Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

Published: 13 June 2010

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and HTC Desire are two of the most talked about (non-iPhone) smartphones in 2010.  But which one is best for you?

Styling - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

Both the Xperia X10 and the HTC Desire follow the current trend of black case and a huge touchscreen. The Xperia tends to look and feel a bit more plasticy than the Desire, which has a more robust metal casing. HTC Desire smartphone

Display - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

The screen on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is 0.3 inches larger than the Desire at 4 inches, with a 480x854 TFT touchscreen. Typing on the X10 could be simpler - the predictive text offers you loads of options, too many for some. The HTC Desire sports an AMOLED touchscreen with a similar 480x800 pixel count. The screen of the Desire is great when viewing internet, texting, menus etc, but the the AMOLED screen isn't as good for viewing photos and video. The Desire has an optical joystick, but most people appear to prefer the touchscreen when navigating. It can also be a bit too responsive, sending menus flying across the page.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 smartphone

User Interface - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

Both the Xperia X10 and HTC Desire are Android phones, but both have also created their own custom user interface. The home screen for all HTC phones uses their Sense UI.  This is based upon Android 2.1 and has features such as the Friend Stream App which allows integration of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. It would be good to view only one of these at once, but currently the Desire does not offer this option. The Xperias equivalent is the 'UX', consisting of 2 applications – Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is similar to the Friend Stream App of the Desire; messages, emails, facebook etc are all brought together, and using the 'Infinite' option, a single person's updates, messages can be brought together in one place. An issue with this is you can only view 5 words from each status and links from updates cannot be linked to. Mediascape does a similar job, but with music and movies. The updates for the Xperia X10 are not that frequent, once per hour for Facebook for example.

Battery Life - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

Because when you own a smartphone you'll be running loads of Apps, browsing the internet, texting and even making phone calls (!) battery life is very important. The Xperia X10 can offer up to 415 hours of 3G standby time, with 8 hours 3G talktime. However in practice some reviewers suggest that running Apps, bluetooth, wifi, auto brightness and calling friends would drain the phones battery in about 24 hours. It doesn't benefit from the lower battery drain that an AMOLED display provides, unlike the HTC Desire.  When tested in the same way as the Xperia X10, the Desire could last about 36 hours so it seemed to perform much more effectively. The manufacturers do claim however it can last up to 340 hours on standby and 6 hours 40 minutes talktime. In tests it has been found that the Desire got very warm, after approximately 45 minutes intensive use, which did cause problems with the wifi connection and error messages.

Compare the best Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 deals and HTC Desire deals with GadgetStylist's mobile deal comparison service.

Camera - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

Parent company Sony's expertise with digital cameras continues to filter through into the Sony Ericsson range of mobiles.  The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is one of the best specified cameras on a smartphone.  It packs a 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus, face detection, macro mode, nine 'scene' functions, auto scene adjustment and smile detection, making it one of the most comprehensive cameras on android phones. The X10 is possibly good enough to replace your compact camera.

The HTC Desire has a reasonable 5 megapixel camera and although good for capturing impulsive snaps when out and about and sticking them on social networking sites, it doesn't really offer the quality of the Xperia X10.  Images are however clean and sharp enough, assisted by brightness, saturation and sharpness controls. The LED light does not help night time images. It is, however, an improvement on other HTC phones.

Verdict - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 vs HTC Desire

If you want a smartphone that has an excellent camera, Android Operating System, a large screen for viewing video and photos and some nice widgets and features but battery life is not important to you the X10 could be the phone for you.  However Timescape is slow and the Android OS is an older, slower version than that on the Desire. The battery life is an issue, but one that can plague smartphones with their Apps, huge screens and high resolutions, but it is still probably better than the iPhone 3GS.

The HTC Desire has been better received in the tech and gadget press, although this may reflect the slightly nerdy leanings of those writers.  The Desire is arguably a better 'smartphone' in the eyes of the purist sense because it is a better version of Android OS, it has a longer battery life and arguably runs a bit faster.  The downsides are its looks, multimedia playback through the AMOLED screen and the camera but only in comparison to the Xperia X10.

So as so often when choosing between mobile phones it's different strokes for different folks - the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 if you want a great camera phone that also has most of the benefits of a smartphone or the HTC Desire if you're a smartphone purist who wants performance over style and multimedia functionality.

Compare the best Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 deals and HTC Desire deals with GadgetStylist's mobile deal comparison service.