Introduction
Mobile gaming is at an all-time high thanks to big-screen touch smartphones. But it was when the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY was announced that gamers hearts went aflutter. The PlayStation phone has been rumored ever since Sony joined Ericsson and now it's finally as real as it gets - and it's in our hands at last.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY official photos
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY is half phone, half portable game console - Android all the way.
What sets the PLAY apart from other phones on the market are the dedicated game controls - the are pretty much the same controls you will find on a PSP Go or a PlayStation DualShock controller and there is the 4" touchscreen of course.
How can it get better than that? A catalog of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games for one (though we will have to wait a while for the PS2 games). When the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY launches, there should be about 50 optimized games in its Playstation Pocket game store. Not a bad startup catalog.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY as a glance:
Gaming is central to the XPERIA PLAY but it does not eclipse the Android smartphone. A 4" WVGA (480x854) touchscreen, a 1GHz CPU and Android 2.3 Gingerbread allow the PLAY to handle day-to-day smartphone tasks with ease.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY Live Shots
Display and dedicated gaming controls
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY has a 4" 16M-color LCD screen of FWVGA (480 X 854) resolution. It's not what Sony Ericsson calls a Reality display and there is no Bravia Engine there either.
Nevertheless, the screen is good when you are looking at it head on. It's not very bright even at the brightest setting but the contrast and color rendering are very good. Things deteriorate when you tilt the screen at an angle but not too much.
Text on the screen remains visible but contrats degrades rather fast (gradients appear as a solid color) and colors get vastly distorted. Make not it's an unpleasant effect that you do not get with the IPS matrix of the iPhone 4 or with currently the best AMOLED technologies (ClearBlack and SuperAMOLED).
The XPERIA PLAY display has its ups and downs
The gaming control deck pulls out smoothly thanks to the spring-assisted slider. There is no sign of wobble even when the slider is fully open.
The deck hosts a set of dedicated gaming buttons modeled after the DualShock controller for the PlayStation console.
There are four types of controles: the directional keys are on the left and the action keys on the right (marked with triangle, circle, X and a square). They are placed inside an inset circle and are very tactile.
The dedicated gaming controls : The action keys up close
The L and R trigger keys are on the right-hand side of the phone: they fall right under your forefingers behind the screen in game mode. They are big, perfectly positioned and overall very comfortable to use.
L and R trigger keys
The third type of control is the analog touch pad - there are two of them and they replace the analog sticks of a DualShock controller. Those are not all that big and you might not get all the precision you want out of them, especially if you have big fingers.
And finally, there are the standard game control keys - Start and Select, along with a handy Menu key (which is shortcut to the game settings). These keys are small and out of the way, so you would not hit them accidentally during play.
The Start and Select Keys
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY is not a small phone, or especially thing but when it comes to playing games this bulk is actually a good thing. It allows you to get a stable grip on the phone, which gets pretty big when slid open.
A solid grip is vital to a good gaming experience, especially since you have your index fingers and thumbs moving around quickly on the control deck and behind the screen on the shoulder keys.
Sony Eircsson XPERIA PLAY held in the hand
Overall, the XPERIA PLAY is not too comfortable to hold in one hand and use as a phone but it's got an excellent feel when held in both hands.
Mobile gaming is at an all-time high thanks to big-screen touch smartphones. But it was when the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY was announced that gamers hearts went aflutter. The PlayStation phone has been rumored ever since Sony joined Ericsson and now it's finally as real as it gets - and it's in our hands at last.
What sets the PLAY apart from other phones on the market are the dedicated game controls - the are pretty much the same controls you will find on a PSP Go or a PlayStation DualShock controller and there is the 4" touchscreen of course.
How can it get better than that? A catalog of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games for one (though we will have to wait a while for the PS2 games). When the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY launches, there should be about 50 optimized games in its Playstation Pocket game store. Not a bad startup catalog.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY as a glance:
- General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA and HSUPA support
- From factor: Touchscreen side-slider with dedicated gaming controls
- Dimensions: 4.0" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels), multi-touch input
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon platform: 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU
- OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- Memory: 400MB storage, 512MB RAM, microSD card slot, 8GB card included in the retail box
- Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, face detection and touch focus; WVGA video recording at 30fps
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
- Misc: Sony Ericsson Timescape UI, active noise cancelation with dedicated mic, built-in accelerometer, proximity sensor, digital compass, secondary video-call camera
Gaming is central to the XPERIA PLAY but it does not eclipse the Android smartphone. A 4" WVGA (480x854) touchscreen, a 1GHz CPU and Android 2.3 Gingerbread allow the PLAY to handle day-to-day smartphone tasks with ease.
Display and dedicated gaming controls
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY has a 4" 16M-color LCD screen of FWVGA (480 X 854) resolution. It's not what Sony Ericsson calls a Reality display and there is no Bravia Engine there either.
Nevertheless, the screen is good when you are looking at it head on. It's not very bright even at the brightest setting but the contrast and color rendering are very good. Things deteriorate when you tilt the screen at an angle but not too much.
Text on the screen remains visible but contrats degrades rather fast (gradients appear as a solid color) and colors get vastly distorted. Make not it's an unpleasant effect that you do not get with the IPS matrix of the iPhone 4 or with currently the best AMOLED technologies (ClearBlack and SuperAMOLED).
The gaming control deck pulls out smoothly thanks to the spring-assisted slider. There is no sign of wobble even when the slider is fully open.
The deck hosts a set of dedicated gaming buttons modeled after the DualShock controller for the PlayStation console.
There are four types of controles: the directional keys are on the left and the action keys on the right (marked with triangle, circle, X and a square). They are placed inside an inset circle and are very tactile.
The L and R trigger keys are on the right-hand side of the phone: they fall right under your forefingers behind the screen in game mode. They are big, perfectly positioned and overall very comfortable to use.
The third type of control is the analog touch pad - there are two of them and they replace the analog sticks of a DualShock controller. Those are not all that big and you might not get all the precision you want out of them, especially if you have big fingers.
And finally, there are the standard game control keys - Start and Select, along with a handy Menu key (which is shortcut to the game settings). These keys are small and out of the way, so you would not hit them accidentally during play.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY is not a small phone, or especially thing but when it comes to playing games this bulk is actually a good thing. It allows you to get a stable grip on the phone, which gets pretty big when slid open.
A solid grip is vital to a good gaming experience, especially since you have your index fingers and thumbs moving around quickly on the control deck and behind the screen on the shoulder keys.
Overall, the XPERIA PLAY is not too comfortable to hold in one hand and use as a phone but it's got an excellent feel when held in both hands.
