Oh, that’s unfortunate. I’ve been eyeing this device since it was announced and have always thought the keyboard looked phenomenal. BGR is reporting, however, that the keyboard on the XPERIA X1 device is a “major flaw” – that’d definitely be a deal-breaker for more than a few people, myself included.
Not to say that this keyboard is absolutely terrible, but it’s one of the worst. Think Sony UX computer, for those of you that have one or have used one. The sliding mechanism comes right on top of the keys, and thus, the keys don’t travel a lot when pressed. They give little to no feedback despite having a cool triangular design.
Aside from the keyboard, everything else appears to be pretty delightful. The 800×480 screen would make surfing the web and watching movies on this thing much more palatable. The device that BGR got ahold of is only a pre-production unit, so “the software runs a little slow,” but the XPERIA still seems to perform admirably and should only improve with the final version. I don’t suppose that Sony-Ericsson is going to revamp the keyboard before the rumored September launch, though.