Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Consumer Review

Ah, good ‘ol PlayStation. Wait, what did you say? A PlayStation Phone? Yup, you got it. A PlayStation Phone. Yeah, we know. You want it. Well, in this article we go over the up’s and down’s and the down’s and up’s of the phone. Having had one for well over a month now, I’m going to delve in to some things other reviews might have missed out on in the past. Now, this isn’t a dissection of hardware, however as a consumer this should be very helpful when deciding on your purchase indeed.

Appearance

At first glance the Play has a lovely glossy, curvy, sleek design to it which really is rather lovely. After you slide it out, you’ll notice the real piece of attractiveness of the device, and that of course is the slide out PSP gamepad. As you can see, it has the 4 directional buttons, the 4 option buttons, and the two joysticks, which are touch sensitive, no physical joysticks unfortunately (although these will be in the PS Vita). In the appearance department the device is certainly great and it’s pocketable too, thanks to the gloss back which makes it easy to slide into the pocket.

Although the device as noted above is glossy which makes it easy to put into the pocket it is also a grease magnet and over time won’t really age very well, as all glossy products get scratched noticeably over time.

Screen

On the front of the Xperia Play you’ll find the 4″ capacitive LCD touch screen operating at a resolution of 480 x 854 PPI, which is truly excellent for gaming and browsing the internet alike. It has very bright, vibrant colours, along with the decent 4″ size. When in game the display produces rich colours and a reproduction you’ll only find in Samsung’s SAMOLED display. When watching films, or YouTube, the Xperia Play offers a great level of black and makes for a very nice experience indeed.

Due to the nature of this phone I wouldn’t not recommend a matte screen protector for the display so that lighting does not reflect off it, which would make it easier to use both in sunlight and on public transport. *image credit smartphone nation.

Software, specs

The phone features some pretty slick internals, including 512mb of RAM, a 1GHz processor and of course the incredibly capable Android 2.3 ‘Gingerbread‘ which allows you to access thousands of productivity apps, additional market store games and also music.

The 1GHz processor in the Play allows it to operate almost seamlessly, however it does lag occasionally when in menu’s (this can be rectified by just overclocking your device, getting rid of useless UI installments etc).

Games

Gaming is what the Xperia Play is all about and some of the games that come pre-installed on the device are Fifa 10, not Fifa 11, unfortunately, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion and last but not least Crash Bandicoot. The device also has a fair amount of other games available for download, including the other 40 recently announced games. On top of PlayStation titles remember that you have access to Android’s very own marketplace, meaning Angry birds is just a swipe away.

Camera

The device comes with an awesome (I say awesome, they’re good for a smartphone) rear-facing 5 megapixel camera and a front-facing VGA camera, which are pretty decent, but could be better, especially when it comes to focusing. The camera itself has an LED flash and it does a good job at lighting up objects close-ish to yourself, however it certainly doesn’t fill up a room. The camera on the handset isn’t the main selling point to this phone though, lets be honest.

Verdict

If you’re looking for a mid-range smartphone aimed at gaming then this is for you with a decent camera, good design and Android Gingerbread. Also, enjoy playing Minecraft Pocket on the Play when it launches as this is a very good game indeed. If we were going to talk downsides then this handset is awfully plasticky and shiny, making it a fingerprint magnet. Another thing that nags me with this handset is Sony themselves, because they have released a smartphone they call a ‘gaming’ phone which is far behind their upcoming PS Vita.

Rating: (8/10)