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Here in the US, Sony Ericsson isn’t high on my list of phones to check out.  Primarily, their inexpensive phones make the trip across the pond and the American public has yet to really embrace them as a quality brand.  That may change with the new XPERIA X10 which is due to become a flagship Android phone for the brand.  All isn’t perfect yet, though.

Slashgear was received by Sony Ericsson and shown the ropes of this phone due in Q1 of 2010.  There is much to brag about, from the custom UI skin that overlays Android 1.6 (that was something to brag about up until last month, now it seems a bit dated with 2.0 in the wild - no word if the X10 will get the update), an 8.1 megapixel camera, a snappy 1 GHz Snapdragon chipset, and a 480x854 capacitive touchscreen.

What is most interesting about the device are it’s two customized apps by Sony Ericsson: Timescape and Mediascape.  As described by Slashgear:

Timescape handles events, with a single view of tumbling panes each detailing the most recent changes, updates or events. SMS or email messages, calls, voicemails, photos, Twitter or Facebook updates and calendar entries are all pulled together into one dangling stream, and you can tap each pane to see it completely; hitting the Infinity symbol in the top corner then pulls together related information from all across the phone and online.

Mediascape, meanwhile, works in a similar way to Timescape but for audio, video and still image content. Three tabs show photos, audio and video, with the top half of the screen having draggable bars showing local content (split into rows by most recent, most played, etc.) while the lower half has online content. Sony Ericsson are working with content providers and carriers to develop this latter content; right now, the XPERIA X10 has access to YouTube video and online galleries, but there’s the potential for carrier-provided streaming music, PlayStation Network integration or third-party services. We’d particularly like to see Spotify integration too.

It was clear the demo Slashgear got was on an unoptomized software so the apps were sluggish to respond.  One of the fun things about Android is the manufacturers ability to create a branded feel of the OS by using skins.  It looks like Sony Ericsson may be onto something here and offered more Android phones would follow in 2010.

Read: [Slashgear]