly choppy (depending on configuration) Video capture is very disappointing, at WVGA (720 by 480) but ruined by poor audio/video sync and by the lack of any kind of pre-set, initial or automatic focussing - videos are shot focussed at infinity, as on the Nokia N97 (for example)
GPS and navigation  Great GPS, let down by poor support of the initially-offered Route 66 software. Most users resort to Google Maps. Or to modified Ovi Maps 3.3. Includes digital compass Great GPS, backed up by Wi-Fi location and the latest Google Maps and with real time voice navigation now active in the UK. Also a 30 day trial of the commercial Wisepilot, somewhat redundant for some countries now, of course! Includes digital compass
Audio out Very loud stereo speakers, 5.1 channel simulation(!), 3.5mm jack, A2DP  Appallingly tinny, tiny mono speaker, 3.5mm jack, A2DP
Web browsing S60 Web (webkit-based), functional without ever really impressing, though there is Flash support (including video) if needed.  Browser is also Webkit-based, but with no Flash support (this is 'coming soon'). There's also no multitouch for pinching and zooming (as on some other Android phones)
Other application highlights out of the box Quickoffice viewers, Google Mail client, Smart reader (business cards), Dictionary, Zip manager, Converter, RoadSync (MS Exchange) Timescape and Mediascape (social and multimedia) browsers, Facebook client, native Google Mail client, Moxier (Microsoft) Exchange client, Mobile Systems OfficeSuite viewers, TrackID music utility, YouTube client, Google Talk client, PlayNow web-based store. Curiously, there's no Google-synced Contacts application.
Application store and ecosystem  No on-device store, but many S60 5th Edition apps will work fine (e.g. Gravity, Opera mini, Sports Tracker). Some trial and error needed. See also our freeware guide The Android market boasts many thousands of applications, the majority of which are free. Quality is variable, but there's no shortage of choice. Application updates are automatically checked for.
Battery 1500mAh, microUSB charging, nightly charging needed 1500mAh, microUSB charging, nightly charging needed
Ongoing firmware support and updates Via PC Studio only. Samsung updates have been profligate with C: disk space, so I recommend sticking with the modified HX versions, also applied via a PC utility through Samsung's built-in bootloader. Over the air updates, in theory. The intended frequency isn't known and this is most definitely not a 'With Google' phone...

Sony Ericsson X10 and Samsung i8910 HD

Attempting to be objective, adding up the green 'wins' gives five to four in the Samsung's favour, which doesn't really help much. In truth, there's not much between the two devices in terms of raw processing hardware. The X10's unique selling point is the addition of the Timescape 'timeline' view of your media and social contacts, but this is something of a novelty and after the initial few minutes of playing you'll have downloaded a proper Twitter client so that you've got full functionality rather than just a lot of eye candy. Mind you, with access to the Android Market, there's no shortage of options here.

Also significant for the X10 is the larger, brighter, better performing display - given that the i8910 HD has, arguably, the best display in the Symbian world bar none, this is rather telling. See also my feature on screen sizes yesterday - these two devices are certainly up there with the best of the 2010 competition - but the X10 edges it.

Where the i8910 HD scores is when it comes to music and its camera. The X10's speaker is a complete joke - whereas the i8910 HD can pump out music, Internet radio or podcasts across a room. And the i8910 HD's stellar photos and pretty darned good video (admittedly with a few firmware updates under its belt) really show up the poor state of camera functions on the X10. Quite how much the latter can be improved depends a lot on how much effort Sony Ericsson put into their flagship and how well they integrate Android 2.1 when the time comes.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 21 Apr 2010

Sony Ericsson X10 and Samsung i8910 HD