If you are an owner of a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 or X10 mini that has been counting the days until the 2.1 Android update lands for your device, you need to start counting again. Sony has delayed the update to both of the phones.
Apparently the delay will be for a “couple more weeks”, the update was supposed to hit by the end of October according to reports. Today being the 28th, this is the end of October so that original date is out. Considering that little fact along with the history of update delays, you can bet we are looking at some time in November for this update to land if not later.
With the common delays in updates for Android devices, I always wonder exactly what the issue is. Sony has offered no reason as to why the delay is happening. The update should bring some nice new features like HD video recording with continuous autofocus for the X10 when it finally lands.
Hello everybody, I’m Alexander from Romania.
Until recently I was the happy owner of an Xperia X10. It’s not that I’m not the owner anymore, it’s just that I’m not happy anymore.
I just want to tell you from the beginning that I wanted to buy a Samsung Galaxy S, but one of my friends tuck me into buying his X10. It was a plain and simple transaction, my friend didn’t care about updates, he only liked the X10 for its design, but he needed the money, that’s why he sold it to me.
So, on Nov 24 I found out (only because of my repeated update checks and not because SE sent an update notification) that Android 2.1 is available in my country. I followed all the steps and updated my phone. After restoring the saved data, big surprise: the phone would log off the mobile network every 2 minutes. I had to deactivate my PIN code in order to prevent the destruction of the phone (hitting X10 against the wall to achieve that seemed like a good idea at that time), but logging of the network was annoying (that’s the least to say), especially during phone calls. And when the phone was ringing, the caller info & the other items of the incoming call screen would disappear completely, leaving only the nice blue & black color variations; I had to guess where the ‘answer’ button is and how to slide it to the right (luckily this was simplified with the 2.1, with the curved line of the 1.6 it would have been much more difficult to guess). The only solution was reinstalling the software, which worked well.
And now back to the actual update. Apart from the obvious improvements (the screen doesn’t lock anymore after a call in ended, saving Drafts in Messages (officially, and not by pressing the ‘Home’ Button after finishing typing & adding no recipient at that stage) is possible, 5 home screens, more icons per screen & the improved screen layout, text typing layout and the others already mentioned in the official press release), there are some major back draws (for the update or for the overall functionality, regardless of the Android version):
1. The Timescape function is defective with the 2.1: some of the tiles from Facebook only have the photo and the name of the person, with no text. After accessing the profile by tapping the tile, I am prompted to one’s daily horoscope. Wasn’t it supposed to prompt me to the status message? And the Facebook account updates very slowly/not at all and keeps updating even after I close Timescape (the ‘updating’ icon from the upper taskbar is visible at most of the time I have the X10 turned on + wi-fi on & functional). Not to mention that Timescape closes repeatedly without prompting it to close.
2. Once the synchronization starts, sure as hell not even Doomsday can stop it (we do have Doomsday every day here in Romania – jokin’).
3. With the 2.1 update, the ‘relationship’ between my phonebook and Facebook is a wreck (that’s an understatement as well)!! It was much better with the 1.6 when one was able to associate contacts MANUALLY between the phonebook and Facebook straight from the phone. Now Facebook overrides the phonebook, even with sync deactivated (from Facebook Android Application (updated)/settings/sync contacts/DON’T SYNC) (isn’t this breaking terms & conditions + invasion of privacy?). And, believe it or not, in my country 2 different people can have the same first name & surname, which makes very annoying to have your actual girlfriend Mary in your phonebook, but with Mary’s (ex-girlfriend) picture from Facebook, Mary ex-girlfriend which is not anymore in your phonebook – how’s that for a divorce case? If I chose facebook/settings/sync contacts/sync with existing contacts – that’s Iraqi War, as for ‘sync all’ – that’s Star Wars + WW III. I had to restore the phonebook a few times and I had to access manually 20% percent of my phonebook, then ‘edit/menu button/separate/save’ in order to separate the (unfortunate) 20% phonebook contacts from Facebook contacts (same person or, worse, another person), even thou, I repeat, I have chosen in the first place NOT to sync the contacts between my phonebook and Facebook!!!!!
4. The in-call volume is still very low, I have to press the phone against the ear very hard.
And now for my fellow X10 owners: stop asking if there’s gonna be an upgrade in terms of screen colors!! SE does software updates, they should replace the whole screen (as a hardware component) in order to upgrade the actual screen to 16M.
That’s about everything I can remember now, if something else will come up I will get back!
Bottom-line: As a happy owner of SE phones (T28, K750, V630, W995, Aino (present)), I’m about to go back to Nokia or to start a ‘relationship’ with Samsung if SE’s new X10 update will not be Android 2.3 with all the above-mentioned flaws fixed!!