With Google's G1 and Nokia's 5800 just around the corner, Sony Ericsson is trying to grab a chunk of the growing smartphone market for itself.

The recently announced Xperia X1, the lovechild of Sony Ericsson and HTC, is available in Germany. Only a few retailers have it in stock at the moment, but others will follow suit within days, if not hours. Unlocked, the Xperia X1 will set you back €570 or more, depending on how greedy any particular retailer is.

If you're not keen on spending 500 euro on a phone in a single blow, you'll be able to get the Xperia under contract with O2, Vodafone, T-mobile and other telcos.

For comparison, an unlocked 3G iPhone in the 16GB flavor costs €650, Samsung's SGH-i900 16GB sells for €560, while HTC's Touch Pro and Touch HD sell for around €600.

The Xperia, however, offers some interesting features which set it apart from the competition. It packs a QWERTY keyboard, a 3-inch 800x480 touchscreen (by far the highest resolution in its class), FM radio, A-GPS, 3MP camera with flash and autofocus, and a rather interesting optical joystick. It runs a highly modified version of Windows Mobile 6.1.

You can get the Xperia here.