Bananaman_007
16-11-2008, 18:23
I have had my Xperia for a few weeks now and thought i would post some impressions.
I am going to say this phone is not for everybody. I wanted an Iphone esque phone but with a keyboard and the functions i have become use to on my phone such as radio.
Before this is had a Samsung f700 which i was not keen on and an XDA Mini S which i loved.
First i am going to talk about the styling and design.
As you have no doubt seen from the pictures, the phone has a large 3" touchscreen with a resolution of 800x480 pixels. To me the screen is crisp and is what i would call hi def for a phone, it looks that good. The phone also features a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone also features a full slide out QWERTY keyboard, handy for the net and typing emails and texts. The keyboard also arcs slightly to give the optimum viewing angle.
The front of the phone features 8 small face buttons, that i never use, apart from to answer calls and finish them. I find this easier than useing the touchscreen to accept and end calls.
On the side of the phone you have a volume button and a quick camera button (just like the cybershot cameraphones).
The phone also has a small trackpad that makes browsing the net a dream and is why i like the phone so much. This trackpad is a cross between a laptop mousepad and a button. It makes navigating the net very easy. The phone comes with 2 browsers Internet explorer is clunky and slow. Opera on the other hand is great. It features tabs, full page browsing almost everything you would expect to see on a full computer it is simple but packs everything in.
I have found the looks to be extremely stylish (i have the black one) and would say it even beats the IPhone on looks, but i think its personal preference.
One of the selling points to the Xperia is its panel system. This is accessed by pressing one of the face buttons, and gives you quick access to a front screen, depending on what you want to do. This bypasses the deep and sometimes hard to locate what you want interface of windows mobile for everyday applications such as radio, callender, google search, media player.
Being use to windows mobile, i have not used this feature much but more custom made panels are on the way for all sorts of things, i feel this will fast become a valuable tool. It reminds me of a sleeker version of Nintendos channels system on Wii.
But i guess what you want to know is how it stands up to everyday tasks.
The phone has an easy to access communications manager, meaning you can quickly disable or enable features such as wifi, bluetooth, or even turning off phone communications (flight mode i guess).
I decided not to take an internet package when signing upto the contract and the phones wifi has been more than enough. Its quick to find and connect to networks and seams to have a much better range than my Nintendo DS, which has to be practicly on top of the router to find it. With this i can quite happy surf the net in the bath, or quickly google something without having to turn on my laptop. If the phone loses wifi it will automaticly conect to 3G HSDPA or GPRS depending on coverage. However the phone does tell you it is doing this and gives you the option to cancel.
Texting is a deam due to the windows mobile 6.1 software and the physical keyboard. It employs a similar interface as the Iphone. It lays out communications in chat windows so you can see and scroll previous texts from that user.
While only 3.2 mega pixels, the camera boasts a lot of features and very good picture quality. From what i can see it boasts all the features of the cybershot phones such as face detection.
The call interface is simple to use you can easily increase or decrease the volume, toggle between speaker phone and ear phone and the quality of the calls is good, much better than my pervious Samsung phone.
Overall i am impressed with the sleek looks, the improvements to Windows mobile since version 5 are vast. The software responds better to my actions and is much faster than it was on on XDA Mini S.
The phone takes micro SD upto 32GB i got a 4GB one on ebay for a fiver all in which does the trick nicely. The phone has half a gig internal memory of which about 350mb is available.
A seling point for me was the office mobile suite which helped me during uni on my XDA Mini. Its easy to write notes or ideas if you have anything then sync them with a document on your PC or laptop. It was handy for my dissertation, as i was getting ideas and arguements at weird times and places. It will be a handy feature to have again, which i missed on my last phone.
The phone also features a dedicated streaming media player which is a great addition and works flawlessly.
The phone has roughly 20 days standby, yes 20 days. Well thats what the bumf says with the phone. 10 hours of full useage thats bluetooth, wifi, videos ect, all going which is more than enough i think.
The high price point maybe a turn off for most, £600 sim free. Though it can be had on some good (but lengthy contracts) for free. My contact with Vodafone is £30.01 a month for 24 months 500 mins unlimited texts, Vodafone family and passport (worth £10).
Overall if your looking for an Iphone type experience but don't want an Iphone, this could be the phone for you.
Sony appear to be giving this phone a lot of support, though with it being new and their first smartphone next to nothing from them is available yet (just a few extra panels).
Any questions or anything you would like to know, i will keep an eye on this topic, and will do my best to answer them.
I am going to say this phone is not for everybody. I wanted an Iphone esque phone but with a keyboard and the functions i have become use to on my phone such as radio.
Before this is had a Samsung f700 which i was not keen on and an XDA Mini S which i loved.
First i am going to talk about the styling and design.
As you have no doubt seen from the pictures, the phone has a large 3" touchscreen with a resolution of 800x480 pixels. To me the screen is crisp and is what i would call hi def for a phone, it looks that good. The phone also features a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone also features a full slide out QWERTY keyboard, handy for the net and typing emails and texts. The keyboard also arcs slightly to give the optimum viewing angle.
The front of the phone features 8 small face buttons, that i never use, apart from to answer calls and finish them. I find this easier than useing the touchscreen to accept and end calls.
On the side of the phone you have a volume button and a quick camera button (just like the cybershot cameraphones).
The phone also has a small trackpad that makes browsing the net a dream and is why i like the phone so much. This trackpad is a cross between a laptop mousepad and a button. It makes navigating the net very easy. The phone comes with 2 browsers Internet explorer is clunky and slow. Opera on the other hand is great. It features tabs, full page browsing almost everything you would expect to see on a full computer it is simple but packs everything in.
I have found the looks to be extremely stylish (i have the black one) and would say it even beats the IPhone on looks, but i think its personal preference.
One of the selling points to the Xperia is its panel system. This is accessed by pressing one of the face buttons, and gives you quick access to a front screen, depending on what you want to do. This bypasses the deep and sometimes hard to locate what you want interface of windows mobile for everyday applications such as radio, callender, google search, media player.
Being use to windows mobile, i have not used this feature much but more custom made panels are on the way for all sorts of things, i feel this will fast become a valuable tool. It reminds me of a sleeker version of Nintendos channels system on Wii.
But i guess what you want to know is how it stands up to everyday tasks.
The phone has an easy to access communications manager, meaning you can quickly disable or enable features such as wifi, bluetooth, or even turning off phone communications (flight mode i guess).
I decided not to take an internet package when signing upto the contract and the phones wifi has been more than enough. Its quick to find and connect to networks and seams to have a much better range than my Nintendo DS, which has to be practicly on top of the router to find it. With this i can quite happy surf the net in the bath, or quickly google something without having to turn on my laptop. If the phone loses wifi it will automaticly conect to 3G HSDPA or GPRS depending on coverage. However the phone does tell you it is doing this and gives you the option to cancel.
Texting is a deam due to the windows mobile 6.1 software and the physical keyboard. It employs a similar interface as the Iphone. It lays out communications in chat windows so you can see and scroll previous texts from that user.
While only 3.2 mega pixels, the camera boasts a lot of features and very good picture quality. From what i can see it boasts all the features of the cybershot phones such as face detection.
The call interface is simple to use you can easily increase or decrease the volume, toggle between speaker phone and ear phone and the quality of the calls is good, much better than my pervious Samsung phone.
Overall i am impressed with the sleek looks, the improvements to Windows mobile since version 5 are vast. The software responds better to my actions and is much faster than it was on on XDA Mini S.
The phone takes micro SD upto 32GB i got a 4GB one on ebay for a fiver all in which does the trick nicely. The phone has half a gig internal memory of which about 350mb is available.
A seling point for me was the office mobile suite which helped me during uni on my XDA Mini. Its easy to write notes or ideas if you have anything then sync them with a document on your PC or laptop. It was handy for my dissertation, as i was getting ideas and arguements at weird times and places. It will be a handy feature to have again, which i missed on my last phone.
The phone also features a dedicated streaming media player which is a great addition and works flawlessly.
The phone has roughly 20 days standby, yes 20 days. Well thats what the bumf says with the phone. 10 hours of full useage thats bluetooth, wifi, videos ect, all going which is more than enough i think.
The high price point maybe a turn off for most, £600 sim free. Though it can be had on some good (but lengthy contracts) for free. My contact with Vodafone is £30.01 a month for 24 months 500 mins unlimited texts, Vodafone family and passport (worth £10).
Overall if your looking for an Iphone type experience but don't want an Iphone, this could be the phone for you.
Sony appear to be giving this phone a lot of support, though with it being new and their first smartphone next to nothing from them is available yet (just a few extra panels).
Any questions or anything you would like to know, i will keep an eye on this topic, and will do my best to answer them.