List Price: $609.99
Sale Price: $504.98
Today's Bonus: 17% Off
I purchased this as a pseudo inexpensive replacement for a broken Nexus 4. Frankly, I wasn't really expecting much but I actually prefer this over the fragile (screen) Nexus 4. Yes, it is a two core vs four core processor but in normal use, I don't really experience much difference. All of these phones have gotten so powerful that at this point, anything from the past year or so has more than enough speed/ power for most users imo.
Anyway, a few things I really like on this phone over the Nexus 4 are:
1) Much more ergonomic in use as far as comfort when handling and holding. The curved, textured back of the Xperia TX is the main reason. The Nexus 4, like so many other newer phones, is a flat slab and, because of it's rear glass surface, is also very slippery to handle
2) Much better built in camera with a dedicated physical shutter button on the side of the phone.
3) Removable back with removable battery (for easy replacement) and a micro SD card slot. I currently have a 64GB card in mine. I really despise this current trend of disposable phones with non removable batteries and full reliance on data/ info from the cloud. It's nice to have additional on board storage for music, movies, maps, photos and so forth.
4) Sony's skin/ interface. My wife owns a Samsung Galaxy S3 and even though I'm really knowledgeable about all things Android, I'm absolutely lost when she hands me her phone. The interface on Samsung's is really busy and non intuitive imo. She loves it so perhaps it's just something one gets used to. The Sony interface does not stray too far from basic android and where it does, I find it an improvement. Very intuitive. In fact, I often root every phone I have owned in order to run a better, more featured custom rom but the Sony rom is so nice, I really did not find it as necessary. Nova Launcher is all it really needs for me to be happy.
5) Fairly simple to root out of the box. I did end up rooting but really the only thing I did this for was to be able to install Titanium Backup. There is also a very good sound mod (Acid sound mod) which dramatically improves sound (adds Beats audio and so on) and also a Cyber-shot mod app that adds quality and features to the built in camera. These are not really essential imo but do add to the user experience.
In my research on this phone, I came across a few points I will mention here. First, battery life. I don't find it terrible but it's not great either. I think one can probably easily expect a days use out of the phone. Second, screen quality. There were apparently two screens offered at one time. I have the later one which is supposedly worse than the first. Anyway, I find it great myself. It does suffer from a narrow viewing angle/ washes out at extreme angles (it's not an IPS panel) but viewed normally from the front, it looks terrific.
So, if you are on T-Mobile and are looking for a very nice phone at a decent price, look no further!
0 comments:
Post a Comment