|
|
|
|
Xperia X10 VS Motorola Droid
 
Deciding between Xperia X10 or the Motorola DROID can be either easy or hard, depending on the person making the choice. For example someone that needs a hardware keyboard, like a businessman for emails and such, will go for the DROID in no time. The network might have a big influence on the decision also, since the DROID is available on Verizon while Xperia will be available on AT&T. Some will just decide based on looks or instinct.
But there are also some people that just want the best phone out there and can't make up their mind unless they are well informed. These are the people this article was written for and we try to cover all aspects of both phones, both good and bad.
HARDWARE
Exterior
The phones come from major manufacturers with plenty of experience in building phones so we expect great quality from both. However Motorola seems to have learned from it's largest hit, the RAZR, and decided to go with a metal body that keeps the phone as slim as possible (13.7 mm for a full QWERTY slider, just 0.7mm thicker than the Xperia X10).
Because of the metal the DROID feels great in the hand, but Xperia has a more rounded, ergnomical back and combined with the glossy front finish and the two color options (white and black versus the DROID which is black only) makes it our favorite when it comes to design.
 The hardware keyboard of the DROID slides out (or the display slides up, depending how you look at it) but is not spring assisted, so you have to push it all the way, it does not snap into place like acustomed on other QWERTY sliders. But once in place it has a firm click so the overall feeling is of sturdiness. The keyboard itself is above average, pretty wide, with large, easy to read and press keys, although it might feel quite cramped because there is no space between keys. Overall typing on the keyword is way better than typing on Android's virtual keyboard used on Xperia, so the DROID is the winner here.
Now for the serious stuff: the display. Being top of the line smartphones both have the same high resolution (480 x 854) displays with capacitive touchscreen. Considering the average smartphone screen in 2009 was the 320x480 these are more than double in resolution. The DPI is getting closer to printed paper, Motorola DROID has 240 dpi while the average magazine has 300 dpi and the computer screen you read this comparisson on has probably only 96 dpi. This means the text and images are crisp clear on both phones.
The two phones might have the same resolution but the screen size is different: Motorola has a 3.7 inch lcd while Xperia X10 has a 4 inch one. The difference might seem small but it's there. It's most noticeable while browsing the internet, not that the DROID browsing experience is bad, on the contrary, but the larger screen of the Xperia gives it a slight advantage.
The touchsceen has no multi-touch on either phone, but not because the technology used can't detect multiple finger imput, no, it's just because of the Android OS. It looks like Google, for an unknown reason, decided to keep multitouch off it's phones for a while. The only trace of multitouch can be found in Motorola DROID hidden inside the Maps app that allows two finger tapping. But no pinch zoom or other gimmics. However this can be fixed by a future update if Google feels generous.
Internals
The full specs you can see at the end of this comparisson, but we'll give you a short briefing here: Both phones have high performance hardware and move at light speed. The processor used in Motorola DROID is the same used in the iPHone 3GS just slightly underclocked at 550 MHz for extended battery use. Xperia X10 on the other hand has a 1GHz CPU (the same praised processor found in the HD2) that provides extreme performance, only time will tell if the battery life will be affected or not.
Memory, another aspect that influences performance is identical in the two phones, both having 256 MB RAM. When it comes to internal storage Xperia X10 has double the memory of the Droid with 1GB while the DROID only has 512 MB ROM. Both phones have microSD memory slots accepting cards for up to 32GB for the DROID and up to 16GB for the Xperia.
 Camera is one aspect where Xperia is by far the leader. Even from the launch day the 5MP camera found in Motorola DROID has beeen criticized, inaccurate focusing being the culprit. On the other side Xperia X10 comes with a wooping 8.1 MP camera. SE phone cameras were renowned for great performances and Xperia is no exception. It has a single LED flash while Motorola has dual LED flash.
Both phones have video recording, X10 limited to a max resoultion of 640x480 while the DROID has DVD quality recording of max 720x480.
Battery, one of the critical components in today's smartphones, given the huge, power-hungry displays and high speed processors is pretty similar in these two. Motorola DROID has a 1400 mAh battery while Xperia has a 1500 mAh battery. Since Xperia X10 is not on the market yet and pre-production models can't be used as refference, only time will tell if the 100 mAh difference will be enough to cover the extra 0.3 inch to the display and the 1GHz CPU.
GPS Both phones come equipped with GPS, compass and accelerometer. A slight advantage has the DROID which comes with preinstalled turn-by-turn Google Navigation. This is just because it runs on Android 2.0 so when Xperia will get updated it will benefit from the turn-by-turn app too. But when or if this will happen is up to SE and might take a long time to see this feature on the Xperia, that's why the DROID is the leader in this section.
When it comes to conectivity the two Android phones have similar features like WiFi, Bluetooth , 3.5 mm headphone jack and microUSB. Call quality is great on both devices, as it was expected from the two major manufacturers.
SOFTWARE
Motorola DROID runs a stock version of Android 2.0 and Xperia X10 runs a customized user interface, built over Android 1.6
Considering Both phones run on Android OS, if you overlook the changed graphics of the Xperia, there aren't many differences in the basic functions of the software. Yes Motorola DROID has a few extra apps, like the Google Navigation, because of the newer OS, but overall they are pretty similar.
Xperia, except the visual changes only brings a few new features like Timescape, that aggregates all comunications on the device, wether from internet or from the phone functions, and Mediascape, that does same for media files.
Overall we think DROID has an advantage here because, despite the eye candy of the SE interface, we like stock Android more and is most likely for it to receive updates in the future.
WRAP-UP
It is hard to chose from two phones, so advanced, so similar and yet so different like the Motorola DROID and Xperia X10. Below we highlighted some of the advantages and disadvantages of the phones, but overall they are both exceptional phones and whichever you choose to get you won't regret your decision.
HIGHLIGHTS
Motorola DROID
 Android 2.0
Hardware keyboard
Turn-by-turn GPS
 Camera
|
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
8.1 MP camera
1 GHz processor
4 inch display
Android 1.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
