Tap to unmute
HTC Designed & Built The First Xperia Phone
Embed
- Published on Apr 18, 2026
- Xperia, born in 2008. Sony Ericsson launched their first Xperia model, the X1. Behind the scenes is an HTC phone running Windows Mobile 6.1. What kind of phone is this?
XDA Xperia X1 Forums
xdaforums.com/...
Who is Johnny X?
/ @whoisjohnnyx
Follow Janus Cycle on Instagram, Reddit, or X.
/ januscycle
/ januscycle
x.com/JanusCycle
Help support this channel with Memberships or SuperThanks on RUclips.
Or on Patreon: / januscycle
Discuss your favourite technologies and devices with us on Discord
/ discord
Donate: bc1quvkrehl83amfs0w4w26x5ulj8rx7rmpeunkyr7
Music:
Proper Disco - 2015 - Released 21 July 2018
4th in the Edison 2018 Streaming Music competition
Dreamstate Logic:
Code of Existence
Latent Images
Distortions of the Past
/ @dreamstatelogic
![BEBESHITO ❌ REY TONY & HELABUSADOR - Sin Pena 😈 (Prod. Dj Honda) [Video by Yoa N Dany] #Repaton](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9RyYblhkrqY/mqdefault.jpg)
Call me a boomer, but phones of the past were so much more interesting.
Not to mention every one had different looking phones and people know which phone was theirs when you put a bunch of them on a table
Boomer
Interesting and janky AF
Phone designs back then was crazy
Now? Similar, to the point that someone should mandate plain packaging (like Australian cigarettes) to phone package, because they're the same anyway
I love both worlds. Yeah phones were interesting but we had plenty of time to enjoy it and i personlally dont need that anymore. Need fast performance and versatility, let it just be a rectangle, it works just as required
10:54 XDA Frorums are a treasure and should be in an "Internet hall of fame" to be protected forever 😊
You're a wealth of knowledge mate, i would never attempt to flash any phone, i would definitely brick it. I've got nothing intelligent to say except i'm always impressed with your knowledge and capabilities.
Yea, but a lot of the links at the time used rapidshare which closed about 10years ago...
My xperia, samsung s5, lenovo Z2 and Zenfone 5 should be forever be proud of XDA..
yeah i always run into the same problem he ran into in this video where the links to old rom downloads are all broken :\ i had several custom rooted phones and tablets that i could no longer even restore, although mostly because i didnt want to spend THAT much time trying to go back 15 years in my brains' cobwebs
@thisislilraskal You never try, you never know. Guides on flashing are often well documented, so it's not as complicated as you think, as long as you follow the steps.
I've done some fair share of flashing back in the day, and the whole process always had the thought that it will go wrong and bricking my device as well.
Oh, that cyanogen boot screen brings back good memories of fiddling with X8 back in high school. Good times
Same! Black X8 with sadly the Synaptics touch sensor (so it couldn't do true dual touch like the Cyrpress models could), 2.3 brought so much life back to the device on a time when they evolved at insane speeds and stuff got outdated months after hitting the shelves.
One of the coolest things it added was filming in proper MP4 files with AAC audio instead of that AMR atrocious audio it originally recorded (3gp files).
@Kalvinjj
There was a proper dual touch model? Neat. Ihave fond memories of early, yet advenced android games, like Hawx port or raging thunder 2.
Yea, clockwork mod man. TWRP became so prevalent that clockwork and cyanogen were names I hadn't heard in a long time.
X10 Mini pro and Xperia Mini Pro both modded with cyanogen android was the best. And unlock nultitouch!
It is surprising, but the world cannot afford to lose the XDA Forums. There is so much there to get devices running that if lost it only from the manufacturers that things can be saved, and we know how generous they can be with old tech😑
I hope XDA have good backups there is so much history there. Fantastic video mate!
Someone could maybe upload various ROMs to internet archive. At least, weed out the malware ones. There was quite a bit of that going around on XDA.
No they even wiped old attachments etc recently
The problem with xda is a lot of the actual roms and mods were hosted elsewhere for download and just linked in the forum thread. There are a lot of dead links there.
HTC HD2 is a pure legend, having the possibility of dual or triple boot, still having this phone. Open bootloader and released sources give lots of possibilities.
The HD2 has so many modding possibilities I actually find it daunting.
I got one and have it flashed with Android 4. Had it as an daily driver but its too old now to keep up.
i bought a used htc hd2 but it wouldn't turn on, i tried opening it but sadly i couldn't fix it 😔
@JanusCycle for me best option was Tytung's KitKat version for Android, booting via microSD, this version had full acceleration build in, only downside I got was lack of WiFi hot spot, but fixed via third-party option. But I don't remember the Windows Mobile 7 or Windows Phone 7? Had the option to record in 720p, Android had only standard resolutions. Unfortunately the phone is old and has problems with nand corruptions, Windows as I remember should be flashed to nand, Android has more possibilities to boot from different sources.
@JanusCycleHD2 has mainline Linux 6.13 ported by me and some others even.
We have efforts going on to make it run windows phone 8 and windows rt once again but this time all code is publicly available.
I still think CyanogenMod 7 is the peak of Android based systems
I have the same opinion, loved it so much on the Galaxy Mini.
I used it on my Galaxy S3. I think the pebble shape, blue color and colorful Super AMOLED is still unmatched
Rocking a Fujitsu laptop too. This guy knows what good tech is
Quite a common one among teachers in my school back in 2008 also
I really wanted this phone but it never came out in Japan. Thank you for reviewing this you’ve made my day.
You certainly did a lot of research and work to get this phone working with android. Not easy. Good work. I really miss having a tactile keyboard like this one.
This is a phone from an era when smartphones used to have personalities and showcased the user's taste.
Even with all its limitations this is still one of the best phones i ever had.
the 2008-13 mobile phone market is so fascinating. i wish i could get a modern device with a slide out keyboard and a smaller screen.
I ACTUALLY HAVE THIS PHONE!
Love guys that repair and preserve great old tech devices like this 😊
18:58 Xperience.
looks like one of those devices from a post apocalyptic movie
Cyanogen wow not seen that bootscreen in years ❤️
When phone were fun.
6:24 This is what I like sometimes about old tech, when the calendar showing its last dates or resets itself, it make me feels the device is frozen in time.
11:48 Sony Xperia : " They sent you to hack me ? "
Janus Cycle : " Yeah " 🎉
This was one of my dream phones from when I was a kid.
6:50 it’s heavy and solid in the hand.. that’s what she sayd
6:00 Cool scene, it looks like it's transparent :D
It's so fascinating to see, that despite this phone being 15 yrs old, it still has a dedicated community up and running to this day... You'd appreciate how much care and passion was put into keeping this device alive ❤️ Props to everyone behind its undying efforts. esp. XDA Forums.
Give it middle of the road specs and id pay good money for a phone like that today. Thank you for showcasing this piece of history with care. The way you conduct these videos has always been my favorite in the genre.
F(x)tec Pro1X
Weird smartphone era was the best
3:01 the back shows it was sold on 2008/07/10 and was sold under the carrier Taiwan Mobile
Why is there motorola sticker too? Maybe because of a patent?
@williambbq Nah, next to the symbol was just the store's name, so presumably it was a partnered store
@reinmeiker9024 ah, cool
Probably explains why the Windows Mobile is originally in Traditional Chinese
5:52 "Missing SIM card. If your telco/carrier still offers support, you still can make emergency calls."
8:08 "Sound effect amplifier: Sound effect amplifier works only when ear/headphones are plugged into this device. Plug in earphones & choose 'Retry' to continue."
8:22 Besides showing the battery level, the checkbox translates as "When this device is on, do not charge it when connected to a PC"
8:25 "Auto-adjust backlighting"
8:27 "When using battery/external power: If idle for longer than the time shown below 30s/1min, off night illumination. Auto-off device if idle for longer than 1min/30s."
8:31 "The last time this device was fully charged: Unable to tell. Since the time this device was fully charged, idle for 0h0min, call duration 0h0min, device usage duration 0h0min"
I had this phone. One of my favorite phones I ever used.
HTC also built the first Google phone
Good old phone!
Wow that rapidshare screenshot gave me flashbacks hahaha
This was my first proper smartphone. I was just 13 years old. It felt like owning a supercomputer in your pocket. I remember digging through XDA and upgrading it to 6.5 as well - you could say it was a sign of things to come.
Plot twist: The same guy dissembled 1 phone into all different parts and sold them for 5x money.
throwback to the time when phones used to be so much fun!
damn that's a throwback. traded my n95 for a x1 back in 2010.
I remember this phone. I was my dream phone as a teenager
It's absolutely beautiful
My dad has one before and omg i still remember how the gps sounds lol
"stainless steal helps with flux dispersal"
laughed, subtle.
This brings me back to the days I put many custom roms on my htc desire. Thanks for the great video!
I still have mine, Xperia Arc was another great design.
Beautiful era of HTC design. The HTC Vision was built very similarly.
I still have mine, everything works, the keyboard, screen, pen on the side, and complete with the outer box, no scratches on screen like these examples.
my first xperia smartphone ❤
She’s a beauty!! ❤ I love that installing the android bootloader looks like a straight hacking scene from a nineties action flick 😂 great job 👏
I loved owning this one
14:47 holy heck Zenonia. I played the heck out of that game and totally forgot about it!
This video brings me back to my childhood.
I had HTC Diamond 1 and damn, at that time, tried all operating systems on it.. and it worked flawless.. I miss those times...
I wish a manufacturer would make a design similar to this with modern internals. Every phone is so similar now, there's basically no options for people who want a tactile keyboard.
No way you did this phone. I had it but some of keys were gone and I don't have the battery
It's good to see beautiful phone like this in action
6:56
I see what you did there, Dr. Brown.
Awe I miss htc. I remember around that time I was dying to get my hands on the htc dream
Oh that was one of my favourites. It's still hidden somewhere in my basement.
Back then I tried so many different operating systems, so it's nice seeing it in stock form again.
It's been a long road, getting from there to here
Before the iPhone and Blackberry, this is one of the most expensive phone.
I wanted this so bad when it first came out. There was nothing else like it.
I had this crazy phone with Windows mobile 6.1
19:47 looks like my HTC Touch Diamond; that was my first real smartphone
07:45 On a separate note, by the time X1 got out android has been around already. For about a week. HTC Dream was built on it. Granted, it was pretty much in POS kind of state, nowhere near WM quality-wise. On the other hand, WM deserves so much more love than it gets. It was HTC yet again that is responsible for the tweaks that used to make WM waaaay more usable than it was originally made by MS. Seriously, HTC is like a Nokla no matter how you slice it: both used to be a highly innovative, user-friendly locomotives, both end up selling to even huger corps only for their legacy to be burried somewhere where no no light shine, so we could drown in numb conformity where no one dares to have more than a three mechanical buttons on their phone or, God forbid, a stainless steel panel, sliding on a curvy rails. I know, I can't stop yelling at the cloud.
This was peak smartphone system, soon after that most phones went glass sandwich slabs.
Wow yeah that display is absolutely gorgeous, especially for the era. I really miss interesting phones 😢
This is so much more nostalgic for me than any iPhone or Nokia review. Gosh I was so rough with my Sony I was like 14 or 15. Homeless at one point too. I did my school work on it. I did everything. It had amazing battery. I just remember it always being my reliable workhorse haha.
One of my dream phone aside Samsung innov8 😍❤️
This was a fantastic device in theory. Tons of workflows that we take for granted today were on this device. And it was beautiful
Is it just me or what..his voice over feels like watching national geographic..
I remember choosing between HTC Touch Pro and this Xperia back then. I remember even then these Xperias being rather delicate but I absolutely loved the design then and still do! Such a beauty
These phones vere peak style
Wow I didn’t know it’s designed and built by HTC. sony Ericsson’s UI animations was really amazing
The HTC Dream came out about a month before the XPERIA X1 ...
man I loved this phone
phones like this feel like there making fun of me for not being able to ever use them as a daily because all the networks are shutdown
I do own a xperia x1 it still works
I remember having this phone. I even got Android working on it
Virtual keyboard indeed destroyed a lot of fun. Now all phones are the same right now
I remember playing that version of Asphalt on my HTC HD2 back in 2010. I can't belive that was 15 years ago. Mine had no scaling issues and the screen resolution was fhe same.
Still have this one.laying in the attic somewhere
Watching from my
Experia 1 iii
i was a mega fan of sony ericssons pre smart phones --- i loved them!
Had the X1 back in 2008-2009. It was a decent phone with a great design, but was completely blown out of the water by the first proper Android phones.
I used to have this phone it was brilliant phone in it's day
هذا اول جوال لمس اخذته كنت اشوفه فخم بشكل
What a times!
when the phone are really yours and you can flash what ever you wan't.
OMG i saw 台灣大哥大 and 台灣製造😂😂
This makes me feel such a sense of belonging
Man I miss zenonia. The second one with the gun girl was the best
i had this phone, it was great
the level of nostalgia ❤
I have 2 of these. One in black one in silver. Both fully work and are in decent condition. Both were free!
Had the X10 Pro version, and to date, it was by far the best phone I had, never missed a beat.
This is giving me htc touch pro vibes
I still have one still works too
Thanks. This brought up old memories..
HTC even did PDAs for Compaq in early 2000s. It is not as pronounced as later HTC devices, but if you open it up there will be a custom HTC chip. Bootloader was not so friendly though, it just displays a parrot... I'm not kidding :)
Yep, the original ipaq, I drooled when they first showed doom running on that phone. The transflective display, wow. I still have a couple of them in boxes somewhere :)
@cyclerical It's even earlier.. the HP/Compaq Aero series.
One of the best phones I had. It also had an Android 1.6 Port on it 😁
nostalgic vibes
My late father also have almost the same device from Nokia... He use to taping for his report as news paper reporter
when I see these xperia windows phones I definitely remember "Xtrakt" the ONE game that should everyone play it
I had this phone in grade 8. I did school assignments on it and got an A for one of those documents I wrote on it lol!!!!
Ending Windows Mobile and creating windows phone was the worst mistake Microsoft ever made. They were basically Android years before android, and we would have had complete integration with windows PC by now. Instead they killed it, then they managed to kill Nokia, then they failed at making android phones too.
Microsoft has done nothing but upset me since 7 and I was late to adopt it... I was happy with vista
Hubris manifest, they tossed away billions.
the biggest problem with windows mobile is background power draw and instability. eventually it did need to be killed. would've been cool if they put an emulator into windows phone though.
I have games that I own for Windows Phone 7 that I will never be able to play again because of Microsoft's mobile missteps.
It's Microsoft. If they can mess something up, they will and usually in the most catastrophic possible way.
The metallic keyboard makes this look so much like a phone version of the OQO model 02