Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Editor's Review of the Xperia Play

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, otherwise known as the PlayStation Phone, is the most talked about smartphone of recent times. Mobile gaming is a huge industry, and with its PlayStation certification and nifty slide-out keys, the Xperia Play takes the phenomenon to a whole new level. Still, with the likes of the 2003's Nokia N-Gage proving an ultimate flop, can Sony Ericsson prove it's not too late?

Design & Build

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is in keeping with the rest of the Xperia range when it comes to looks, sporting a sleek glossy black plastic finish and some nice curved lines - all of which feature elsewhere in the revamped range, most notably on the Xperia arc.

Within its casing sits a 4-inch TFT LCD display, boasting a decent 854 x 480 resolution. The hefty touchscreen is powered by the handset's 1GHz second-gen Snapdragon processor, offering boosted graphics and according to Sony Ericsson, "twice the speed of the iPhone 4". While the CPU certainly offered whizzy speeds, Sony's Apple-rivaling claims are a little far off the mark.

Of course, the headline feature of the Xperia Play is those much-hyped slide out PlayStation controls. The springy keys feature D-Pad style directional buttons, alongside dual analog touchpads and four iconic PlayStation keys. There's even Sony's "R + L" shoulder triggers, which sit perfectly for effortless gaming.

We'll be honest, we didn't have high hopes for these "flimsy" slide out keys, but thankfully, we were immediately proven wrong. Much to our surprise, the buttons don't feel plasticky, and proved well designed and durable throughout the most eager, and often violent, of gaming. The only downside to the slide-out setup is its additional chunkiness, which totals up to 16mm of pocket-splitting bulk.

OS & Interface

The Xperia Play is bang up to date with Gingerbread on board, which given Sony Ericsson's abysmal track record for Android updates, is a definite plus point.

As the world's first PlayStation Certified smartphone, the Xperia Play brings with it our first taste of "PlayStation Suite", an online games store for Android OS. As it stands today, there are 50 games available from launch, some of which are optimized for the handsets gaming set-up. Although it's almost hard to remember that this is also a regular Android smartphone, games can also be grabbed straight from the Android Market.

Gaming asides, the Xperia Play also arrives dressed in Sony Ericsson's TimeScape UI. Thankfully, it seems SE have been working hard to make it less obtrusive than on previous models, and its revamped social network app is a massive improvement. Almost the whole UI benefits from an all-new sohisticated feel, which is sensibly laid out and easy to customize.

Multimedia & Storage

Asides from its advanced gaming smarts, the Xperia Play also arrives with the usual media attractions found on your average Google-branded smartphone. On its rear, there's a 5 megapixel camera, capable of recording 720p HD video footage. While it's by no means on par with the 8.1 megapixel snapper of the Xperia arc, it managed to produce high-quality shots and sharp looking footage. However, its integrated LED flash is often too blinding, making photos looking wash out and noisy.

With Android 2.3 onboard, the Play also sports a front-facing videocall camera. With just 0.3 worth of megapixels, it's perfect for FaceTime, but no good for stills.

On the downside, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play arrives with just 400MB of internal storage - a lackluster amount for a "media focused" smartphone. Still, this can be expanded up to 32GB, and Sony Ericsson even chuck in an 8GB memory card. Bonus!

Everything Else

With HSDPA and WiFi connectiviy onboard, the handset's browser performance is certainly speedy. Saying that, we've definitely seen faster, particularly from the likes of the LG Optimus 2X and HTC Incredible S. Still, multi-touch gestures are well executed, and text renders well on the crystal-clear display.

Battery life is one of the most important factors when it comes to handheld gaming devices, and unfortunately, the Xperia Play doesn't disappoint. There's a robust 1500mAh effort under the hood, which promises to deliver 4 hours of heavy gaming, and a days worth of sporadic use. Still, compared to the likes of the HTC Desire HD - it's day-long-lasting juice is nothing that special.

Conclusion

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is one hell of an exciting smartphone. Unlike previous efforts, the slide out gaming control is an amazing innovation, and makes gameplay far superior than competing, fully touchscreeen devices. While its regular smartphone features aren't the most advanced available, the Xperia Play is a must-have for hardcore gamers. Once there's a bunch more games available, mind you.