The Sony Erisson XPERIA X2 is a powerful mobile phone, not quite what we were hoping for after the X1, but it is still a reasonably significant improvement. What makes this device bog down is the simple fact that it’s a WinMo phone. Now before you start waving the OS-bias flag at us, allow us to iterate one important point: Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Edition sucks hard.

We will get to that in a bit. Right now, the point is that the XPERIA X2 is the top line of Sony Ericsson mobile devices. Maybe Sony should abandon Ericsson and manufacture mobile devices on their own; maybe not. But something has to change as the X2 delivers more of the disappointment from the original X1. We had high hopes that the X2 would be a significant improvement. Hardware-wise, it’s better than its predecessor.

Compared to its competitors, it appears that Sony is really missing its mark this time. Here’s a thought, they should turn the Playstation Portable into a mobile phone and leave team Ericsson in the dump.

Dragging Down a Good Device

The Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system is hardly any different from the original WinMo 6.1 in fact, aside from a few graphical upgrades (well, alterations), and the marketplace option, there really is not anything new in this operating system. What is worse is that WinMo is clumsy, laggy and difficult to use. The fact that the XPERIA X2 needs to have a resistive touch screen is a sure sign that the OS is really bad.

WinMo 6.5 needs you to be using a stylus. Do not expect to be able to access any of the thin buttons and menus with your fingertips; the OS is designed with using a stylus in mind. Of course, when you consider the fact that the XPERIA X2 is a next generation mobile phone that deserves a capacitive touch screen, there is something wrong in the formula.

Heavy Hardware Specs

The best thing about the X2 is its hardware, yes, partially because Windows has nothing to do with the hardware. Though the fact that the touch screen is resistive is a major let down we can blame it on the errant OS.

The 3.2 inch touch screen is able to display resolutions of up to 800 x 480 pixels. That is high definition quality right there. The processor is a little slow at 528 MHz and could have been better with an ARM Cortex instead. The 8 mega pixel camera is really powerful, far beyond the 5 mp cameras used in other devices.

Not the Time to be Impressed

To say that we were not looking forward to the Sony Erisson XPERIA X2 would be a lie, but upon knowing that it would be a WinMo phone, we can all be understandably disappointed. This could have been so much better. The good thing is, Sony will be doing away with WinMo and will be using a different OS for the X3, now that is definitely worth looking forward to.