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The X12 is most definitely ‘out of the bag’ now, leaked pictures have appeared in their droves, not to mention Eldar’s detailed hands-on with the device. Having now had some time to assess the various articles and rumours that have focused on the X12 I thought it time to offer some opinions on what will be Sony Ericsson’s next flagship.

The first, and perhaps most important, point to make is that the X12 is really not very different from the X10. Sure it has different specifications, but when you look at what is known about these specifications it appears to be very much an evolutionary step rather than a quantum leap, and not a very big evolutionary step at that I might add.

What’s New

Let’s look at what’s new first though. Probably the biggest feature here is multi-touch, something that was long clamoured for with the X10. The screen itself is bigger too, 4.3 inches compared with the X10’s 4 inches and it now supports 16 million colours, up from 65k. There’s a new chipset too, gone is the Snapdragon of the X10 and in its place is the MSM7230. It has the same core as the Snapdragon, but runs at a lower clock speed, 800 Mhz instead of 1 GHz.

The design of the handset has subtlely changed too, now being thinner and lighter. The larger screen means it is ‘taller’ than the X10, but noticeably thinner in the hand.

The Good (Sort Of)

Some have fixated on the chipset used, imagining that a lower clock speed means poorer performance. That’s a simplistic way of looking at things, in fact the MSM7230 has been optimised for multimedia with 720p encoding smoother and playback times increased when compared with the X10. This is important because the X10’s HD video capabilities were brought about through a software upgrade, here the hardware itself is optimised in that direction.

That’s all very well and good, but I haven’t mentioned one important point here; the X12 will be Sony Ericsson’s flagship and it will be aimed, and priced, with a view to competing at the top end of the market. Given the appearance of Tegra 2 dual core powered Android smartphones this year a mid-level chipset just doesn’t cut it in that price bracket, or indeed with customer expectations.

I’m not going to comment on the design changes too much since design is such a subjective issue. Suffice it to say that those who have handled the device so far aren’t falling over themselves to praise the thinner feel of the handset. Rather it seems that the thinner and lighter feel of the handset gives it a ‘cheaper’ feel than the X10.

Does Sony Ericsson Dream of Old Electric Sheep?

In terms of Android the prototypes have been running Eclair (Android 2.1) and there is some speculation now that the device will not in fact ship with Gingerbread after all (Android 2.3), but rather Froyo (Android 2.2).

Let me say that I really hope that this proves untrue, Gingerbread wouldn’t just be nice, it is absolutely crucial for the X12. The X10 shipped with Donut (Android 1.6) at a time when other handsets were looking forward to upgrading to Froyo, two generations of Android beyond Donut. Granted that opting for Froyo would ‘only’ be one generation behind the current generation, but neveretheless it would still be behind.

We also have Sony Ericsson’s notoriously slow update cycle to contend with. X10 owners will know all too well how frustrating it can be to wait months on end for an (outdated) update whilst other manufacturers are zapping their older handsets with fresh Android iterations.

Hardware Software Is Where It’s At

Sony Ericsson’s custom UI is supposed to compensate somewhat for this as it is promoted as ‘adding value’ to the device. In other words Sony Ericsson is trying to compensate for the deficiency in hardware when compared with rival handsets and the slow update cycle with software improvements. We saw this with the X10 too, the addition of HD video capture, for example, and the implementation of multi-touch.

There are various problems with this approach. Firstly it leads to a situation, in which Sony Ericsson lag behind on hardware features because they think they can implement them through software at a later date. It’s also a poor reflection on Sony Ericsson’s view of its customers since they are being asked to part with the price of a very high-end handset, but aren’t given the hardware to match the price. This is especially galling when it comes to ‘basic’ functionality like multi-touch.

Last, but most certainly not least, Sony Ericsson’s ’software cures all ills’ approach is completely undermined by the number, and severity, of bugs that creep into their devices. The X10 WiFi bug, for example, has been a major headache for many customers.

A Market Segment Too Far

What we have with the X12 is a handset that looks like it could do some decent business, probably even great business, if it were priced in the mid-range of the market, but certainly not at the top-end. Samsung, LG, HTC, etc will be releasing handsets this year in the same high-end category as the X12, but they will outshine it in terms of the hardware. So why should customers buy an X12 when they can get a handset that is ’stronger, faster, better’ for the same price, or even less?

I don’t mean to seem pessimistic about the X12, but on balance it’s looking more like an X10 with some of the faults users complained about most fixed. That might have cut the mustard last year, but this is a new year with new customer expectations and Sony Ericsson seems, as ever, to be playing catch-up.

Źródło: Opinion: The X12, Sony Ericsson Playing Catch-Up Again?

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