There are lots of smartphones vying for our attention right now, but despite the underwhelming nature of its improvements, Windows Phone is generating some interesting handsets. The latest is Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X2 – the follow up to the distinctly average X1 we reviewed last year – and we had our first chance to play with one at the launch event last night.

As you can see from the picture, it’s a very similar handset to the X1, boasting a sliding hardware Qwerty keyboard, and an ingenious mechanism that kicks the screen up at an angle so it’s more comfortable to view while typing. It does so with a satisfying snap, too.

There are differences, however. The phone is much slimmer than the X1, looks less angular and feels much lighter in the hand too. It’s much more of a convincing phone than the X1 was.

As it’s a Windows Phone handset, it’s hardly surprising to find that the X2 boasts a resistive rather than a capacitive touchscreen. That’s disappointing, but there are some factors that may compensate. The resolution of the 3.2in screen is extremely high – 800 x 480 – promising comfortable web browsing with the onboard Internet Explorer browser.

The keyboard feels a lot less fiddly than last time too. Each key seems broader, and the click feels more distinct too. And to aid navigation, the X2 also comes equipped with a small thumb-sized touchpad below the screen.

The X2, as with most Windows Phones we’ve seen so far, has replaced the standard Microsoft home screen with its own, which combines weather, clock message notifications and calendar information.

Underneath this, Sony Ericsson is persisting with its 3D panel interface, and its selection of mismatched alternative interfaces. We found this confusing last year and slow too. It seemed a little nippier in the X2 but it remains to be seen if it works any better.

One standout feature is the 8.1-megapixel camera – one of the highest resolutions we’ve seen on a smartphone to date – and this boasts autofocus, LED flash, touch focus and image stabilisation.

Video shooting, meanwhile, runs to 800 x 480 footage at 25fps. Again those are impressive numbers, as you might expect from a firm famed for its consumer camera phones.

Needless to say the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 also boasts a full armoury of smartphone weaponry too. Data connectivity includes HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1. There’s also GPS, naturally, for use with the preloaded Google Maps, and a 3.5mm headphone socket.

The Xperia X2 is set to launch exclusively with Vodafone before the end of the year. And as soon as we get our hands on a sample we’ll post a full review.