Xperia™ PLAY by Sony Ericsson
- Backordered-Available to ship: unknown
$309.99
with a new Verizon Wireless Wireless account
Xperia™ PLAY by Sony Ericsson
Included Accessories
- Xperia PLAY by Sony Ericsson
- 1500 mAh battery
- GreenHeart Wall/USB charger
- Product Safety & Warranty Brochure
- Quick Start Guide
- 8GB microSD card pre-installed
- 3.5mm adapter cable
Customer Reviews click to collapse contents
Xperia™ PLAY by Sony Ericsson
Customer Rating: 2.5
by Jill -- May 2nd 2012 -- Toledo, OH
The battery life on this phone stinks. And I always get force closes even in the middle of phone calls. If I didn't get this phone for free I'd be asking for my money back!! Sony could do a lot better.
Customer Rating: 2.3
by Jane -- April 14th 2012 -- Muskegon, MI
This phone is horrible. For being a gamer phone the screen quality should be way better. The graphics are dim and causes the game to be difficult to play. It freezes and shuts off all the time and the battery is worthless. Come on Sony! You guys can do better than this
Customer Rating: 4
by barney -- January 12th 2012 -- ventura, CA
Does this connect onto your psn network and can you chat or send PM's with your online friends on the psn network?
Customer Rating: 2.3
by Stephanie -- December 22nd 2011 -- Detroit, MI
It is horrible, it always freezes up, and it drops calls. The battery life
Customer Rating: 5
by Lawrence Mcdougald -- December 11th 2011 -- Newark, NJ
Expert Review click to collapse contents
Xperia™ PLAY by Sony Ericsson
What cell phone compares to this model? The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is similar in size and has the same feel in hand as the DROID Incredible 2 by HTC.
Why should I get this phone? This is more than just a solid Android 2.3 cell phone, its also a rich mobile gaming device.
In a nutshell: The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY, also known as the PlayStation phone, is a true gaming phone that doesnt sacrifice cell phone features to deliver a rich gaming and multimedia experience.At first glance, the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY looks like most of the other Android smartphones on the market. It has a power button on the top of the phone, while the left side sports a 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB port for charging the smartphone. Youll also find the four basic navigation keys (Back, Home, Menu, and Search) at the base of the cell phone. At the top front of the phone hidden by the Sony Ericsson logo is a front-facing VGA camera, while as expected the back of the cell phone has a 5.1-megapixel camera with a flash. It sports a bright 4-inch touchscreen that isnt as vibrant as a Super AMOLED screen, but the graphics are sharp. Theres a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard with a predictive text feature that can be used in horizontal and vertical modes. Its the standard Android keyboard and the Swype keyboard isnt an option. Using the keyboard was acceptable, but we had more accuracy when we used it in horizontal mode. Overall, the cell phone feels good in the hand and despite the black plastic casing the Xperia PLAY is definitely durable.
Its not until you take a closer look at the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY that you realize this isnt your standard Android smartphone. On closer inspection, youll notice the addition of two large buttons flanking the volume adjustment key on the right side of the phone. These are the Left and Right Trigger buttons. You might recognize them from the PlayStation 3 game controller. The similarities between the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and the PlayStation game controller dont stop there. Slide the screen to the right to reveal the game pad. It has all the controls you need to play a PlayStation game: Directional buttons, game menu, touch pad, PlayStation buttons (triangle, square, circle and x), select key, and start key. The controls are easy to use and the games all have information about which keys or buttons to use when. So whether youre a first time user of PlayStation games or an avid game player youll have not problem playing games out-of-the-box.
Testing the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY
Making Calls: During calls we could hear callers pretty clearly and callers said they had a similar experience on their end. However, we did sense a bit of a hiss on our end whenever we spoke. Regardless of how close you hold the smartphone to your face, the End Call button never seems to get accidentally hit.
- Volume Adjustment: You can use the side buttons to adjust the volume, but we rarely needed to use them.
- Speakerphone: Call quality is acceptable when using this feature. We didnt cut each other off when speaking simultaneously.
Operating System: The smartphone comes loaded with the Android 2.3 OS, sports a 1GHz processor, and has an 8GB microSD card pre-installed. Theres plenty of room to store files, music, and pictures out-of-the-box. It also supports multitasking and multiple screens with the ability to organize apps just about any way you want. Overall, the user interface is fairly straightforward and icon friendly. The main benefit of the Android 2.3 Ginerbread OS is an overall improved user experience. In short, everything on the phone is much smoother, slicker and faster.
At the base of the screen are three quick launch buttons for Phone, Apps, and Web Browser. On either side of those buttons are dots that you can use to navigate to the five home screens that are all customizable (Tip: To add a shortcut, widget, folder or wallpapers to a homescreen, simply touch and hold the screen until the Add to Home screen window appears and then choose what youd like added.). Verizon has included a few apps on the cell phone such as Amazon Kindle, Verizon App store, Backup Assistant, Skype Mobile, VZ Navigator, and My Verizon Mobile. That said, the user interface is a straightforward Google Android experience, so no overlays. As expected, there are also quite a few games (see Games for more information).
- Web Navigation: You can easily access any website you want simply by entering the name of the site in the Google search bar, which you can change to search the Web, apps or contacts. (Tip: To add more search options, press the arrow below the Google icon on the Google Search bar. Next, select the Settings icon in the upper right hand corner and a list of searchable items will appear including features such as music and messaging. Simply check the box next to the item you want to be able to search quickly.) The cell phone does support Adobe FlashPlayer . We did also appreciate that you can have multiple browser windows open simultaneously and easily navigate between them. (Tip: To see the web sites you have open on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY, select the Menu option at the base of the phone and then choose Windows.) Overall, surfing the web on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY was fast over a WiFi connection. That said, even using the phones 3G connection we didnt have to wait for pages to load. It just wasnt as instantaneous as it was using WiFi.
- Social Media: The are no social networking apps included on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY out-of-the box, but if you want to load them on the phone you can easily download them from the Android Market.
Camera Features: The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY sports a rear-facing 5.1-megapixel camera on the back of the cell phone and a front-facing VGA camera. The smartphone may lack a tiny mirror on the back for framing self-portraits, but once in the camera app you can easily switch to the front camera lens if you want to snap pictures of yourself (Tip: To switch between the front and back camera lens, launch the camera app from the main menu. Next, press the icon of either a landscape or portrait in the lower left hand corner of the screen and you can select the front or back camera.).
- Shutter Speed: We found the shutter speed on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY to be fast enough, but you shouldnt rely on it to capture action shots.
- Picture Quality: We found colors to be true and details clear, but not crisp when looking at pictures on the phone.
- Photo Settings: You can control the flash, focus, exposure, resolution, white balance, set location, select a scene mode (automatic, portrait, landscape, action, night, night portrait, party, beach, or snow), effects (normal, mono, negative, solarize, and sepia), and quality (fine, super fine, and normal).
- Video Features: You can record video with this Android cell phone. We found quality was acceptable, but we preferred watching movies and YouTube videos on the cell phone to our own creations.
Music Features: Playback of music through the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY speaker is solid; songs sounded loud, but not distorted or too tinny.
- Formats Supported: We were able to play MP3, and unprotected AAC (Apples audio format) files. The player doesnt play unprotected WMA (Microsofts audio format) music files.
- Features: Repeat, Shuffle, and Playlists (you can even create playlists on the cell phone). You can also save tunes stored in your cell phone as a ringtone, but not as an alarm..
Connectivity: The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY works with Verizons 3G networks.
- Bluetooth: The cell phone worked seamlessly with the Motorola T505 and callers didnt know we were using a Bluetooth connection. We were also able to connect the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY with a MacBook Pro and transfer contacts, pictures, and music.
- WiFi: It has 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (thats pretty secure) and we were able to log onto available WiFi networks to surf the Web or send/receive e-mail. It just takes moments to set up. The only thing you need is the WiFi network you want to use and password if needed. We also recommend using a WiFI connection when downloading Xperia PLAY games.
Battery Life: Although, this is only a 3G cell phone, we found that the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY It delivered better battery life performance than other 3G and 4G Android cell phones currently available. We were able to go about three days before needing to recharge the cell phone, when we had the cell phones screen set at half the brightness (the Xperia PLAY screen was still easy to view) and used it to check e-mail, surf the web, listen to music, play games, and take a few pictures.Overall, the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is both a solid Android phone and portable gaming device. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS makes using this cell phone a breeze, while the games could keep you well entertained on the go.
