Review Sony Ericsson’s top of the range Xperia Arc was a bold move, cramming a feast of the company’s very latest technology into a case seemingly not a whole lot thicker than a credit card. The Xperia Neo winds things down a notch, not least the price, and the style, but this Android mid-ranger still manages to pack a serious punch.
The Neo is decidedly chunkier than the Arc, at 116 x 57 x 13mm and 126g, though it retains an echo of the ‘human curvature’ design we’ve seen on recent SE handsets. Beneath the screen is Sony Ericsson’s by now familiar approach to the Android control buttons, with slivery hard back, home and menu buttons, but no search à la the Arc, though the Xperia Play had it. Read the rest of this entry »
The evolution of smartphones has introduced a divide between gaming capability and gaming playability. Powerful processors and operating systems allow increasingly complex gaming. But complex games demand complex controls. Finger swishing and prodding might suffice when flinging belligerent avians around the screen, but virtual thumbsticks and buttons largely fail to convey more rigorous controls into the hands of players.
With the Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson attempts to bridge the divide by combining the functionality of its Xperia smartphone range with Playstation-certified gaming controls. But while the result proves far from epic fail, glaring design inconsistencies and tech concessions mean the Xperia Play is not so much compelling convergence but more confused chimera. Read the rest of this entry »
Sony Ericsson’s Xperia series got off to a rocky start back in 2008 but improved greatly with last year’s X10. The Xperia Arc is the company’s latest flagship offering that runs the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and features an 8.1Mp Camera with a low noise CMOS sensor and a high-end screen with a Bravia engine. Evidently, Sony Ericsson wants you to know it means business.
Indeed, the Xperia Arc is impressively slim at 125 x 63 x 9mm and 117g with a lightly tapered look to the back. This is a further refinement of that humanising curvature feature that Sony Ericsson started with the Vivaz. In addition, it has a very classy chrome and graphite look that screams quality handset. Read the rest of this entry »
Review At first glance the Sony Ericsson Yari gives a very good impression of a lowish-end slider, with its so-so looks and smallish screen. Look a little closer, however, and it becomes clear that the Yari is a lot more fun than it first appears, with Wii-style gesture-recognition gaming, a 5Mp Camera, aGPS and HSDPA fast internet access.
The Yari is a small, lightweight handful at 100x48x16mm and 115g with rather dull black looks, although it’s also available in white or silver with red or pink highlights. Above the LCD screen are two gaming buttons – more on those later – and below it are a couple of programmable soft keys, with call start and stop, shortcuts and cancel buttons flanking a circular five-way navpad. Pressing the edges of this offers shortcuts such as music player, contacts and messaging, with the ability to programme it to whichever functions you fancy.
Around the sides are SE’s familiar, but doomed, two-pin FastPort power/sync socket, barely visible volume rocker, a micro SD card slot (like the FastPort, SE is moving steadily away from its Memory Stick option) covered by a plastic grommet and a Camera shutter button. Around the back, which is covered in a tactile rubberised plastic casing, is the recessed lens of the Camera with LED flash and Stereospeakers. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Sony Ericsson tends to get the most publicity from its Cyber-shot cameraphones and Walkman music phones. Not unusual, that, but the company also has a large array of mid-range and lower end mobiles. A case in point: the S312. At £100 Sim-free or £69 from T-Mobile on pay-as-you-go, it fits right into that lower price bracket.
The S312 makes no pretensions to be a Cyber-shot. But despite being pitched as a bit of an all rounder, there is a greater emphasis on the Camera than you might expect from a low-cost voice-centric mobile.
To that end, it does steal a clever Camera idea from its higher end siblings. Hit the small round green button on the right side of the phone and you are into the Camera software. Obviously, that’s nothing new. But when you are in Camera mode the 3, 6, 9 and # keys double up as Camera and video shooting shortcuts, small icons to the far right of the key area reminding you of their functions. Read the rest of this entry »
