Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 gets multi-touch

When the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 was released, and then upgraded to Android 2.1, it lacked multi-touch capability. Obviously it hasn't been a deal-breaker, but it has been a thorn in the side of X10 owners for some time. Sony Ericsson initially claimed that the hardware was incapable of multi-touch, but they are now announcing an OTA upgrade for their own abridged form of multi-touch in Q1 of 2011.

They are quick to explain that the X10 isn't optimized for multi-touch. Therefore, it will basically only have pinch-to-zoom capability. Sony Ericsson explains that "some brilliant engineers actually [were] able to change the driver and firmware for the touch digitizer to make some multi touch gestures work." Their multi-touch is a work in progress, and they only plan to enable it in the web browser and in Google Maps.

There is support in 3rd part apps, but you can expect some erratic behavior. For example, when the fingers cross each other on the X or Y axis, the X10 might react in a number of inaccurate ways. The video below shows multi-touch benchmarks, as well as their multi-touch solution working relatively well on Angry Birds. While we aren't exactly thrilled about such a partial solution, we commend them for heeding the customers' concerns.

source: Sony Ericsson via AndroidGuys