Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

The Team at GadgetsBoy.co.uk have recently been busy working Playing with the all new Sony Erricson Experia Play – Dubbed the Playstation Phone. We was kindly given the phone curtousy of 3 Network so straight away we would like to thank www.three.co.uk for the opportunity to review the phone.

The Box
Jumping straight into things, starting with the box the whole packaging of the Xperia is nice. We are seeing more and more phone companies minimising packaging and therefore cramming everything into small box’s but I am pleased to see Sony haven’t done that. The box is sheltered by a clean, eye catching sleeve, behind that is the durable box that upon opening presents the ultra stylish high gloss black phone.

In The Box
Eventually when you have finished caressing your new phone and look for the accessories you find seated underneath the phones housing is a small batch of accessories including:

• Wall Charger with USB Connection
• Micro USB Cable for Wall & Cigarette Charger and Computer use
• 12V Car Cigarette Lighter charger with
• Sony Ericsson’s In ear – earphones.
• 1 x Screen Protector

In a separate compartment within the box you will find the manuals etc. Ours included a 3 Network Pay as You Go sim card (for review use), Sony Ericsson important information, Startup guide and some other small print booklet you will probably never read!

The Phone Spec UK
Taken directly from the three.co.uk website here is the full UK spec:

Battery life.

• Standby: 700 Hours
• Talk Time: 420 Minutes

Camera.

• Resolution: 5MP
• Flash Type: LED
• Video Camera
• Zoom: Digital

Size/Weight.

• Depth: 16mm
• Height: 119mm
• Width: 62mm
• Weight: 175g

Connectivity.

• Bluetooth
• Cable
• WLAN

Sound Formats.

• AAC
• AMR
• AU
• M4A
• MP3 ringtones
• MP3
• OggVorbis
• RealAudio
• WAV
• WMV

Network.

• FM Radio
• Band: Quad
• Java

Features.

• FM Radio
• GPS
• Java
• Loudspeaker
• Music Player
• Video Player
• Voice Dial
• WAP Browser

Memory.

• Slot: MicroSD
• Phone Memory: 400MB
• Card Max. Size: 32GBGB

Messaging.

• IM

 

Look And Feel
From the moment you pick the Xperia up you feel the true quality of the phone. The phone is considerably heavier than most phones on the market and this we mark as a bad point but as a plus side its not cheaply made to go with it. Then from the second you turn the phone on its side and slide up the screen to uncover the fantastically designed Playstation controls you instantly feel the urge to Play. In fact the first thing I did was switch the phone on and load up Crash Bandicoot where I sat playing for 2 – 2.5 hours before I even looked at the phone features!

Overall the 4″ TFT screen is a fantastic gaming screen, its bright, crystal clear and easy on the eye, playing games is a doddle. The general feel of the phone portrays quality and high durability, the sliding screen locks tight open or closed so it doesn’t feel loose and weak when using it as a phone or for gaming.

Whether holding the Xperia in your hand as a phone, Camera, or Portable Gaming device it seems Sony Ericsson have really given through to the ergonomics and adequately placed the right buttons in the right places resulting in the user instantly knowing exactly what to press and when to press it.

Software/Phone Usage

As the phone uses the increasingly popular Android software you can guarantee smooth transitions through the menus and screens, a master class of hundreds of thousands of Apps both free and paid and an intelligent collection of Google programs and services that make your phone the ultimate phone for business, pleasure, social or gaming. Couple all that with the fast mobile internet from three network and the inbuilt HSPA on the phone and you have the ultimate portable multimedia and gaming phone.

For those of you that are not familiar with the Android system, it seems standard practice for Android to pre-load there system with the majority of services and sites you use daily such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail etc and alongside that you have power of the Google Docs, and Quick Office which allows you to easily open, read, edit, save and create common files on the move from Word documents to Spreadsheets and more.

Gaming

At first we where worried that being a “Playstation Phone” Sony Ericsson would focus more on the gaming element than the phone and the result would be a brilliant gaming device and terrible phone. However its far from that, What Sony Ericsson have created is a portable gaming device that works in perfect harmony with the Android system to create a Phone and Gaming device that simultaneous work wonders.

The gaming engine on the phone is simply magnificent, For those of you that have ever played a PSP you will instantly notice they have lifted a lot of the element from the PSP and coupled it with an Android Phone, so gaming on the Xperia is fast, enjoyable and highly addictive.

Battery

So with all that gaming and Android Excellence the most important thing is the battery life right?! – Well fear not, Sony Ericsson like true champions have also worked on that and delivered a 700 hour battery life on standby and 420min talk time duration, but it gets better, due to how well Playstation’s portable gaming engine works you will not be half way through your favourite game and suddenly the battery dies. Unfortunately we didn’t record the exact length of time we gamed for on the phones full charge but we can vouch that it was definitely quite a few hours :).

Camera

With the latest phones getting more and more mega pixels and Sony Ericsson always being one of the main phone companies to load there phones with the highest pixel camera we where a little disappointed to see the Xperia only carries a 5mp camera, however compare that to the iPhone 4 which also only has 5mp and we realised we where just being greedy and spoilt by Sony’s previous generosity.

The Bad Stuff:

You knew it was coming! – These are just our personal opinions that others may find minor, but we feel the over all weight of the phone is a big let down, we feel the camera could be a little better especially now when we are seeing the new iPhone 4S packed with a 8mp camera and many of the HTC range with more than 5mp.

We also found although the screen is clear, excellent for gaming and the transitions are smooth, we couldn’t help comparing it to the excellent iPhone and HTC Desire HD screens which unfortunately proved a lot better than the Xperia.

Conclusion

All in all we feel if a portable gaming phone is what your after definately grab an Xperia. Without a doubt it will be at the forefront of the portable gaming world and will gain a steady lead. If you plan on using it for business or multimedia then maybe consider all your options.

Overall I would rate the phone 7 out of10.