Background and Identification
The Sony Xperia X series is a line of flagship smartphones manufactured by Sony Mobile. The first phone in the series was the Xperia X1, released in 2008. The name Xperia is derived from the word “experience” and was first used in the Sony Xperia X1 slogan: “ I Xperia the best”.
The original Xperia X smartphone featured a high resolution display and was aimed to fill the gap between low end and high end smartphones. In 2010, Sony released the X10 as the first in the series to run on the Android operating system, as previous models ran on the Windows Mobile OS. The X10 was praised for its design but criticized for its use of Android 1.6 when competitors were using Android 2.1. The phone experienced delays in updates and lacked the “pinch to zoom” feature in its camera, but that was later added. The X10 was followed by miniature versions, the X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro, popular for their size as it was unmatched in the smartphone market.
After the X10, the Sony Xperia Z series continued the Xperia lineage until 2016, when Sony introduced the new Xperia X series to replace the Z series. The new series consisted of Android smartphones and included the Sony Xperia X, Xperia XA, and the Xperia X Performance. In 2017, Sony announced that it would discontinue its “premium standard” phones, below flagship premium models, including the Xperia X and X Compact. However, the flagship X Performance and XZ phones would continue, in addition to the XA1, XA1 Ultra, and the XZ1 and XZ1 compact.