Last spring, a Handango newsletter indicated Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1, one of the most anticipated Microsoft-run smartphones in some time, would ship in mid September. Recent rumors place the due date for smartphone as a little latter than that, however. According to these reports, Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile device won't become available until early October.

The X1 is major change of pace for Sony Ericsson, as it usually builds smartphones on the Symbian OS and its own UIQ platform. It sports a unique arc slider design, so when you slide up its high-resolution 3-inch, WVGA (840 x 480-pixel) touch screen, a wide QWERTY thumb-keyboard is revealed. It'll run on Windows Mobile 6.1.

Windows Mobile 6.1 includes a number of enhancements over 6.0, particularly regarding the user experience but also under the hood. Improvements include new time-saving features, such as one-tap Bluetooth and Wi-Fi access, easier phone navigation and management, increased security safeguards, threaded SMS, and a new look to the today screen.

Like HTC with the Touch and some other smartphone vendors, Sony Ericsson is grafting a proprietary user interface on top of Windows Mobile, to enhance usability. And, like the Touch, Sony Ericsson is using its customer interface as an opportunity to bring some iPhone-like functionality to the X1's touch display.

Below are a few pictures we took of the X1 during our short hands-on with the smartphone at last spring's CTIA show.

As a quad-band GSM phone, you'll be able to use the smartphone to make voice calls in most world markets. It supports 3G cellular-wireless data networking in many countries as well.

There's also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS for location-based services, FM receiver and 3.2 megapixel camera for picture and video.

A microSD slot is available to compliment the X1's 400MB of internal memory with gigabytes of additional storage.

The smartphone measures 4.3 x 2.1 x 0.66 inches (110 x 53 x 16.7 millimeters) and weighs in at 5.1 ounces (145 grams).

Sony Ericsson is giving operators a chance to build custom touch panels for the that run on the X1 through its touch interface, thereby giving users better access to each operator's specific set of applications and services.

See next page for a comprehensive list of the X1's specifications.