Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Tips & Tricks

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Tips & Tricks
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So you’re the proud owner of a brand new shiny Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 phone. How can you get the most out of it? In this article I will go through some useful tips and tricks which will help you to maximise your phone’s potential and enjoy all of its many features.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Battery Life

Something that you may have noticed about this particular mobile phone is that it has quite a short battery life. The power seems to go down very rapidly which can be annoying, so here are some handy hints to increase the length of time you can go between charges. First it’s important not to have apps running in the background which will drain the power quickly even though you may not be aware that any apps are running at all. You can use a task killer app (like Advanced Task Killer or Start-up Auditor) to turn off any background apps. If you’re not in a 3G area then it’s a good idea to choose GSM only from the settings menu and you can also turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when they are not being used to lower the rate of battery consumption.

It’s also possible to adjust the brightness setting so you could put this to around halfway instead of using the automatic brightness. Lowering the frequency of Twitter and Facebook updates will maximize your juice, as will turning off automatic widget updates like weather forecasts. If you want to see exactly what’s using the battery the most you can download a power management app like Juice Defender or Juice Plotter which will show you a nice graph of power consumption. In any case you should find that your battery life increases after 4 or 5 full charges and using these tips will make it go even further.

Secret Menu

Xperia X10 Secret Service Menu

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has a secret menu which you can unlock using the following combination of buttons in sequence. In the lock screen simply press MENU, BACK, BACK, MENU, BACK, MENU, MENU, BACK. This will give you access to lots of functions within the secret menu.

Safe Mode and Full Screen Video

If you want a quick way to enter safe mode, reboot the phone and when it vibrates press the volume down key. To increase the speed of your mobile it’s a good idea to restart it after updates. If you enjoy watching videos on your phone then a cool feature is the ability to change the video to full screen mode by double tapping it while it is playing. This will stretch it to full screen without affecting the pixel ratio as long as the video is in the 16:9 ratio.

Root your Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

There is also a quick way to root your Xperia X10 which is useful for running root only apps like Titanium Back-up and also enables you to turn your phone into a wireless hotspot, using the Barnade Wi-Fi app, amongst other numerous benefits. Download and install Universal Androot and then it’s a case of just pressing the root button which takes all of the hassle out of the process.

TV and International Calls

If you want to watch live TV on your mobile you can download Beebplayer, which will also give you access to the BBC i-player. To get free international phone calls download the free Skype application and you can talk to your friends overseas for as long as you like without paying a penny.

More Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Tips

There are loads of ways to get more from your mobile and for a list of some of the best Android apps available right now see my article Top Ten Apps for Sony Ericsson Mobile Phones which lists apps including one to back up all your files and one that enables you to listen to FM radio. You can also increase the functionality by connecting your Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to your PC. For a guide on how to do this see Guide to Using the Sony Ericsson PC Suite.