Unfortunately, hidden in a dark cave inside that wow is "one major flaw." Not a minor gripe or one of several little annoyances, mind you, but a single major flaw . . . the keyboard. BGR calls it "one of the worst" and to qualify the assessment, they compare it to the Sony Vaio UX keyboard, which is generally regarded as one of the worst thumboards ever made. Like the UX keyboard (photos below), the XPERIA X1 keys "don’t travel a lot when pressed . . . and give little to no feedback."
That’s certainly disappointing news. It isn’t deal-breaking (nothing would be, as I really want this phone), but I’m already making room at the top of my thumboard typing speed chart, which sadly lists touch-typing percentages from lowest to highest.