The last 2 phones I have had were Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones, I had those as I thought it would be beneficial to have a phone and an mp3 player in one then I decided I didn't really need a contract anymore and went to pay and go.

A good few months later I found out I was pregnant and decided that I needed a better phone as my W910i had finally given up the ghost after 2 years.
I went back onto a contract phone and had a decision to make, i phone, vivaz or the Xperia X10 and I picked the Xperia X10 mainly because it seemed to have all that the iphone did and more.

*~*What's in the box*~*

I ordered my phone via phones for u as they had the best deal on and my phone was delivered within 48 hours.

The box it came in was pretty small with a large image of the phone on the front. I opened the box and the phone was seated on top, underneath the phone was a small instruction leaflet and I do say small as it basically shows you how to get the back of the phone off to insert the sim card, memory card and battery and power the phone on the rest you have to learn from the phone's tuturial.

The box also contained a hansfree/headset, memory card, battery and power cable.

What was different for this phone compared to all the others I had previously was that it was a USB connector. This allows you to connect to a wall plug or to charge via a pc/laptop usb connection.

The phone is very similar in size to the iphone at 119 x 63 x 13mm but a little bit more chunky. It is pretty lightweight at 135g.

The phone has a large screen 4" in fact and other than 3 buttons at the base of the phone, options, home and back and 2 additional buttons to the right of the phone to adjust the volume to the top and the bottom is the camera capture button they are along the side of the phone.

The homescreen is really cool especially when you use your own photograph as a background image as you scroll from side to side you can see your full photograph definately a unique feature that I have not come across before.

To me the Xperia X10 looks a lot more sleek and sexy than the iphone and the fact that it has an 8.1megapixel camera and slightly larger screen than the iphone it does have a bit of an edge and is the iphones main competitor in my opinion.

At the top of the phone is a power button, to power the phone you need to hold this down for a few seconds and the phone will then power up, when turning the phone off you repeat this but the screen will display an option to turn the phone onto silent mode, flight mode and to power off.
You simply tap the screen to select which option you require.

To access your applications you simply touch the bottom of the screen and scroll up and your list of applications will appear simply tap the application that you require and this will open up quickly. If an internet connection is required this will open up dependent on the connection, the phone has both wi-fi and 3g capabilities and I find it works very quick where there is a strong signal.

The phone also has gps and this also works quickly.

*~*Messaging*~*

For me this was one very different way of text messaging as all of the messages are saved as threads or conversations, I love this format of text messaging as it show exactly what you have replied to and if you lose track of the conversation you can just scroll up and down.

Messaging can be accessed via a link from your main screen, timescape or a text message will come through you can simply scroll down from the top where the message is displayed

To respond to a text you simply tap the empty search bar at the bottom and a key pad will appear which is in the format of a qwerty keyboard and you tap your message.

For me I do have a few spelling errors as the letters are not that big and if you have chunky fingers you could struggle and would be when a little pen would come in handy to tap the letters for you.

*~*Timescape*~*

Exclusive to this phone, this gives you the option to view your text messages, facebook updates, music, photographs, call log, all communications, in one place.

I tend to use timescape to check my text messages and access facebook updates.

It is a handy place to find all your information at one time. Simply tap on the tile you wish to access to be redirected to your contacts text message or facebook update.

*~*Mediascape*~*

Contains all of your media documents such as your videos, music and photographs, its a quick reference point to locate your pictures and access your music quickly.

*~*Dialler*~*

The dialler is saved on my main screen and when selected a large keypad opens out and you simply press call to activate your call.

Whilst on your call a screen will pop up to prevent you disconnecting your call by accident but can be a bit of a pain if you are calling somewhere and need to use the keypad as you have to tap the key pad twice to unlock and be able to access the keypad once more.

Whilst you are in the dialler menu you can access your call log and call most popular contacts from there rather than going via your phonebook/contacts.

*~*Contacts*~*

I love the contacts feature on this phone you can attach a photograph to your contact so each time they phone or text you a picture or image will come up that has been saved to that contact.

Like most phones you can save your contacts to the sim or the phone.

You can list numbers, email address, instant messaging id, postal address and other notes.

*~*The Camera*~*
The camera is an 8.1mega pixel and it has a flash, which in my opinion is pretty handy when you have a camera phone and I really missed this feature when I had the W910i as the W810i had this feature.
The camera has some of the features familiar with the cybershot also produced by Sony such as face detection, single autofocus, multi autofocus, macro and infinity.
There is also a scene recognition option which allows you to select the best option for your photograph these are:

Normal, Portrait, Landscape, Nightscene, Nightportrait, beach and snow, sports, party and document.

You can also select the pictures to your chosen size, 2MP 16:9, 2MP 4:3, 6MP 16:9 and 8MP 4:3.

As well as all this you can change the capturing mode to normal, scene recognition, face recognition and touch capture.

To take a photograph normally, you can press the button found along the side of the phone and you have to press this down until it clicks to state it is captured.

By pressing the options button to the bottom of the main screen you can chose to hide the icons and click for advance settings and here you can find the photo light, self timer, white balance, image stabiliser, smile level, shuttersound and the option to reset the settings.

You can also touch the screen to change from camera to movie and film short movies, very handy to have when you are out and about.

*~*The Applications*~*
The phone comes with some applications but you can download them from the android market place. A lot of the applications are free to download and some are purchaseable.
All of the applications I have on my phone were either on there to begin with or are downloaded free of charge.

My main applications are the facebook app, ebay app, kindle app, IMdb app, paypal, photoshop express, post it, sky +, sky news, bbc news, you tube and your golf.

I don't have a lot of apps on my phone as I want to only have what I use reguarly but I do visit the market place to review any new apps.

*~*Battery Life*~*
I find that the battery life lasts a lot longer when the 3G is turned off and the applications are fully closed down, I tend to do this when at work all day.

Alternatively I take the usb cable with me to work and charge it up at my pc throughout the day and it keeps the battery topped up throughout the week and reduces the risk of my battery dying when I really need it!

*~*User Opinion*~*

I find this phone easy to use now I have got used to it, at first I didn't even know how to end a call but now I am used to it I could never go back.

I haven't yet connected to my email as I am still a bit unsure on how to do this but applications have just become available so this may help, I just need to find the time to download!

When you turn your phone from landscape to portrait this makes the keyboard/page rotate and can be easier to use.

I love that when the phone received a call or text the small light to the top of the phone flashes green, ideal if you are in a meeting and your phone is on silent. If you battery is low it will begin to flash red to warn you, a nice little feature in my opinion.

My phone has a total of 9GB memory which is more than sufficient to store a good few photographs, videos and music.

I reguarly use the wi-fi on the phone when I am at home and just want to quickly check facebook or ebay and its really hand that apps have ben created making them easier to use on a smaller scale.

I have also used the gps on the phone with google maps on a recent visit to London we got lost and we were able to find our way back with this handy little application.

I do try to make sure that everything is closed down on the phone when not in use to maximise the battery life as when I first had the phone the battery was almost drained by the end of the day and I found myself having to charge each day, now with the download of a task killer which was free of charge and charging during the day when I am at my desk the battery hardly ever gets run down unless I am away or out all day and have been using 3g to access the web whilst on the move.

This has to be one of the best phones that I have purchased and I love using it even after having the phone for 4 months I still think it is one of the best out there but cannot really compare against another smartphone as this is the first one I have owned.

The quality of the music played is good enough when you are travelling around and the headphones are small and compact.

The phone has bluetooth which is handy if you have a vaio and a ps3 like me as you can link through those and I have also linked the phone via the laptop and been able to have a conversation via the lap top, handy for conference calling.

Since owning the phone I have become a fan on facebook and had a good few tips on there on operating the phone.

Overall this phone is packed with features and I think it will last me a long long time!!