Back at the Mobile World Congress this year we became enlightened on the existence of the Sony XPERIA X1 which quickly became our dream phone. White papers were leaked on the Internet soon after breaking down the details of the device in glorious fashion, but today we have the second set of documents to complete those illicit ‘white papers’. A quick summary of the worthwhile details found inside the second edition of the ‘white papers’ is that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 will be released in two versions along with details on the frequencies that each device will support.
The two version of the XPERIA X1 detailed in the ‘white papers’ are the X1a and the X1i. The good news is that the X1a will be the version on its way to our beloved At&t sales channels featuring support for AT&T’s HSPA network. The device is quad band GSM ready to take on the world anywhere you travel where GSM coverage is present, but that is where the bright news ends and things head for the worst. The X1 lacks the ability to encode h.264 videos and only has the ability to record video at QVGA resolution (320×240). This is a huge disappointment and hopefully by the will of the smartphone gods we will see full VGA recording capabilities by the release date.
The XPERIA X1i will be the worldwide edition hitting sales channels across Europe and Asia with few differences from the X1a model. The major change is the frequency support which includes a 900MHz 3g band being used for HSPA. Other than that the devices are identical and both devices bring 10 hours of GSM talk time and 6.5 hours of UMTS talk (3g network). If you are a T-mobile customer you will be out of luck when it comes to 3g 1700MHz support since neither device packs the capability to make use of T-mobile’s new high speed data network. It is pretty clear at this point that T-mobile’s 3g network will be a nice edition for those looking to sport carrier subsidized phones, but if you are looking for unlocked worldwide phones with native 3g support it is time to make the switch to At&t guys. In the word of USC Trojans, ‘fight on!’.
