Unless you’ve been firmly planted underneath a rock, you’ll know that the Apple iPhone 4 is finally here.

We’ve already compared the new Apple phone to the HTC DESIRE so now we’re here to compare it to an equally powerful smartphone: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The Xperia X10 has been hugely popular amongst smartphone fans, but can it possibly keep up with Apple’s new iPhone?

So without further ado, let’s start the comparison:

BUY AN iPHONE 4 ON ORANGE – FROM £25 PER MONTH

BUY AN XPERIA X10 WITH 13 MONTHS HALF PRICE AT £25 PER MONTH

Dimensions

Winner: iPhone 4
115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm, 137g

Loser: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
119 x 63 x 13 mm, 135g

The iPhone 4 might be very slightly heavier than the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 but is considerably thinner which makes sense considering its the world’s smallest smartphone. The Xperia X10 however has a humongous 4″ touchscreen and so we’d rather have a thinner, smaller phone rather than a larger, fatter phone – 2 grams extra in weight can’t take away from that.

Display

Winner: iPhone 4
3.5″, 960 x 640, TFT-LCD

Loser: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
4″, 854 x 480, WVGA

The iPhone 4 screen has an amazingly vivid retina display which kills the Xperia X10 for pixel count and resolution. Whilst WVGA is optimised to support wide video displays and a larger screen, that can’t quite make up for iPhone 4′s super-cool retina display.

Engine Room

Winner: iPhone 4
Apple A4 CPU, 512MB RAM

Loser: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Snapdragon CPU, 384MB RAM

Both smartphones perform well under the hood. But though the A4 Chip runs at the same 1GHz CPU as the Xperia X10′s Snapdragon processor, the Xperia X10 will let you down in the RAM department.

Battery

Winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
8 hours 3G calling, 425 hours standby

Loser: iPhone 4
7 hours 3G calling, 300 hours standby

iPhone 4′s battery life which is 16% more than the 3GS doesn’t really bring the smartphone up to the standard of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The X10 wins in both 3G calling and standby battery life categories.

Imaging

Winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
8.1MP, AF, Flash, 720p video capture

Loser: iPhone 4
5MP, Flash, AF, 720p video capture

This one is a no-brainer. The Xperia X10 is THE camera-phone of the smartphone world. We didn’t even have time to list all the features the Xperia X10 has such as smile detection but let me tell you, if you want great pictures choose the Xperia X10. As for video shooting both phones shoot in HD, so no contest there. iPhone might have iMovies video editing software but that doesn’t make up for the lesser camera.

Storage

Winner: iPhone 4
32GB

Loser: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
1GB + expandable up to 32GB

You would have thought we such photographic qualities the Xperia X10 would have more storage, but no, the iPhone 4 wins by a mile here. You can expand to 32GB by a MicroSD card but that won’t beat 32GB of internal memory.

Software

Winner: iPhone 4
iOS 4

Loser: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Android 1.6

This would have been much harder to judge had Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 had the latest version of Android, as it stands the X10 is left stranded in the past as the iPhone 4 wins this one.

Mapping

Winner: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
Google Maps for Navigation (UK and US only)

Loser: iPhone 4
Nav apps, but nothing on board

Google Maps for turn-by-turn navigation or pay for an app that does the same on the iPhone 4? Xperia X10 hands down here.

Price

Winner: iPhone 4

Loser: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

The pricey iPhone 4 comes at a more affordable price this time, ranging from just $199. As were the Xperia X10 comes in with a hefty price tag of £459.99.

Conclusions

iPhone 4 wins here, succeeding in 6 categories over the Xperia X10′s 3 wins. They didn’t tie in any categories. It’s fairly simple really if you want a massively powerful phone, either of these will do… But if you want one with a super camera than the Xperia X10 is for you. But if you want the next best thing, than that’s the iPhone 4 for you.

BUY AN iPHONE 4 ON ORANGE – FROM £25 PER MONTH

BUY AN XPERIA X10 WITH 13 MONTHS HALF PRICE AT £25 PER MONTH