Apple iPhone vs. Sony Xperia X1

VS.

Sony Ericsson's latest effort to oust smartphone king Apple and its "inimitable" iPhone is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

The internal hardware of the Xperia X1 is impressive, no doubt - with a 520 MHz Qualcomm chipset, as compared against the iPhone's which, while possessing 667 MHz capabilities, only currently achieves speeds of 500 MHz.

The Xperia X1's broadband data access is far superior to the iPhone's, pitting its Sony Ericsson HSDPA/HSUPA against AT&T's meager EDGE network. Even with the iPhone's new 3G connectivity, it still can't compete with the Xperia in terms of high-speed internet access - even if both devices do have WiFi capabilities.

But the Xperia's operating system, Windows Mobile, still struggles to match up with Apple's sweepingly popular Mac mobile OS. And despite Sony Ericsson's valiant efforts to mimic some of the iPhone OS's best qualities - like shortcut tiles - it still only rates as an iPhone copycat at best weighted down by Windows Mobile's trademarked clunkiness.

That also means, going back to internet access for a moment, that iPhone users will enjoy the beloved Safari browser mobile interface while Xperia X1 users will be stuck with the user-unfriendly Internet Explorer.

As for the devices' displays, it's a split race: the iPhone has a 3.5" screen to the Xperia X1's 3 inches, but the Xperia X1 has 800 x 400 resolution to the iPhone's 320 x 480. But then again, the iPhone display supports 16 million colors while the Xperia X1 only supports 65,000 colors.

Then there's the fact that the iPhone can shift between landscape and portrait views automatically when rotated while the Xperia X1 cannot. The iPhone also has a proximity sensor that shuts off the display screen when you hold the device up to your ear while the Xperia does not.

The Sony Ericsson offering can't compete, however, on internal memory capacity, possessing only 400 MB out of the box to the iPhone's selection of 8 GB and 16 GB. As a caveat, though, the Xperia X1's internal memory can be expanded via a MicroSD card slot while the iPhone's cannot.

The Xperia X1 has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen version while the iPhone only has a touchscreen keyboard.

The digital camera on the Xperia X1 is 3.2 megapixels while the iPhone's is only 2.0 megapixels. Both devices enjoy GPS capabilities with GoogleMaps access, push email through Microsoft Exchange, and IM capabilities (AIM for the iPhone, Windows Live for the Xperia).

But the Xperia X1 has a replaceable battery, MMS capabilities, video calling and video capture, and editable access to Microsoft Office docs whereas the iPhone does not (its MS Office access is readable only).

The biggest difference between the Xperia X1 and the iPhone 3G, though, is that the iPhone 3G is already out on the market, while the Sony Ericsson effort isn't scheduled for release until later in the year. That's when the true test of its mettle will come.