At the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, Sony Ericsson unveiled the XPERIA X1, a Windows Mobile Professional phone that it plans to launch later this year.

The X1 is an impressive device, featuring a big, clear WVGA (480×800) display, a speedy 520MHz ARM11 processor, a 3.2MP camera, GPS, WiFi, a rather slick-looking “arc” slider keyboard, and what appears to be a custom, touch-friendly UI on top of WM 6.1. A big step up from my HTC Wizard (T-Mobile MDA), to say the least!

But what really caught my eye is the fact that the X1 will support UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA data on the 850/1700/1900/2100MHz bands. That’s right - the 1700MHz band is on the list, which means the X1 should blaze through on T-Mobile’s upcoming U.S. 3G network when it’s enabled this year.

No word on pricing yet, but I’m hoping that carrier subsidies will make this thing reasonably affordable, and that T-Mobile will grab this as soon as it lands. This could very well be my long-awaited step up from the Wizard. :)

Last December, I wrote about the initial release of Live Search for Mobile, Microsoft’s mapping and local search application for mobile phones. As noted in the post, Google only had a slow Java-based client for Windows Mobile devices at the time. Earlier this year, however, a native Windows Mobile version of Google Maps was released, which was a huge improvement over its rather unimpressive predecessor.

Last week, Microsoft improved its offering with the second version of Live Search for Mobile. The update improves performance with better caching, includes user reviews for local search results, and improves upon the GPS navigation features. The most noticeable change, however, is the addition of movie showtimes, powered by data from AMG.

Just like other local search results, movie theater listings can be viewed as a simple, text-only list, or as overlays on a map. Users are given a choice to select either a specific movie to see which theaters are showing it, or a specific local theater to see which movies are playing there. As shown in the screenshot above, the application displays movie showtimes, as well as the address and phone number of the theater so that you can call or get directions in just a couple of clicks. Also included is the option to SMS this information to your friends (with full phonebook integration), which is very convenient.

All in all, a welcome update to a great mobile application.

Engadget has posted what I would consider to be the most comprehensive and balanced review of the iPhone I have seen on the web so far (and believe me, I’ve read lots of them during the last week). If you have any interest in the iPhone at all, you owe it to yourself to go through this three-part piece that examines just about every aspect of the device’s design and functionality.

I, myself, visited the local Apple store this weekend, where I had a chance to briefly play around with an iPhone demo unit. I was going to publish a rather detailed post with my thoughts, but now there isn’t really much I can add here that isn’t already in the aforementioned review; in fact, I found myself agreeing with almost everything in there.

What I will say is that I think the device met the expectations that I had for it going in. For better or for worse, I’ve always been more of a functionality-over-form kind of person, so while I really do believe that the iPhone is a beautiful piece of engineering with the slickest UI I’ve seen on a mobile device yet, I simply can’t ignore all the shortcomings like many others can. I could live with a software keyboard if I had to, and I could give up 3G for a slower EDGE connection too, but there’s still so much missing from the iPhone that we have come to take for granted on our Symbian, Windows Mobile and Blackberry smartphones.

If I had to sum up my thoughts in one sentence, I’d say the iPhone is a fantastic iPod, a great mobile browsing unit, a decent phone, and a rather poor productivity device, but one that brings them all together in a refreshingly appealing way.

What do you think?

Related Posts: Apple iPhone: Not Quite Flawless…

Last week, I received an email from WOM World, offering to send me a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet as a review unit. The N800 is not a phone; it’s an ultra-mobile device that runs a custom flavor of Linux based on Debian.

DHL delivered the package yesterday, so I now have two weeks to put it through its paces. I’ll note down my observations and experiences with it during that time, and will hopefully have a review ready by the end of it.

For now, all I can say is, I’m pretty impressed by the design - it’s slim and lightweight, and at the same time, it feels solid and well-built. It’ll be interesting to see how functional it is, and how it can fit into the lifestyles of those who already have laptops/tablets and smartphones.

If you’d like me to try out some feature in particular, have any questions, or can recommend any fun and useful third-party apps, please drop me a comment.