We take an in-depth look at the Xperia panels technology found in Sony Ericsson's new WinMo phone. Is this the future of Windows Mobile?
For the most part, the phone uses the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional user interface. However, the traditional Today Screen has been replaced by Xperia Panels, or more specifically a Panel Manager. The Panel Manager handles two types of panels: Native panels and Web panels.
Native panels are the most intriguing part, since they offer Java Micro Edition support and 3D graphics acceleration. The latter aims to ensure smooth graphics performance, but the 3D Fish panel, which was supposed to demonstrate the phone's graphical prowess, only proved there is still work to be done to take full advantage of the hardware. On the other hand, the Java ME support enables gaming houses like Electronic Arts to roll out gaming titles such as Need for Speed on a Windows Mobile-powered smartphone.
Sony Ericsson has also used native panels to allow users to customize their own home screen to some extent, as well as adding a Media Experience, similar to what we've seen on Sony Ericsson feature phones and Sony devices like the PlayStation Portable. However, we had expected to see Sony Ericsson take native panels in a more aggressive direction, where you for instance got a Walkman panel with a real Walkman player, a Cyber-shot panel and a Java gaming panel. It's easy to imagine how cool that would have been.
We had also hoped to see some serious integration of Google services on the phone, which would have been a nice addition to the already existing Windows Mobile functionality. However, the current Google panel consists of a search bar and a collection of bookmarks. Open the Calendar or Gmail icons, and the phone tosses you to Internet Explorer Mobile (unless you wisely make Opera your default browser first).
According to the Sony Ericsson SDK, there are several drawbacks to Xperia Panels when used on Windows Mobile. In short, don't expect to see any radical changes of Windows Mobile functionality coming out of this developer initiative, as you'll likely have to wait for future Microsoft updates in that regard.
For a full review of the Xperia X1, which is one of the most capable smartphones on the market, click here.
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