The PlayStation phone ranks up with the Apple tablet in devices that many never thought they'd get; and yet, like Apple did with the iPad, Sony came through and gave us the Xperia Play. It sounds like a dream phone with full PSP-style controls and a fully modern Android phone to match. But is it what gamers envisioned in their head, or a mish-mash? We'll find out in our Xperia Play review.
Design and display
For a device that's supposed to embody the PlayStation image, the Xperia Play comes across much more as a Sony Ericsson phone that happens to have PlayStation roots than the other way around. That's sometimes a good thing: closed, you'd never know from a casual glance that it was a gaming phone. You can be a responsible-looking adult and only show your love of games when you're ready. It does maintain a slightly generic Sony Ericsson look, though, evincing the same black skin, chrome-effect swoops and other traits you'd find in the Xperia Arc, Neo, and Pro. And the need for the gamepad controls also leads to a relatively fat design.
Build quality is generally good; it doesn't feel as though anything will rattle loose or snap off, especially not the rock solid gamepad that we'll touch on later in the gameplay section. The slider mechanism is a bit mixed, though. Sliding itself is easy, fast, and reliable, but there's a slight amount of give while the phone is closed. We'd add that the classic Sony Ericsson disjunction between the look of the materials and their actual surface is still in effect: what looks like it should be all metal is really plastic, including the fingerprint smudges that come with it.
The display is more uniformly positive. In our experience, it was consistently bright and colorful, with good viewing angles that keep the colors even at fairly wide viewing angles -- an important consideration for a gaming phone. At 480x854 and four inches, it's strictly average for resolution, but the extra 54 pixels of vertical resolution do make it slightly better than other Android devices for browsing and photo proofing.
Android 2.3, Timescape, and Mediascape
At one point, Sony Ericsson was known as the laggard in the Android world: its devices shipped with outdated versions of Android and even released outdated upgrades. Not so the Xperia Play: it and the other 2011 Xperia phones shipped with Android 2.3 from the start and were second only to Google's own Nexus S to use the new OS. You don't get NFC (near-field communication) wireless support, but you do get the (slightly) improved performance, the multi-touch keyboarding with copy-and-paste text, and things like better app management, downloads, and official hooks for front cameras. We'll see whether Sony Ericsson is prompt in upgrading to Ice Cream Sandwich, if it can, but you can be comfortable knowing you'll be up to date for the next few months.
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| 3G Network | HSDPA 900 / 2100 | |
| HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 / 800 | ||
| Announced | 2011, February | |
| Status | Available. Released 2011, March |
| Size | Dimensions | 119 x 62 x 16 mm |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 175 g |
| Display | Type | LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 480 x 854 pixels, 4.0 inches (~245 ppi pixel density) | |
| - Touch sensitive gaming controls - PSP like gaming buttons - Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off - Multi-touch input method - Timescape UI |
| Sound | Alert types | Vibration, MP3 ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes, |
| Memory | Phonebook | Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall |
|---|---|---|
| Call records | Practically unlimited | |
| Internal | 400 MB, 512 MB RAM | |
| Card slot | microSD, up to 32GB, 8GB included |
| Data | GPRS | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| EDGE | Yes | |
| 3G | HSDPA, HSUPA | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.1 with A2DP | |
| Infrared port | No | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 |
| Camera | Primary | 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Geo-tagging, image stabilization | |
| Video | Yes, 720p | |
| Secondary | Yes |
| Features | OS | Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread) |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon | |
| Messaging | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM | |
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML | |
| Radio | No | |
| Games | Yes + downloadable, motion & gesture gaming | |
| Colors | Black, White, Stealth Blue (for Play 4G) | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support | |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | |
| - Dedicated game store - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Digital compass - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk - Track ID - Organizer - Document viewer/editor - Flash Lite support - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 425 h (2G) / Up to 413 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | Up to 8 h 25 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 25 min (3G) | |
| Music play | Up to 31 h |
