The 2nd eXperience of the Xperia

It's been almost a year since the XPERIA X1 was launched and Sony Ericsson has decided that it's time to showcase its successor, the X2. When news of the X1 was first unveiled at last year's Mobile World Congress, the tech community was wowed by the Windows Mobile handset as a whole. Sadly, by the time the X1 finally landed in retail, most techies such as ourselves lost interest in the X1 as other sleeker and better handsets came and blew us away. Still, the X1 did prove to be a reasonably handy QWERTY Windows Mobile handset.

This time around, Sony Ericsson did the smart thing by not revealing much about the X2. Now that we managed to snag a prototype set from Sony Ericsson and had the chance to play with it, we have to admit that Sony Ericsson has finally redeemed themselves in our books.

Slick lines and a deceptively thin-looking body design had been key talking-points about the original X1, so it's little surprise that this design formula has been replicated in the X2. The X2 boasts a slimmer girth as compared to other touchscreen phones. Heavy SMS users will appreciate the slide-out QWERTY keyboard that lets you type out emails easily - more comfortably than on the X1. The 3.2-inch screen also lets you enjoy watching videos and movies better.

If you have been waiting with bated breath for news of the phone's features, be glad to know that X2 comes equipped with an 8.1-megapixel camera, 13 pre-loaded "Xperia panels" in its reworked Windows Mobile 6.5 skin. To learn more about the panels, be sure to check out the video above.

A multimedia-centric device, this darling meets all the needs of those who like to watch videos, capture images or plug in to some music. What's great is that all these impressive features come packed in a small and lightweight package. Stay tuned for a full assessment at www.hardwarezone.com when the final retail unit makes its way to our lab later this year. Till then, let's hope the X2 manages to roll out in time and still keep us impressed.