The next version of you

Remember when telephones were essentially for making telephone calls?

Those days are long gone. Your mobile phone rapidly became your portable office, and then it became your life in miniature. Your Mini-Me, only more attractive.

Imagine your horror if you should lose your phone. Even if you maintain backup files of all your contacts, schedules, tasks, important messages, photos, videos, music, and games, something is lost: your sense of privacy. Someone could be scrutinizing your life, reading your messages, checking out the list of everyone you know, and piecing together your most personal secrets. Your photos and videos could wind up on the Internet — I told you not to store explicit material in there — or on bootleg DVDs sold under a bridge, with lurid covers and “Scandal” in the title. A total stranger could discover that you, the death metal snob, have the complete Abba discography in your phone.

Then again, conspiracy theorists have long insisted that our phones are tapped, our computers monitored, and our lives under surveillance.

The technology for this certainly exists, although it may not even be necessary. Lots of people have no problem with exposing their entire lives on Facebook. As we put it so crunchily in Tagalog: Ang buong buhay nila ay nakabuyangyang sa Facebook.

What comes after the Mini-Me period in the evolution of the mobile phone? Sony Ericsson is betting that your phone will become The Next Version of You.

Consider the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. It’s a small phone, 5 cm wide, 10.5 cm long, and 1.5 cm thick. It has a larger screen than most phones its size. You move around the screen using the navigation key, which doubles as an optical joystick. If you prefer the touchscreen, you tap on an item with the stylus or with your finger. When surfing, you can open files, scroll, slide, and pan using the touchscreen. (You have to lock the screen when it’s not in use. My cat stepped on the phone once and activated the data connection.)

This phone is all about choices, and if you’re a person who can’t make up her mind (the sort who holds up the line at the movie theater because she has to call her boyfriend, her girlfriends, and her mom to pick the movie, the screening, and the chair she should sit in), you will have problems.

To enter text and characters, you can tap on the tiny keyboard at the bottom of the screen, which expands so you can use the stylus or your fingers (if they’re tiny). You can use the handwriting feature —  the Xperia has recognizer and transcriber features. If you’d rather type, you can slide out the keyboard, the sexiest detail in this gadget. The screen shifts from portrait to landscape views. The keys could be more responsive, but one gets used to them.

Text messages appear as conversations. The advantage of this arrangement is that you know exactly who had the last word during an argument, and you are less likely to send a message to the wrong person. (Especially if it’s the subject of the message. This happens a lot.)

You can “personalize” the appearance of any phone screen, but the Xperia takes those options further with its panels. Panels are active desktops that display the widgets for selected applications. The basic Sony Ericsson panel shows weather, date, temperature, clock, calendar, and the shortcut to messaging. The Slideshow panel displays all the pictures you have taken with the phone’s 3.2 megapixel camera. The Radio panel has six preset stations, volume control and fine tuning, while the Google panel enables search, maps, and Gmail.

If you’re in constant need of entertainment, try the 3D fish panel. It shows the date, time, and four swimming fish named Demekin, Rancyu, Wakin, and Ryukin. You can direct them by tapping on the screen. It’s like having your pets with you wherever you go, and you have to get to know them because their colors indicate the state of your phone.

Rancyu turns gold when there is an unread message; Ryukin appears when there is a missed call. Wakin turns silver when the phone’s sound is off, and when Demekin turns red you need to recharge the battery.

The phone comes with nine panels, and if that’s not enough you can download more. It’s equipped with Opera Mobile 9.5 for easier navigation and faster page loads.

Problems: It took me half an hour to open the battery cover to insert the SIM card. The back of the phone is smooth metal so my hands just kept sliding off. And then for some reason the battery level icon would not appear on the screen. I used the phone only for texting, calling, and the occasional surfing, but the battery required charging almost daily. Otherwise switching to the X1 was a breeze.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 is probably more fun than a phone should be —  Should a mobile phone really be more entertaining than its owner?

At the suggested retail price of P42,000, it’s like a personality upgrade.

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