List Price: $469.99
Sale Price: $300.00
Today's Bonus: 36% Off
I'm a person who wants a few things from a phone.
1. Does the basics well (call, receive, messaging)
2. The equipment is quality (display, camera, speaker, gps, browser)
3. Relatively modern without the expensive price. (I could care less about the latest edge in smartphones, anything that is outdated before its warranty ends should not be a heavy investment.)
This phone fulfilled these challenges rather nicely.
Description:
This phone has a 4" display, finished with a rounded aluminum backing in matte black. The bar that contains the android's back, home, and menu keys is transparent. The top of the phone has the 3.5mm jack. The bottom piece is a removable plastic cap. Removing it will expose a label that shows the serial/manufacturer info. The speakerphone is on the right side of the phone, below that is the power/unlock screen button, below that button is the volume adjustment, and ends with a 2-stage dedicated camera button. There is a front facing camera for skype and a rear facing 8mp camera (6mp when used in 16:9 widescreen) equipped with a bright LED flash. On the left side of the phone there is the micro-usb charging port, the micro hdmi ouput, the slot for microsim. The micro usb and hdmi ports are uncovered whereas the microsim port is covered. Comes with in-ear headphones w/ microphone as linked here Sony MH750 Stereo Headset with Microphone and Answer/End Button for Cell Phones Black (Bulk Packaging) Factory unlocked with 1 year manufacturer warranty.
The good:
-Screen quality and brightness. Big and bright with 960x540 resolution. The indoor/outdoor visibility of the screen is just phenomenal. All the displayed text is legible and all the colors are only minimally washed out even in the southern California sunlight. At times, I use this phone in the dark and the backlight adjustment is just perfect. My eyes aren't strained at all when I do my 10-20 minute web browsing/Angry Birds session before I sleep. The screen is bright enough to be used outdoors and sensitive enough to be used indoors. As an added touch it comes with a screen protector applied by the factory.
-The camera. It is quick to focus, flash, and take a picture. The camera key can be used to activate the camera when the phone is in sleep (have to really press down on it for .5s), and it can be set to whether the phone will take a picture directly or just focused. This camera wake-up option (called Quick Launch by Sony) can be disabled altogether.
-Speaker phone quality. It's not tinny and sharp and its loud enough.
-Cellphone reception. It's been good for me even on T-mobile even without 3G and the other bands as seen in the chart Amazon as provided. WiFi strength is reasonably strong.
-Texting. 3 choices in keyboard layout, traditional T9 and 2 versions of QWERTY. There is a gesture function (dragging your finger across the letters of a word will automatically type the word), texting too quickly will activate this function so I turned it off. Auto-correct can be fully tamed. The voice-to-text works really well for me, I tried the tongue twister "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" and it worked for the most part. The only mistake that it made was instead of sea it inputted see. There are options of different language keyboards as well, English, Chinese, and Japanese.
-Optimization of Android OS by Sony. Very quick to jump from menu to menu, app to app. Applies updates independently with just a WiFi source. Facebook integration works, Skype works depending on bandwith strength.
-Overall quality and feel. Thin and well weighted. The touchscreen is very responsive asides from the trouble I have swiping across screens with 1 hand. The transparent bar's keys are very responsive. It is incredibly distinct with its design, unlike those other just rectangular bars with a big screen.
-No software required to connect the Xperia P to a PC. It opens up the ~12gb of usable space like a flash drive, transfers files drag and drop style. There's an optional Xperia companion software, but I prefer the simplicity of dragging and dropping files.
-Language options. The Xperia P comes loaded with 50+ languages including multiple dialects of English, Spanish, and Chinese. As a cruel joke someone can set the language to Basa Sunda, Galego, Shqipe, or Srpski.
-The included in-ear headphones aren't the best but it's better than the cheap earbuds normally packaged with phones. The headphone's wire lacks a slider because it's the behind the neck style wire where the left bud's wire is 1/2 to 1/3 the length of the right bud.
The bad:
-Subpar battery life unless all battery saving apps are on. Leaving WiFi connected alone drained the battery in half over night. Turning on extended battery saving mode and energy saver mode on the display will double the battery life to about 2 days of moderate usage. I've managed to average 25% of battery usage daily by just sending/receiving texts with minimal WiFi usage.
-Non-removable backplate and battery. Battery life estimations are exaggerated to say the least.
-Battery gauge was finicky at first. I charged it at 20% and the battery gauge would stay at 20% even though I charged it for a full night. Restarting the phone would show 100%. This glitch is now gone after a week of usage.
-No SD card expansion.
-Auto-rotate isn't sensitive enough, I have to swing the phone around a bit if I'm laying down and texting.
-Camera key is a little stiff. Focusing with the camera is easy, taking a snapshot takes quite a bit more effort.
Update: 12/08/12
-Be mindful of the proximity sensor on the phone or you'll end up hanging on whoever you're talking to. When your face is close enough to the phone, the screen will automatically lock however I'm used to using my shoulder to hold the phone against my face. The phone will go out of place and I'll end up hitting the End Call button really easily. Sony, if you're reading this, make the range on the proximity sensor go farther on future phones.
-Restart the phone every couple of days because the apps will drain the phone's battery life even after closing them. I've forgotten to restart my phone after a busy week and I find the battery life being drained down to 65% overnight.
-After a few months of usage, the phone isn't showing any signs of slowing down. I still love using this phone.
Update: 4/26/13
-Sony has finally delivered a 4.1 Jelly Bean update to the Xperia P. However this may have caused my phone to brick itself momentarily. One day, the OS just stopped being responsive so I restarted the phone, only to have to fail to initialize and get to the homepage. So I used sony's update software to hopefully just patch and update from ICS to Jellybean. This didn't work either so I had to reformat. I consequently lost all my contacts and apps installed but still kept everything in the storage part of the phone (music, photos, etc). Since this problem was an easy fix and accidents do happen I still recommend this phone. I am not sure if this is Android's fault or Sony's fault and if this proves to be persistent than I will assume it's Sony's fault and will update this review.
-On the plus side, 4.1 Jelly Bean adds Google Now and has updated the overall look of the phone ie screen lock, icons, menu layout, color themes etc. There is now a 'Stamina Mode' which replaced 'Extended Battery Mode' to increase battery life, it now provides an estimate of the stand-by time remaining. Sony Walkman has also been updated to have an equalizer and xClarity which is an automatic equalizer.
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