Sony Xperia V, Wild and Wet

The time of 4 inches wide flagships has come to past, now the new truth is full-HD five-inchers stealing the show. Even in these terms, the Xperia generation still has something to say, enters Sony Xperia V, a dual-core Krait powered smartphone, featuring next gen  LTE connectivity, kicking ass in the upper mid range.

 It has a few things to brag about, like a 1080p full HD display and an uber cool 13 megapixels still camera,capable of shooting videos in Full High Def, which is also kind of cool.

The cherry on top, besides the pretty impressive specs, is the water and dust resistance, and without sacrificing the good looks of the Xperia range.  Let's take a look at the main specs, shall we?


Main Features:

• Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with 42.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• LTE Cat3 DL 100 Mbps UL 50 Mbps
• 4.3" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit Reality LCD touchscreen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine 2; Scratch-resistant glass
• Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean coming up
• IP57 certified for dust and water resistance, up to 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes
• Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging, Superior Auto mode
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• VGA front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• 8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
• microUSB port with MHL and USB-host support
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Voice dialing
• Deep Facebook integration
• PlayStation Certified, access to the PS Store
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• NFC connectivity

Full specs here.

http://www.mobilephonedeals.com

 Sounds pretty impressive, isn't it folks? And it is, by all means. Moving along, the phone comes in a pretty standard box, containing the usual A/C adapter, a micro USB cable and a headset.

The Sony Xperia V measures 129 x 65 x 10.7 mm and weighs 120 g, even if it looks ample, it feels very light and comfortable in your hand. You must keep in mind that this baby is  IP57-certified for dust and water-resistance, this weighs hard on my scale.

The phone has a curved shape, it's a minor redesign of the Xperia T, the overall finish quality is excellent, the phone is a pleasure to look at and to handle.

 The back panel has a rubbery finish, for extra grip and the body is all plastic made, with no glossy parts. The  screen is a 4.3 inches wide Reality display, above it you will find the earpiece, a VGA camera, the ambient light/proximity sensors and a notification LED.

 There are no physical buttons under the display, just the capacitive keys Home, Back and Task switcher ones. The power/lock button and volume are placed on the top right side, the bottom houses only the microphone, the micro USB port is on the left side and it's protected by a plastic lid, on the top you will find the 3.5 mm audio jack, also sealed with a piece of plastic against water and dust.

 The back panel is made of plastic with a rubber finish, the 13 MP camera lens is on the top, next to the secondary microphone, used for noise reduction.

 If you remove the back panel, you will see an insulating trim of rubber which protects the phone from getting wet and also the 1750 mAh Li-Ion battery, capable of up to 400 hours of standby time  and 7 hours of talk time, in real life, under medium use including calling, web browsing and video, the phone lasts about 30 hours on a single charge.

 As mentioned before, the display is a 4.3 inches wide Reality variety, the quality is above average, with 342 ppi pixel density and powered by the Bravia engine, the screen is sharp and bright, a pleasure to use, honestly.

In terms of handling, the smartphone is light and feels great in hand, it's not too big, nor too heavy, the finish quality is great and many buyers will appreciate the dust and water resistance of the device.

The Sony Xperia V comes with Android OS version 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on board, the User Interface is familiar for Sony aficionados, it features the usual five-pane homescreen setup and you can change the color theme of the launcher whenever you feel like it.

The hardware platform consists of a  Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset with two Krait cores, clocked at 1.5 GHz, graphics are handled by an Adreno 225 GPU and there's 1 GB of RAM on board, needless to say that with this setup everything runs smooth, you can watch 1080p videos without issues, the phone does an amazing job overall.

Tested against superior phones, the Xperia V performs better on some tasks.

The phonebook is the standard Android, you can sync multiple accounts, like Facebook with your phone contacts, you also have custom ringtones.

In terms of telephony, the Xperia V performed with flying colors, it holds well to signal, you get active noice cancellation and smart dial. The messaging is well taken care of, messages are displayed in threads,  Gmail handles the email business, the app supports multiple accounts. For instant messaging, you have Google Talk, compatible with a variety of popular clients like Pidgin, Kopete, iChat and Ovi Contacts, also you can use the integrated Timescape app for Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Typing on the virtual keyboard is pleasant and comfortable, especially with the Gesture function, which works like Swype.

The video player has a new interface and a new name, it's called Movies, also is connected to Gracenote, an app which helps you find additional information about the movies you have on board, just like an automated IMDB. You can also edit video, via an editing app called Movie Studio.

 The music player on board is a Walkman variety,  SensMe is included,with this featyre you can filter your songs by mood - upbeat, energetic, mellow, dance, also you may create playlists  and share your music on Facebook for your friends to see.

 Another new option added to the Walkman is ClearAudio+, which enhances sounds, also a Surround mode, ClearPhase for speakers and xLOUD for a more powerful sound. You also get an FM radio built in, with RDS. Audio output quality is pretty good, in Sony tradition.

 When it comes to pictures, you're in for a rare treat, the Xperia V comes with a 13 megapixel camera with a backside-illuminated Exmor R sensor and a single LED flash, the pictures are taken in  4128 x 3096px resolution and you also have quite a few options, like the Superior auto mode, Sweep Panorama etc.

The camera is a very good one, pictures look great, sharp and with nice levels of detail. The phone is capable of recording full HD videos, 1080p at 30fps, in mp4 format, in stereo sound.

For the multi media users, the phone shines in terms of connectivity, you have  quad-band 2G, tri-band 3G connectivity and penta-band LTE. Mobile data speeds are an impressive 42 Mbps of HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA.Local connectivity is covered by Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct, so you can easily share content from your phone on a DLNA TV or music player. There's also Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP.

For web browsing, the Android works flawlessly, as usual, with a minimalistic interface and quite a few options, it handles HTML 5 videos, it works very fast and smooth.

For business users, they will be delighted by the solid organizer and mainly the OfficeSuite 6, which allows you to view any type of document,

 The phone comes with a GPS receiver with GLONASS support, Google Maps handles navigation and you can also use the always cool StreetView option. For any app imaginable, you have the Play Store, with over 700 000 apps.

As a final word, this baby is the water proof version of the latest flagship, the Xperia T, well, not quite identical but almost, Sony cut down the secondary camera performance and the internal storage capacity, but these are hardly things I would complain about.

 For the best mobile phone deals on a Sony smartphone, take a look here.

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo, Shot in HD!

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo was launched almost two years ago, in February 2011, but still remains a cool smartphone to have, as it looks great and holds a lot of features inside. Follow the next review and see what it has to offer – and I promise you: it’s quite a lot, given the fact that this fellow is almost two years old.

Key features

•    Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
•    3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
•    3.7" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of FWVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixels) on Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine
•    Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
•    1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
•    512 MB RAM
•    8 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geotagging
•    720p video @ 30fps, continuous autofocus
•    Front facing VGA camera, video calls
•    Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
•    GPS with A-GPS
•    microSD slot (32GB supported, 8GB card included)
•    Accelerometer and proximity sensor
•    Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
•    Stereo FM radio with RDS
•    microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
•    Voice dialing
•    Adobe Flash 10.2 support
•    microHDMI port

In its box, you’ll see the charger, a microUSB cable used for both charging and making data transfers, an 8 GB microSD card, the headphones and some user manuals.

The Xperia Neo measures 116 x 57 x 13 mm and has a weight of 126 g, so it’s pretty slim and light, feeling comfortable in your hand and pockets. Even if it’s entirely made from plastic, the phone seems to be pretty well put together. Its design looks quite nice, having a sleek and a little bit glossy appearance, but standing far from giving a cheap impression. The only thing you’ll notice to be not so pleasing about it is that your fingerprints stick to it and you’ll have to clean it every once in a while or buy a cover for the back.
The frontal part of the phone’s body is dominated by a 3.7 inches LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen that has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels and a ~265 ppi pixel density. It’s powered by the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine and has, for protection, a scratch resistant glass. The colors offered by its display are pretty nice and vibrant, the contrast is good too. You’ll have no problems when looking at it under direct sunlight, as the phone offers a decent performance.

Above the screen, you’ll come across the earpiece, a front facing VGA camera for making video calls and the ambient light and proximity sensors.
Below the display are the hardware controls for Back, Home and Menu.
The left side holds nothing, meanwhile the right side is home for the volume rocker, Power/Lock key with a status LED next to it and the shutter button.
At the top reside the microHDMI and microUSB ports, which are protected by plastic flaps, and the 3.5 mm audio jack.

The Xperia Neo comes loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (which is upgradeable to v4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich) and the Timescape user interface, which gathers your call logs, SMS, MMS, email, Facebook and Twitter updates. You can filter the displayed content by type, this way getting only what’s important for viewing. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset, holding a 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, 320 MB of internal storage and 512 MB of RAM. Having these specs, the phone’s overall performance is great, offering a very pleasing user experience, without any lag issues, freezes and annoying stuff like that.

At the telephony department, we have a nice phonebook that’s capable of keeping tons of informations about your contacts, syncs with your online accounts (Exchange, Facebook, Twitter) and also has the quick contacts functionality. You have voice calling too and the possibility of making video calls.
The call quality was very good for both parties and I didn’t experience any reception problems either.
At the messaging section, your SMS and MMS are organized into threads and each thread is displayed as a conversation between you and your contact. You can copy, paste, lock your messages against deletion and even search for a certain message in your conversations.
For instant messaging, Google Talk has you all covered up, being compatible with clients like Pidgin, iChat, Kopete and others.

For emailing, you have Gmail, which supports batch operations, and a generic email application, that supports your other email accounts.
Typing is nice and comfy on the phone’s on screen virtual QWERTY keyboard offered by Gingerbread.
The Xperia Neo’s connectivity set features support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5/76 Mbps HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0.

For surfing the web, you have a great browser that has support for Flash 10.1, double tap and pinch zooming, text reflow, multiple tabs and switching between them, bookmarks, find on page and others. The overall browsing experience is very nice, as the pages are loaded fast and look nice on the phone’s screen.
The Xperia Neo comes packed with an 8 megapixel autofocus camera that’s capable of taking pictures at a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels and has a single LED flash for helping in low light situations. The camera’s app offers settings for touch focus, face and smile detection, geo-tagging, white balance and others. The image quality is very good, with accurate colors and good amount of detail.

The phone’s video camera is also very capable and it produces 720p videos at 30 fps.
For audio playback, the phone offers you a nice looking music player, which features several equalizer presets, the Infinite key for searching your tracks on YouTube and others. The audio quality is more than decent.
An FM Radio also resides here and comes with RDS support and supports the TrackID app for music recognition.
For watching videos, the phone’s video player only support MP4 and 3GP videos, so you might want to get another one, I suppose. Nevertheless, the image quality is excellent, thanks to the phone’s very capable display.

The Xperia Neo comes with the Office Suite for viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF document files. Some other useful apps are the classic Calendar, Calculator, Alarms and others.
A GPS receiver is also here and has A-GPS support. For navigation, the Google Maps application is at your service.
The Xperia Neo has a 1500 mAh battery inside and will stay alive for almost a day and a half of moderate usage (at least, that’s how long it lasted in my hands).

In conclusion, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is a pretty capable smartphone and will serve you well when it comes to taking pictures, browsing, watching movies and so on, being available at an affordable price.

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The Cute and Colourful Sony Xperia U Review

Sony Xperia U white monthly contract deals

The Sony Xperia U is a budget to mid-range Android with some solid specs and cute little touches. It's fair to say that this is an artful little smart phone, and will appeal to many. However others could easily hate it, it's quite a daring move from Sony. Being at the lower end of the market though, you will be able to find some excellent phone deals for the Xperia U.

Colourful Lights

Do you like your electronic devices to shimmer and glitter with light for no apparent reason? If so then you're probably going to love the Sony Xperia U. It has a small strip near the base of the phone which is always changing colours, although not entirely randomly. In fact the colour it displays is going to depend on what you are looking at on the phone. It will try to approximate the colour it displays to the colour of the content you are looking at. For example, if you have a picture of a blue sky on the phone, the light will turn blue. When listening to music, the colour will try to copy the dominant colour of the album colour.

At this point, you're probably having a reaction to that. Either you think that sounds cool, in which case you're probably going to like this phone. Or else you're going to think it sounds tacky and embarrassing. In which case this is probably not the phone for you. You may as well stop reading now to be honest.

Features and Specs

Right, now that we've got rid of the losers who don't like colourful lights on a phone, let's talk about the features and specs of this phone shall we?

It's actually kitted out pretty well. It has a dual-core 1GHz processor, which is going to handle with ease all but the most strenuous tasks. For instance you're probably going to have difficulty trying to keep multiple tabs open on the web, but for one at a time it's nice and fast. It's also going to handle the majority of games and other apps with aplomb. Don't expect to be able to play the latest 3D games though, for that you're going to need a more powerful phone. For things like Angry Birds though, it works very well.

This is quite a small phone, with a screen measuring 3.5 inches on the diagonal. That's the same size as the latest iPhone, however this screen is narrower and if you have large hands then it's probably going to be excessively fiddly. With 480 x 854 pixels though it has a good resolution, very nice for watching videos. Sony also uses its Bravia TV technology to make the colours vibrant and fresh. The only problem with the screen comes as a consequence of it being a budget Android; there is some flex if you push down too hard. That's not a major failing though.

The Xperia U runs the Gingerbread version of Android, but there's a promise from Sony of an update to Ice Cream Sandwich being available soon. Sony also put their own skin on top, which is not a major problem or attraction in all honesty.

If you need a lot of storage on your phone, then this might be another deal breaker. It has 8GB internal storage, which is okay. But only 4GB of that is available for pictures and apps. Which would also be okay, except for the fact that there is space for a microSD card, so you can't expand the memory capabilities at all.

There's a 5 megapixel camera, which is the best you are going to get on a mid-range Android. It can shoot 720p HD video as well. Both of these are of fine quality.

There isn't much more to say about this phone. The physical buttons feel a little bit spongy, the screen is very responsive though, as are the touch sensitive buttons. It's stable and reliable for the most part, a perfectly good phone all in all.

To get the full specs, check out Sony's website.

Phone Deals

If you like bright, colourful, cute and cheerful phones, then it's well worth checking out the excellent SonyXperia U black monthly contract deals and the Sony Xperia U white deals available online.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro Review

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro deals

There's a lot to like about the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro. Of course it helps if you're not a fan of large screens; if you are then you're probably not going to like this phone. But then if that's the case, why are you looking at a phone with “mini” in the title, hmm? A lot of the time people who do prefer smaller screens have to put up with lesser specifications though, but that is not the case with the Xperia Mini Pro. So as long as you're not dead-set on getting a large-screened phone, then you might be tempted by the phone deals available on this device.

Defining Characteristics

We recently reviewed the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini, so what makes the Pro different? Well, the major difference is that with the Pro you get a full QWERTY keyboard which slides out from underneath the screen. We suspect that's going to be the main pull for anyone who is going to be interested in this phone. If you like physical keypads for your texting and emailing on the go, but you also want access to the vast array of apps that Android smart phones offer (rather than the minimal apps on a BlackBerry, for instance) then this has got to be one of the top contenders.

If you're looking for the highest specs available, then you won't find them on the Xperia Mini Pro, however this is no entry level Android either, and for a small phone it's really quite powerful. We say small, which it is of course in terms of width and height (92mm x 52mm) but it's also twice as thick as many androids at 18mm. Of course with a QWERTY keyboard that slides underneath the screen you have to expect that. It also means that there's room there for a 1GHz processor as well as 512MB RAM, which is plenty for the Gingerbread OS from Android, with operations feeling very smooth and flowing. Sony Ericsson also use what they call “Hot Corners” which are present on every home screen and provide short-cuts to things like your SMS app, the dialler, media apps and address book. These are customisable, and make up for the fact you can't fit as many apps on the screen as you would with other smart phones.

You do have to be willing to put up with a smaller screen than usually found on smart phones though. When it comes to web browsing, for instance, you're going to have to zoom in pretty close to be able to read even normal text. The screen is 3 inches on the diagonal which, in fact, is better than a lot of small Androids, and only half an inch off the iPhone size. Also, if you're planning to watch videos, although the 320 x 480 pixel resolution is okay for a screen of this size, and contrasts are actually good, the screen is so small that it's difficult to really feel involved in what is going on in the video. Not a phone to watch a whole television episode on, or a feature film, in other words.

Other Features

Everything else on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro is pretty much what you would expect from a mid-range Android. You have all the usual connectivity possibilities, as well as DNLA support meaning that you can stream videos or pictures from your phone through a PS3 or a DNLA equipped TV to see it all up on the big screen.

The Xperia Mini Pro comes with a 5 megapixel camera, which is pretty standard but the results from it are not great. Also, although it can record 720p HD video, the quality doesn't come out very well, there is often quite a lot of blurring. It also has a VGA camera on the front for video calls.

Check out the full specs at Sony's website.

Summary

On the whole this is a very good phone if you're looking for an Android smart phone with a small screen, a QWERTY keypad, or both. If you're not interested in either of those features though, you might be better off looking elsewhere. If you're searching for a truly pocket sized Android phone which doesn't compromise on the specs though, it's well worth looking in to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro monthly contract deals that are available.  Or the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro white deals if you prefer.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S: Is the Upgrade Worth It?

Coming just a few months after the release of the original Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, the Sony Ericsoon Xperia Arc S has to work pretty hard to make the upgrade worthwhile. So does it reach new heights or is it destined to plummet from the lofty heights off great expectations?

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S Black

Let's find out, shall we?

We don't want to keep you in suspense any longer. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S is an excellent phone, however the upgrades on the orginal Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc are probably too minor to make the upgrade wotth it.  Having said that however, they're probably good enough for the people who bought the original to be a little bit peeved that they don't have the best version of the phone anymore, just months after it was brand new. But it's probably not enough of an improvement for many of the people who have that phone to actually make the upgrade though.

Okay, so what are the differences, and what makes the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc a good phone to begin with? Well, one of the major improvements is the processor, which has been upgraded from the original 1GHz in the original Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc to 1.4GHz in the S class. Actually though that is not a major upgrade and you won't notice a major difference most of the time. In fact a dual core processor could have been hoped for and that would have kept it in the race for being a contender for the top Android phone throughout 2012.

Indeed the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S is one of the flagships of Sony's smart phone range and it is plenty impressive. One of its very best features is the camera which can record 720p HD video and take 8MP stills. What's more its screen is one of the best in the Android range, at 4.2 inches and with a screen resolution of 233 pixels per inch (ppi) which is bested only really by the iPhone 4S (at 330 ppi) it's a major asset. There's plenty of storage space for your pictures and videos as well, with 400MB internal storage being backed up by an 8GB micro SD card.  The only downside of the big screen is that it drains the battery fast, and you might find yourelf having to recharge twice a day with extensive use.

Plus you have access to Sony's Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited libraries which are pretty well stocked so there's plenty to download. The web browser is exceptionally fast and it's Adobe Flash supported too so you can have the full web-browsing experience.

It packs Android 2.3.4, and the xLoud technology makes the external speaker louder (although that can lead to distortions so you might want to turn it off sometimes). Something that could lead to irritation is the comprehensive facebook syncing. If you like connecting everything to your facebook page then it's great, but if you don't it's tough to get all the messaging to stop.

The only other negative really is the case. It looks plenty stylish and it's an unmistakably great design, however it's made out of plastic and feels like it.

Check out the full specs at the Sony website.

Overall

If you already have the original then forking out for the upgrade probably isn't worth it but otherwise this phone is well worth a look, comparing well to other top Andoid phones. So check out Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S contract deals if you're in the market for a high end Android phone (or Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S white deals for a variation on the traditional black). 

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