Sony xperia slider. Sony s Playstation Phone STINKS At Pretty Much Everything Else REVIEW

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There was a time, not too long ago, when having the smallest phone was a mark of prestige for handset manufacturers. Then HTC came along and convinced us that 4.3-inch smartphones are actually pretty useful, closely followed by Samsung and its current postulation that 4.5 inches might be even better. Sony Ericsson isn’t exactly resisting this trend toward ever-larger touchscreen slabs, having delivered the 4.2-inch Xperia Arc earlier this year, but it also has something to offer to lovers of pretty, little things: the Xperia Mini and Xperia Mini Pro.

The pair of Mini Android phones differ only in the fact that the Xperia Mini Pro is equipped with a slide-out keyboard, which goes a long way to justifying its rather ample thickness. Having spent the better part of two weeks using it as my regular phone, I can say that the keyboard is by far its biggest strength, but there’s plenty more here to explore: a 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera with HD video capture, and all the joys of testing Android 2.3.3 on a frugal 480 x 320 screen resolution. Oh, and speaking of frugality, the Xperia Mini Pro can be had unlocked for a penny under £220 (360) right now, which is less than half the cost of your typical Android smartphone. Click past the break to see if that represents real value for your money.

Hardware / design

Of all the phones you’ve heard described as having a soap bar shape, the Mini Pro might be the one that adheres to that definition best. Its dimensions (92 x 53 x 18mm / 3.6 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches) seem to have come straight out of Tyler Durden’s guide to good soap making, though how suitable they are to a smartphone is debatable. In spite of being markedly narrower and shorter than its Android contemporaries, the Mini Pro’s bulkier derriere actually makes it less able than the competition. Whereas an Incredible S or an Optimus Black might slip into the of your tightest jeans, the Mini Pro demands quite a bit more room for comfort. Its 136-gram (4.8 ounces) weight is also a bit on the heavy side, meaning that you’ll rarely lapse into being unaware you have this phone somewhere about your body. That may be a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.

In terms of build materials, the Xperia Mini Pro is a highly impressive device. Nothing is particularly expensive, but the external components are well selected and put together flawlessly. Alignment between the two sliding portions of the phone is perfect and the spring-loaded slider exhibits no flexing or movement along an axis other than the one you want it moving along. The back cover is made of a satisfyingly thick soft-touch plastic, which has a bit of flexibility to it. You’ll have to work hard to leave any permanent markings on it, as it looks to be a durable and hardy shell. Opening the back of the Mini Pro is done with relative ease, and I was happy to find the microSD card slot sitting free of any battery-related impediments. That means you’ll be able to hot-swap storage cards without having to reboot the phone, a commonly underrated but occasionally invaluable feature. There’s also a nice tactile correspondence between the soft back and the keyboard’s buttons — the two surfaces have a similar texture, which really makes the handset feel like a holistic device.

The capacitive buttons work seamlessly with the touchscreen above them

A chrome frame interrupts the mostly black casing of the Mini Pro and marks the split between the two halves. The top compartment houses the 3-inch display, front-facing camera, proximity sensor, earpiece, and three (just three) Android buttons. A single glass surface covers almost the entire front; only the Home key and earpiece are separated out, with the Back and Menu keys being capacitive and sitting either side of the one physical button. Delineating the Home key in this fashion is a boon for usability, while the capacitive buttons work seamlessly with the touchscreen above them. On the whole, it’s a very well thought-out interface.

Keyboard

The lower half of the Mini Pro is home to the majority of the electronic goodies and the one crucial mechanical component, the keyboard. This won’t be true for everyone out there, but the Xperia Mini Pro has the best keyboard I’ve yet used on a smartphone. Layout is highly logical, key travel is sufficient, spacing is just about ideal, and the backlight is even and unintrusive. Comparing this to the pad available on the Xperia X10 Mini Pro, the forefather to the current device, you’ll find the same four rows, but the Mini Pro adds an eleventh column of keys and also improves on key positioning. The backspace button is now in the top right corner, the comma and period buttons frame the space bar, and the new room is exploited with the introduction of a four-directional keypad.

These improvements may appear slight, and the X10 Mini Pro already had a laudable keyboard, but the ultimate effect is that the Xperia Mini Pro has a sterling keyboard that can be favorably compared against pretty much anything out there. Even the roomier keypads on the likes of the myTouch 4G Slide or the Droid 3 don’t feel as natural and easy to type on. Among recent smartphones, only the Nokia E7 has a physical keyboard good enough to make me actually want to use it, but the problem with that handset was that you needed to be trained in how to open it properly. The quick and easy sliding mechanism on the Mini Pro puts the E7 and the sluggish slider that’s been the hallmark of Motorola’s Droid series to shame.

Display

A gentle sense of luxury pervades use of the Xperia Mini Pro. This is partially owing to the sumptuous feel of the rear cover and keypad and partially thanks to the single sheet of glass up front. What might go unnoticed here is that the black monolith look that the Mini Pro goes for wouldn’t work without the extremely dark grey that the screen reverts to when switched off. It’s still grey, not a pure black, but the effect for the user is that when images are displayed, they seem to be overlayed on a touch-sensitive slate, a sensation that’s enhanced by the capacitive buttons beneath the screen. A subtle little trick, this may be, but it enhances the user experience in a universal fashion.

Once turned on, the 3-inch screen itself is somewhat underwhelming. Colors can pop out brilliantly on occasion and usability in the sunlit outdoors is above average, but viewing angles are narrow and the backlight has a tendency to overwhelm the images put in front of it. It’s hard to see why Sony Ericsson is persisting with sub-par LCDs now that pretty much every other major phone maker — HTC, LG, Samsung, Apple, and Nokia — has figured out an affordable IPS, AMOLED or Super-LCD panel to insert into its phones. The one thing every buyer will use and react to most viscerally is the display, so it doesn’t make a great deal of sense for SE to be cutting corners here. Another recurring and slightly offputting issue with Sony Ericsson phones is that the touch-sensitive layer is visible as a dotted grid atop the display when looking at it from a certain angle. You won’t notice this too often and it certainly doesn’t affect regular use, but it’s there, the very idea of it gnawing at your mind like the raven of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem.

Battery life, reception, and audio

With the display being one of the major consumers of power in modern phones and the Mini Pro having a comparatively small one, you’d think this would be a handset that lasts an extra bit longer than its competition. The premise of that supposition is accurate enough, however Sony Ericsson opts for a teeny tiny 1,200mAh cell in the Mini Pro. What results is distinctly average battery life for an Android phone. In regular use, I typically got to around 28 hours between charges. That time was spent with and Gmail updates running in the background and a mix of music playback, web browsing, photography, and Maps navigation in the foreground. Relative to Sony Ericsson’s own Xperia line, the Mini Pro seems to be about on par with the Arc and ahead of the Play in terms of battery endurance.

Taking the Mini Pro around my usual London haunts, I found it had as many or more bars than most of the phones I’ve recently reviewed (Incredible S, Sensation, Galaxy S II, Xperia Arc). There were certainly no dropped or missed calls and no identifiable distortion caused by poor signal. Data rates also seemed to be on par with what I usually obtain (poor coverage in my local area and better connectivity in central London).

The earpiece is a little quiet for my tastes, though it conveys the voice of the person you’re speaking to in a natural and clear fashion. The one loudspeaker on the back provides better than average audio quality, something that’s been a Sony Ericsson strength for a long time, and should see some use for impromptu media playback. Bass tones are, as is typical for smartphones, absent without a trace. Output to headphones will still be the best and most likely method for enjoying music on the Mini Pro, and thankfully the bundled pair of ear buds is quite decent. It includes an in-line mic and play/pause control, but offers next to nothing in the way of noise isolation. Underground commuters, you have been warned.

Camera

Camera output looks excellent on the phone’s screen, but lay out those pixels on your desktop and you’ll be far less impressed. SE post-processes the living daylights out of images taken with the Mini Pro, leaving solid blocks of color reminiscent of Photoshop’s Poster Edges filter. People look like monotonal mannequins, edges and boundaries between colors are over-emphasized and subtle detail is habitually lost.

The culprit for this overzealous image manipulation is of course the fear of noise and graininess sneaking into captured images, with Sony Ericsson opting to optimize the results for viewing on the device itself instead of for the best photographic outcome. That notion is also supported by the camera’s tendency to oversaturate images. Choosing to go that route isn’t uncommon among phone makers and is to some extent understandable. What I find aggravating, however, is the labeling of this as a 5-megapixel sensor — neither the Mini Pro’s hardware capabilities nor its post-processing software justifies that title. In terms of usable imagery, you’re looking at something closer to 2 megapixels.

Video capture suffers from the same smudging effect as stills

Happier news is to be found in the performance of the camera’s software, which snaps photos almost instantly and has an intelligently designed interface. Its pair of overlaid menus slide in from the sides, a sight that should be familiar to Xperia Arc users, with the left one providing access to capture mode tweaks and the right containing previews of the last few images you’ve taken. A small notification area in the top right also informs the user when macro mode is enabled and provides alerts when lighting in your composition is too bright for the camera to handle (typically activated when shooting the sky on a sunny day).

720p video capture is one of the Mini Pro’s headline features and it does indeed work as advertised. Sadly, the video results suffer from the same smudging effect that the phone’s camera applies to still images, leaving you with a lack of fine detail at full resolution. Things don’t look much rosier when viewed through the front-facing VGA camera. Its image-capturing credentials stretch no further than fulfilling the main purpose of its presence on the phone — video calls. Taken as a whole, the Mini Pro’s photography equipment offers no threat to the finest cameras available on current Android phones, but it’ll certainly do the job for the less demanding user. It’s easy and quick to operate and does a good job of capturing video, even if detail levels aren’t up to the best standards around.

Software

Android 2.3 should be an extremely familiar sight by now. The Gingerbread version of Google’s mobile OS is a relatively mild upgrade from Froyo (2.2), which in itself has been with us for over a year. I wasn’t able to find any apps for the platform that had compatibility issues with the Mini Pro’s 480 x 320 screen resolution, but there’s no guarantee that the same will be true over the long term. 800 x 480 was the de facto standard Android resolution of 2010, qHD (960 x 540) is growing into that for 2011, and current speculation is pointing toward Android phones with 720p resolution before the year’s end. No matter what compatibility improvements (like, say, Fragments) Google adds to its forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, the fact remains that developers will dedicate the bulk of their resources to the most popular hardware platforms — and those are rapidly moving away from the Mini Pro’s specification.

A somewhat cloudy future when it comes to app compatibility is a readily predictable aspect of this phone’s existence; you’ll want to know what it’s like to use today. Well, rather disquietingly, I managed to incite an app crash error while setting up the Mini Pro for the first time. Once I moved past that inauspicious start, however, I was greeted by a highly responsive interface that generally whizzed through its tasks. Sony Ericsson has gone to great lengths to standardize its user experience within its 2011 Android product line, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see most of the aesthetic tweaks it applied to Android on the Xperia Arc and Xperia Play present on the Xperia Mini Pro. For the most part it’s the same experience shrunken down for the form factor.

The homescreen’s corners can now be turned into folders

Where the Mini Pro differs (from every smartphone other than the Xperia Mini and their collective ancestors the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro) is with its corner UI concept. The four corners of the screen function much in the same way as the typical four-icon launcher dock (such as the one on the Arc). They’re persistent wherever you are among the five homescreens and provide links to what will ideally be your four most-used applications. The 2011 Mini and Mini Pro improve on that idea by allowing you the added option of turning the corners into folders of multiple icons. Up to four apps can be stashed into each corner — with their icons visible exactly as you’d see them within iOS folders — which does a great job of making up for the Mini Pro’s limited screen real estate. Not counting the corners, you have room for 12 apps per homescreen, but if you load everything up, you’ll be a couple of taps away from no less than 28. For a 3-inch screen touting yesteryear’s resolution, that’s pretty good work.

Sony Ericsson’s efforts to offer an enhanced package of apps with the Mini Pro fall firmly within the bloatware category. There are game trials (Plants vs Zombies, Chuzzle, Peggle, and Brick Breaker Revolution 2), links to Vodafone’s music and app stores and Sony’s Music Unlimited app, and, most annoyingly, a couple of pieces of McAfee security software that keep popping up notifications pestering you to register. There is one helpful inclusion among the bunch, which is a straightforward data monitor utility with options for setting alerts at particular thresholds. It has a clean interface and lets you start tracking data from a given day each month, thereby directly emulating the period of your monthly data allowance.

UI animations on the Mini Pro are fluid for the most part, but they do stutter occasionally when you’re trying to do things quickly. On the plus side, Sony Ericsson has really done its homework when it comes to optimizing navigation speed, as things like the app menu and contacts list pop up with an appropriate briskness. App loading times, on the other hand, are average, bordering on slow. Both the gallery application and browser show a slight bit of lag when executing pinch-to-zoom gestures, with the former also exhibiting a noticeable delay when loading new pictures. worryingly, the gallery app sometimes fails to properly respond to lateral swipes instructing it to move to the next image. That behavior’s unfortunately also true when the phone’s locked, with the Mini Pro failing to register my unlocking swipes on a couple of occasions. It bears noting that these issues cropped up rarely during my testing and were overcome painlessly, so I wouldn’t classify them as anything more than a nuisance.

The Mini Pro has the same 1GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon SOC and 512MB of RAM as found within the Xperia Arc and Xperia Play, so if you want a handy guide to how it feels on a day-to-day basis, those devices are definitely worth a look. Browser performance is fast and reliable, but for the aforementioned lack of perfect fluidity when pinching to zoom and scrolling. It’s only when you set the Mini Pro against the recent dual-core beasties that are the Galaxy S II and Sensation that you’ll really notice a difference in general responsiveness.

Sony’s Playstation Phone STINKS At Gaming. And Pretty Much Everything Else [REVIEW]

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Ericsson’s Xperia Play just launched on Verizon Wireless for 199.99, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

It wants to be a PSP, but the power inside of it isn’t up to par compared to other dedicated handheld gaming devices.

And when compared to other smartphones, it’s not super impressive either.

Is the Xperia Play worth your money?

It’s Chunky

Measuring in at 16mm thick, the phone is almost twice as thick as an iPhone 4. It is a slider phone, so I knew it would be thicker, but this thing just feels giant.

The Xperia Play feels especially awkward when you’re holding it in your hand because on its right side, there are two flimsy shoulder buttons that get in the way and click around while you’re holding the phone.

Holding a PSP up to my ear would’ve been more comfortable. This is also to say the Play just feels plasticky.

Compared to some of the incredibly well-built phones I’ve tested lately like the HTC Sensation, the Xperia Play feels lightyears behind. It even has some mushy physical navigational buttons below the screen. On top of that, the navigational buttons are in a strange order that we’re not used to.

The power button on top is downright horrible. Maybe it’s just the well-traveled review unit I have, but half the time it just doesn’t work. It’s another mushy button like the navigational buttons, and sometimes activates a power-off options screen, and sometimes makes the phone go to sleep.

As far as the screen goes, the phone’s 4-incher is subpar. Even at its brightest setting, it doesn’t get very bright, and the screen feels plasticky. It attracted tons of small scratches and dust, as if the screen was made of plastic. When you press down hard on the screen, you see a weird dimpling like you might see on a device with a resistive touchscreen.

The Hardware Does The Job. But Not For Long

The Xperia has a capable 1 Ghz processor, but it’s almost undone by the 512 MB of RAM the phone has built in. Brand new phones shipping with 512MB of RAM aren’t going to last for long, especially if gaming is supposed to be your strong suit.

Also, the 5.1 MP camera is weak and doesn’t even shoot 720p HD video.

One excellent feature the Xperia Play has is stereo speakers. They’re still cell phone speakers, and you should be playing games with headphones, but this was a nice touch.

The phone handles calls well enough (you’re considering this phone primarily because of gaming, right?), and was pretty speedy in my 3G tests. But when you have a bunch of apps open, scrolling and pinch to zooming on the web is a bit of a drag.

Also, the virtual keyboard Sony stuck in this one is tiny. In portrait mode, I found it nearly impossible to type accurately on, even when I was staring at the keyboard.

Is It Fun To Play?

The Xperia Play is an odd device. It feels more like a touchscreen phone with a controller strapped on than a smartphone-gaming-console hybrid.

Playing games is fun, but the experience can be plain old confusing because there’s no way to know if menus are designed to be manipulated via touch or via the directional d-pad.

With certain games, the Xperia’s slide out controller feels like an afterthought.

In Madden, for example, you can’t browse plays using the directional pad you use to move your player. I ended up feeling conflicted and frustrated, especially since the Madden controls weren’t what I was accustomed to on a home console. I have all the buttons of a PS3 controller (minus a couple extra shoulder buttons), so why aren’t controls the same?

This also goes with the analog control pads in the middle of the controller. It often gets down to trial and error to find out which buttons work and which don’t. You can re-assign controller buttons during games, but it’s a hassle.

My old PSP is ten times easier to use than this device.

The Xperia Play came with 7 games pre-loaded, and I would consider none of them truly better experiences because I had physical buttons. There are also twenty-some games you can buy on Vcast. Developers have done wonderful jobs outfitting games for touch devices, and while I often miss the portable game consoles of yore, having both touch and physical buttons is confusing.

Lastly, why is Sony getting ready to launch a bunch of Playstation games on the Xperia Play? They have to be stretched annoyingly because they’re originally for 4:3 aspect ratio TVs. Sony should instead FOCUS on moving over PSP games, or at least PSP Go games.

Should You Buy It?

I really wanted to like this phone, I did. I have a PSP and it’s great for what it does. But unfortunately, the Xperia Play isn’t good enough at any one thing.

You should not buy this phone unless you absolutely need a hardware controller for your gaming, but there aren’t even many games for it yet. Sony is notorious for building proprietary stores and mediums and abandoning them (remember UMD movies for Sony’s PSP? Also, PS Vita is getting Vita cards), so you’ll never know if your investments will pay off.

Of course the Xperia Play also plays games other Android phones can play, and Gingerbread is a welcome addition. Still, the phone just feels old. Like it should’ve come out a year ago.

These days people value cutting edge speed, vibrant screens, portability, and braggability, and the Xperia Play doesn’t have any of these things. It’s a good Android phone, but it’s just too big.

Here’s to the PS Vita being a little bit sweeter.

If you’re unconvinced, grab an Xperia Play for 199.99 on a two year contract with Verizon.

Madden is basically the iPhone version of Madden. The gamepad controls are unresponsive and I’d rather use touch.

There’s a VGA camera on the front for video chatting

The Xperia Play feels nice in your hands. It has all the same buttons as a PSP.

When your thumbs are on the Xperia Play, the buttons feel smaller than on a Playstation controller, but they’re still comfortable to press.

The Xperia Play’s back has a 5.1 MP camera, LED flash, and the tasty-looking Sony-Ericsson jewel we all love.

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Sony Xperia 10 V Review – Sony’s cheapest phone

Sony Xperia 10 V in hand. Photo Joshua Waller

Overview

Overall Rating

Pros: Triple camera system Headphone socket 5000mAh battery IP65/67 rating

Cons:. Focus struggles at times. Slow photo app/response. Only FullHD video, not 4K. Poor video stabilisation. Inconsistent image quality. Poor low-light performance

Price as Reviewed:

The Sony Xperia 10 V has a triple camera setup, a 5000mAh battery, and even a headphone socket, but how does it perform as a camera phone?

The Sony Xperia range of smartphones includes a range of mostly premium models, with one entry-level model, the Sony Xperia 10 V. This phone comes with a number of things that make it sound appealing on paper, including a triple camera setup including a telephoto camera, a 5000mAh battery, and even a headphone socket, but how does it perform as a camera phone?

Sony Xperia 10 V in hand. Photo Joshua Waller

Sony Xperia 10 V at a glance:

• 48MP wide-angle camera, f/1.8, OIS, PDAF, 1/2.0inch, 26mm equivalent
• 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, f/2.2, fixed FOCUS, 1/4inch. 16mm equivalent
• 8MP telephoto camera, f/2.2, PDAF, 1/4.4inch, 54mm equivalent
• 8MP selfie camera, f/2.0, 1/4inch, 26mm equivalent
• 6.1inch 21:9 OLED 60Hz screen, Gorilla Glass Victus
• 5000mAh battery
• 6/8GB, 128GB storage, MicroSD slot
• Android 13, IP65/68 rating water resistance
• 155 x 68 x 8.3mm
• 159g weight

Sony Xperia 10 V Features

We review smartphones from the perspective of choosing a smartphone for it’s photography and camera performance, so we’ll be starting by looking at what the Sony Xperia 10 V offers in terms of the cameras and what features are included for photography and video.

Sony Xperia 10 V triple cameras close-up. Photo Joshua Waller

It’s rare for an entry-level or mid-range phone to have a triple camera setup that includes three ‘proper’ cameras. Normally mid-range phones have a dual camera setup, and if there is a third camera, it’s often a depth camera, or a low-resolution 2MP macro camera (both entirely pointless when the main camera/s can do better). So, to see a triple camera setup on a phone at this price point piqued our interest and we needed to test it.

The cameras include a 48MP wide-angle main camera, with an f/1.8 aperture, PDAF (phase-detection auto FOCUS), and optical image stabilisation (OIS). This uses pixel binning to give 12MP images.

There’s an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, with fixed FOCUS, and an f/2.2 aperture, and a small 1/4inch sensor – this is really rather small at 3.6×2.7mm. The third rear camera is an 8MP telephoto camera that gives a 2x zoom, and a 54mm equivalent, with an f/2.2 aperture, PDAF, and no optical image stabilisation. The sensor is smaller again at 1/4.4inches.

Sony Xperia 10 V selfie camera. Photo Joshua Waller

And sure, these additional cameras may not be 10 or 12MP units, but at least they’re not super low-resolution like the 2MP macro cameras we see on many entry/mid-range models.

There’s an 8MP selfie camera, with fixed FOCUS, and an f/2.0 aperture. Background defocus is available when using this camera, as well as AutoHDR, and Night shooting.

The camera app

The camera app that’s built-in is a “basic” camera app, and this phone doesn’t feature the multiple camera apps found on the Xperia 1 V and other premium Sony phones. This is mostly a good thing, for the intended user of this phone, as it simplifies the shooting experience.

The app includes two shooting modes, either photo or video, as well as a manual mode, however, it does seem to be quite limited, as there are only a few different settings available (including night: auto/on/off), background blur (on/off and a slider control), as well as Auto HDR, Skin softening, and Object tracking in the menus.

Sony Xperia 10 V camera app. Photo Joshua Waller

Beyond this there are three more modes, including Google Lens, Slow motion, and Panorama. And that’s it. Other phones tend to offer a background blur mode that’s labelled as a portrait mode, a macro mode, plus additional shooting modes like creative long exposure modes (as found on the Google Pixel range and others).

Using the camera app can be quite a slow experience, as it always seems like you’re waiting for the camera to take a photo when you press the on-screen shutter release. It also doesn’t show you a preview of what the image will look like, as it does the processing after you’ve taken the photo. Once you do go and view the photo, you can be waiting quite a while for the image to be processed.

Design and Handling

Sony Xperia 10 V. Photo Joshua Waller

The most obvious design feature of the Sony Xperia 10 V is the 21:9 aspect ratio screen which makes it a tall and thin phone compared to others. This can make it a little difficult to reach the tops of the screen, as it’s a similar height to other phones with larger screens. Whether you like this or not will be down to personal preference.

Stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack are a nice touch, and the phone offers an IP65 / IP68 rating.

A 5000mAh battery, and Sony’s excellent battery management mean that this phone can last a long time before needing charging, particularly when you’re not using it. The phone doesn’t support wireless charging.

The fingerprint sensor is on the side of the phone and is part of the power button. Double click the power button and you can quickly open the camera mode. Build quality is generally good, and for the price there is nothing to complain about, and support for MicroSD cards is a nice feature.

Sony Xperia 10 V USB port. Photo Joshua Waller

General performance is a little bit sluggish, so scrolling through apps, settings and switching between web pages and the home screen can feel a little slow. It’s a little bit disappointing, as other mid-range smartphones don’t feel this sluggish.

The phone is available in a range of colours including white, black, sage green and lavender.

Sony Xperia 10 V Performance

Peace Gardens, wide-angle camera on the Sony Xperia 10 V. There’s some corner softness (top, left). Photo Joshua Waller

The wide-angle, main camera gives good results, and in good light, images can look really nice. However, there were other times when it got it completely wrong, with images poorly focused, lacking detail, lacking dynamic range, and looking entirely terrible in comparison to the nearest competitor (the Samsung Galaxy A54).

Pink flowers: Here’s one example of when the Sony Xperia 10 V camera gets things wrong, with low levels of detail, and blown highlights in the white flowers.

Colours could easily be overly saturated, or over-exposed, meaning detail disappeared, and multiple shots were needed so that we could pick the one image that worked the best. Images also don’t look very good on the screen when you’re taking them, and you have to wait for the phone to process the photos before you know if the shot has worked or not.

This photo looks great, but the 3 photos taken before this had over exposed yellows losing detail in the petals. Photo Joshua Waller

The main camera supports hybrid zoom, up to 10x using “AI Super Resolution Zoom” and this could be a potential replacement for the telephoto camera, and does make us wonder a bit why the telephoto camera isn’t a 3x unit.

Ultra-wide-angle shot taken with the Sony Xperia 10 V. There are high levels of noise in the darker areas of this image. Photo Joshua Waller

Ultra-wide-angle – In bright conditions, the results can be quite good looking. However, in darker areas, even when shooting in daylight, noise can become an ugly addition to the images, and purple fringing is noticeable. There were times when the colour reproduction from this camera was widely different from the main camera.

Pigeon, using the telephoto camera. This photo has nailed the exposure, but the photos taken immediately before and after this were completely overexposed. Photo Joshua Waller

The telephoto camera gives good results in bright conditions, but exposure can be inconsistent, so it can take a number of shots before you get the result you want. Focus, at times, would completely fail, producing a photo that was completely out of FOCUS.

There’s plenty of detail in this shot, taken with the 8MP telephoto camera. Photo Joshua Waller

The 2x telephoto camera does give slightly better results than a standard 2x digital zoom on a phone like the Samsung Galaxy A54, however, it would be even better if this was a 3x telephoto camera, as that would give it a definite edge over 2x digital zoom. Google’s Pixel phones for example do a great job of 2x digital zoom using super resolution technology, and it’s possible, that Sony’s own technology could have given similar results using the main camera. Having a 3x telephoto would have given it an extra edge.

Sony Xperia 10 V close-up performance. Photo Joshua Waller

Close-up performance of the main camera is relatively good, and whilst the phone doesn’t have a dedicated macro mode, it does allow close enough FOCUS for some close-up shots.

Low-light photo taken using the main camera. Photo Joshua Waller

In low-light, noise reduction is so strong that images lack detail, and images look blurry, and disappointing. If you view them smaller, then they look okay, from a distance.

Selfie taken with the Sony Xperia 10 V. The photo taken immediately after this lacked the same dynamic range.

The 8MP selfie camera has fixed FOCUS, and does a reasonable job most of the time. Background defocus is available, but dynamic range can struggle, and detail is relatively low.

Video performance

Video stabilisation is not up to the same standard as other smartphones, and when it struggles, video is very jerky. The quality and detail in video are relatively low, and whilst colour was reasonable, exposure was a little off, looking exposed.

Value for Money

The Sony Xperia 10 V is available for 449 / £399, which puts it up against some quite impressive competition. For example, the 6.1inch Google Pixel 7a (at 449 / £449) has a dual camera system, and Super Resolution Technology means you can easily get similar 2x photos. Then there’s the Samsung Galaxy A54 (at 449 / £449), with the same height (155mm vs 158.2mm), but a wider 6.4inch screen and all-round better camera experience, as well as up to 5 years of updates. Another option is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro (with 200MP main camera).

Left to right: Samsung Galaxy A54, Google Pixel 7a, Sony Xperia 10 V. Photo Joshua Waller

Both the Google Pixel 7a and Samsung Galaxy A54 produce better photos than the Xperia 10 V, and there are also cheaper options available as well, including the Google Pixel 6a, and Nothing Phone 1, which have both seen reductions recently.

Sony Xperia 10 V Verdict

The Sony Xperia 10 V offers quite a nice set of features, considering the price. The camera app includes a night mode, auto HDR, and a background blur feature, but it would be nice to see additional shooting modes. It feels like Sony are still playing catch up in the mobile phone market, as Apple, Samsung, Google, and others, are offering additional computational shooting modes (such as long exposure).

Taken with the ultra-wide-angle camera, the colours in this shot look better than the same shot taken with the main camera. Photo Joshua Waller

One thing that the Sony Xperia range of phones offers that seems to divide phone fans is the 21:9 aspect ratio screen. It’s rare that you find anyone who is a fan of this aspect ratio, but that doesn’t mean these people aren’t out there, somewhere. Unfortunately with the Xperia 10 V, it turns what could have been a compact smartphone, into another phone that’s difficult to use (reach), due to it being too tall. This also has the knock-on effect of making your 4:3 images look small on the screen. The smartphone market is crying out for more compact smartphones, as there are so few options available.

So, all that aside, how is the shooting experience with the Sony Xperia 10 V? Well, it’s generally okay, if you don’t mind your phone feeling slow and unresponsive. The photo app is relatively basic, and this is made simpler by the phone not including the multiple different apps found on the Xperia 1 V. But it’s also slow, and when you take a photo you often get a spinning wheel which makes the camera feel slower than it needs to be.

Barbie themed shop in Sheffield. This has captured the colour well, the photo taken before this was worse. Photo Joshua Waller

When shooting, the preview shows you an image with poor dynamic range, but when you view the photo in playback, once you’ve waited for “Processing” to go away, you get an image with much improved dynamic range thanks to automatic HDR, the majority of the time. However, if you accidentally press the shutter button for too long, continuous shooting will be activated and then you get images with poor dynamic range. The other issue is that FOCUS fails every now and then, so every 1 in every 30 photo I took (on average), was completely out of FOCUS – this happened with both the main camera and the telephoto camera, but more so with the telephoto camera.

How about the images produced, surely they’re good? Well, sometimes, is the answer to that question. In good light, the cameras can product some really good looking images, and colour can be good, but other times, colour can be dull. As light levels drop image quality also drops dramatically. There’s also a lack of consistency between shots, in exposure and colour reproduction, so it can take several shots before you get the best photo.

This low light shot lacks any real detail, and noise reduction is very strong. Photo Joshua Waller

Video quality is major disappointment, as the camera only records Full HD video, and doesn’t record 4K video at all. This is available on a range of competitors, even models at the same price range (or less), such as the Nothing Phone 1. The other issue is that the video quality is lacking as detail is poor, as exposure and stabilisation struggles to keep up.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to see why anyone would choose this phone over a Samsung, Google Pixel, or any of the other brands available, as there are a number of things on this phone that simply aren’t competitive with what’s out there. However, if improvements could be made to the performance and responsiveness of the phone and cameras, then it could be a contender.

For more mid-range and budget options have a look at our guide to the best budget smartphones, or have a look at the best flagship camera phones if you have a more to spend.

Chips make everything better. Close up performance is good, with plenty of detail here. Photo Joshua Waller

Low light image taken with the main camera, like other low-light photos, detail is severely lacking.

TNW Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Well, where do we start with this Android device? Probably the most leaked handset in existence, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play received its fair share of publicitybefore its official unveiling at this year’s Mobile World Congress event. This week devices have started making their way to reviewers across the UK.

Appealing to gamers, the Xperia Play fills a very specific niche. Will consumers want a smartphone that doubles as gaming handheld that can play Playstation One games using its slide-out gaming control-pad? Is the Playstation certification enough? Read on for our full review of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and find out.

Hardware

Looking at the Xperia Play top-down you would be forgiven if you thought it was an Xperia X10 – Sony Ericsson’s Android smartphones have the same distinctive look – it’s only when you pick the device up that you realise that the smartphone is hiding away its centrepiece – a slide-out gamepad.

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The sliding of the gamepad is smooth – the device resists forces that would reveal controls accidentally whilst remaining easy to open with a simple thumb-swipe. Once revealed, the gamepad sports a D-Pad, familiar Playstation symbol buttons (triangle, square, circle andcross), a start and select button, with option key located on the bottom left of the pad, serving up ways to exit from and customise the gaming experience. On the outside of the device lie two “flipper” controls, similar to the L1 and R1 bumpers on a Playstation controller.

Two touch analog controls are located in-between the D-Pad and the Playstation buttons, complete with shallow dot in the centre, making it easy to locate and completing almost an exact replica of a Playstation DualShock gamepad.

When in use, game controls work well – however, the touch-sensitive analog pads require a lot of practice and at times the D-Pad can be linear in its operation. When we played the FIFA 10, it became difficult to use the D-Pad to direct players diagonally, finding it equally difficult to keep our thumbs on the analog pads in certain games.

In an effort to outfit the Xperia Play with full Playstation gaming controls and keep it as slim as possible, it feels like Sony Ericsson had to compromise on making them tactile enough to ensure the gaming experience is able to rival other gaming handhelds, including its own.

The build-quality of the device is sufficiently sturdy, Sony Ericsson utilising the same plastic finish on all handsets in the Xperia line. Coming in at double the thickness of the iPhone 4 and weighing over 40 grams more, the Xperia Play sits firmly in the small-gaming-device-large-smartphone category, a niche that is likely to appeal to a small consumer group, at least initially.

Looking at the specifications, the Xperia Play is an unremarkable device. Featuring a 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, 512MB RAM, front and back cameras and 400MB of internal storage, the handset would be lost in a market of dual-core smartphones if it was evaluated on its smartphone credentials alone.

Whether it is a lack of processing power or enabled by design, the Xperia Play booted significantly slower than an HTC Incredible S, with games requiring significant loading sequences before they became playable.

Platform

The Xperia Play runs the latest Android Gingerbread operating system, launching as one of a limited number of devices on the market that currently features the software. Sony Ericsson executives have already committed to regularly updating the Android firmware on the Xperia Play, noting that engineers have successfully been able to “unbundle” Sony advancements and its customised user interface to quickly prepare updates when Google makes them available to the manufacturer.

The Xperia Play’s custom UI is simple to use but does operate significantly differently to the stock Gingerbread software – the sliding padlock to unlock the device is still present but is delivered in a similar fashion to the iPhone unlock process and navigating the apps requires you to scroll horizontally, another nod towards the functionality of iOS.

If you’re familiar with Timescape, it’s present on the newest Xperia models, offering the ability to tie in social updates. Additional widgets are available, including two that list a number of Playstation titles on the homescreen. Navigation is smooth and the Xperia Play’s customised stylings do not provide any noticeable lag when browsing the homescreens.

Gaming

Sony Ericsson has done all it can to ensure the gaming elements on the Xperia Play are brought to the fore. For example, when the phone is unlocked and you open the gaming slider, the handset will automatically load the Xperia Play gaming dashboard, presenting the FIFA 10, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion and Sims 3. Other Android games are available to download via this dashboard, including popular titles from Gameloft, Handygames and Glu Mobile.

As the world’s first Playstation Certified smartphone, the Xperia Play also offers Playstation One games to download and play on the device using the Playstation app. Pre-loaded with Crash Bandicoot, you can also download Destruction Derby, Cool Boarders 2, Jumping Flash, MediEvil and Syphon Filter, although finding and playing the games once they have been downloaded is a little more difficult than it needs to be.

With a Playstation and dedicated Xperia Play gaming dashboard, you are required to select your Android and PS One games from different apps, with no unified dashboard. It’s understandable that Sony Ericsson would want to differentiate its Playstation titles from generally available third-party Android applications but the experience is a tad more laborious than it needs to be.

Before the Xperia Play launched, a number of popular emulators were available on the Android Market, allowing Android users to download and play ROMs of their favourite Sega, Nintendo and Sony Playstation games. We tested this briefly and were able to enjoy a few titles from yesteryear, although at the time of writing Sony has filed a request to remove the PSX4Droid app from the Android Market, removing the ability to download and play PS One ROMs. This is is understandable.

Overall, the gaming experience is excellent; the Xperia Play has to stand out as a gaming device and that it does. No other smartphones are able to offer an experience close to what this Sony Ericsson device can deliver. Graphics are crisp, if not unspectacular, but then you have constantly remind yourself that this is an Android-powered smartphone, that takes calls and can multi-task, it’s not going to reproduce PS3-like graphics.

Camera/Video

Sony Ericsson is revered for its build-quality, particularly in the camera department. With the Xperia Play’s 5MP rear facing camera, shots are clean and clear. It’s good at reproducing colour in well-lit environments, although sometimes shots are a little washed out.

The camera application uses the standard Gingerbread interface, making it easy to toggle between photo and video modes and view photos quickly once they have been taken.

The Xperia Play doesn’t allow users to touch-to-FOCUS, instead having to rely on auto-FOCUS to get the best shots. Normally, this would pose a significant problem but the auto-FOCUS feature copes admirably in a number of different environments.

If you’re expecting the Xperia Play to capture high-quality video, you will be disappointed. With its WVGA resolution, the Xperia Play captures video at 30 frames-per-second, a far cry from the HD video that most modern smartphones are able to record.

Battery Life

The battery life of the Xperia Play is very impressive, requiring one full charge over a 72 hour period during testing. With its 1500MAh lithium polymer batter, the device is slated to handle at least 8.5 hours of talk time and nearly 6 hours of gameplay. On standby, the device consumed minimal resources, providing us with more than enough battery to play FIFA 10 and Crash Bandicoot for lengthy periods.

Call Quality

Sporting a powerful stereo loudspeaker, calls are crisp and clear on hands-free and during normal calls. Sporting dual noise cancelling microphones, calls are free from excess background noise, making the Xperia Play truly one of the best smartphones we have used based on call clarity.

Conclusion

There are no doubts about it, this is the best gaming smartphone on the market. Physical pads, analog touch-pads and Playstation buttons set the Xperia Play apart from any other device on any other platform. Whilst we had minor frustrations with the controls at times, the Xperia Play delivers a solid gaming experience with its slide-out gamepad.

Sony Ericsson’s smartphone falls short of the PSP Go and Nintendo DS, but as a niche device that sits between the smartphone and gaming handheld markets, it fulfils both its roles with ease.

If Sony Ericsson commits to making desirable titles available for the Xperia Play, it has a very good chance of succeeding. With 60 titles available as of today, it’s a good start for the platform that will get a much needed boost when the Playstation Suite is released later in the year.

As the Android platform continues to gain in popularity, this added gaming twist could be the feature that tempts consumers to part with their cash and grab themselves one of these devices.

Story by Matt Brian

Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him on. subscribe to his updates on and catch up with him (show all) Matt is the former News Editor for The Next Web. You can follow him on. subscribe to his updates on and catch up with him on Google.

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