T-Mobile lines up HTC Desire and Sony Ericsson X10

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T-Mobile has delivered an Android double-whammy by officially starting to take orders for both the HTC Desire and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The network will start shipping both phones on Friday, but early adopters can make sure they don't miss out by pre-ordering today, though T-Mobile anticipates delivery times of seven days for the Desire and 10 days for the X10.

The X10 is Sony Ericsson's first stab at using Google's mobile platform, and is now available free on deals starting at £35 per month over two years. For that you get 900 free minutes, 500 texts and unlimited internet.

However, if you're willing to fork out £226 up front you can bring that right down to just £10 per month, although you'll also have to put up with just 100 minutes of calls and 100 texts – though you still get unlimited online access.

Indeed, such a limited deal seems out of place for the X10, a smartphone that certainly doesn't pull any punches. A massive 4in capacitive touchscreen sets the tone, complete with 854 x 480-pixel resolution, making it officially the biggest Android phone thus far.

Interestingly, even the attractive-sounding £10-per-month T-Mobile offer still adds up to a total cost of ownership of £466, which is only a little below the £490 one-off price Play.com is charging to get the handset SIM-free.

The equally anticipated HTC Desire, meanwhile, is largely the same as the HTC-made Google Nexus One, featuring the same 3.7in capacitive touch screen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor and Android 2.1 OS. The main difference is that the Desire uses HTC’s own Sense interface over the top of Android.

Like with the X10, the cheapest way to get the Desire – which is exclusive to T-Mobile until next month – without paying anything up front is on a £35-per-month contract, though in this case you get 1,200 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited internet.

Similarly, T-Mobile is offering the same stripped-down £10-per-month deal for headline-grabbing purposes, though this time with an up front cost of just £164.

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