Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Looks And Design

At a first glance the phone very the same in design as that of Xperia X10. Both the handsets looks very much similar to each other. The phone is pretty light weighing just 104 grams and is pretty sleek measuring just 99 x 54 x 15 mm. The phone is made up of plastic and the plastic is fingerprint-proof. The phone sports a 3 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen which is capable of displaying of 16 M colors of resolution measuring 320×480 pixels.

The display has a scratch resistant suface and is equipped with accelerometer and proximity sensors. The display offers good enough brightness and contrast and the image is pretty crisp. However, in sunlight the display suffers to some extent. The sensitivity of the screen is quite good and it responds to the slightest of touches. Overall we were quite happy with the design and construction of the device.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Applications

The phone is equipped with several in-built applications such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Talk etc. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Youtube application helps users to steam Youtube videos in your phone. Users can also download several other apps in their phone.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Gallery

The gallery of the phone automatically detects images and the gallery supports finger scrolling. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 has one finger-zoom and supports double tap zoom.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Specifications

The phone offers an internal storage of 128 MB and comes with a 2GB of memory card. The memory can be increased to 16GB with the help of a microSD card. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 OS is Android 1.6. However Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 OS upgrade can be pushed to 2.1. The phone is powered by a 600 MHz ARM 11 processor. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 keypad is QWERTY in nature.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Camera

The phone is equipped with a 3.15 MP camera which is capable of clicking pictures of resolution measuring 2048×1536 pixels. The camera is equipped with geo-tagging feature. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 camera quality is quite decent but lack of autofocus and flash tuned out to be quite disappointing. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 video is recorded at the rate of 30 fps. The video recording is not that impressive.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Connectivity And Multimedia

Connectivity is solid with Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Android. The phone has support for 2G as well as 3G. There is also support for GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP profile. Presence of Micro USB 2.0 and 3.5 mm jack further enhances connectivity of the phone. The phone has an FM raido with RDS which will be loved by music lovers. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 sound quality is loud and good enough.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Accessories

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 box contents are pretty standard. The box contents of the phone are a micro USB cable, wall charger, 2GB micro SD card, wired hadsfree and user guide.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Colors

The phone is available in several colors such as white, dark blue/, aqua blue/white, Pink/White and Silver/White.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Battery Life

The phone is equipped with standard Li-Po 1200 mAh which offers talktime of around 4 hours when the phone is operated on 2G and 5 hours when the phone is operated on 3G.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Cost

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 price in India is approximately Rs 10,000. Xperia X8 is a great phone if you are looking forward for Android experience at a cost effective price point.

Hardware

The Xperia Arc’s physical design is very clearly targeted at fashion-conscious buyers. It’s not ergonomically broken by it, but form has clearly led the way ahead of function (as illustrated by the camera lens being attached at the very top of the handset, its thickest point), but you know what, we don’t really mind that. It’s about time we admitted to ourselves that we buy phones as much for what they look like as for what they do, and we laud Sony Ericsson for having the audacity to pursue its target demographic with a highly distinctive design. Few things curb our enthusiasm as much as overly generic phones that try to be all things to all people and the Arc is commendably distant from that group.

Another important decision taken by Sony Ericsson is to equip this new Xperia with a 4.2-inch display, marking it out as the company’s biggest Android handset to date and solidifying its credentials as an entertainment device. We generally enjoyed our time handling and using the Arc, which manages to fit within nearly the same dimensions as HTC’s 4-inch Incredible S, but there is one significant flaw to its design we must point out: the back’s curvature is going the wrong way. The Arc moniker wouldn’t really make sense without the audacious concave shape, but there’s good reason why the Xperia X10, Play, Pro, and Neo all have convex rear ends and it’s that they simply fit better in the (human) hand. That’s arguably the only concession Sony Ericsson has made in its pursuit of an aesthetically unique handset, but it does hold the Xperia Arc back from being one of the easiest-handling smartphones in the 4-inch-plus division. As it stands, it’s merely very good, with neat curves wrapping around the sides and the aforementioned thinness and light weight (117g / 4.1oz) making it a pleasure to tote around.

Contributing to the diversity  of Android key configurations, Sony Ericsson has opted for a trifecta of physical buttons on the Xperia Arc (the Back and Menu keys have swapped positions from the X10 arrangement), which are thankfully wide, easily identifiable, and highly intuitive to use. Aside from the good clicky responsiveness of each button, that’s in large part down to the omission of the Search key, which we can’t say we missed at all. Its absence paves the way for SE to center the Home button (a good thing) and generally simplifies a user control scheme that hardly needed to be quite so complex to begin with. The only downside to the Arc’s buttonry is one we spotted with the Xperia Play as well — there’s no illumination for the key labels in the dark. You get a pair of lights marking the division between each key, but their purpose is basically indecipherable when the phone’s used in the dark. An easily forgivable little foible, we’d say, on what is a very satisfying keypad.

The rest of the Arc’s exterior is mostly uneventful, consisting of flowing, pretty lines, broken up by a volume rocker and MicroUSB port on its top left shoulder, a 3.5mm headphone jack directly opposite on the right, and an HDMI output and a rather tiny power / lock key at the top. There is a physical shutter button here, but it’s positioned at the extreme bottom right of the handset, almost at the corner, which leads to awkward operation at times. Overall build quality feels robust and durable, though we’re again under the impression that Sony Ericsson wasn’t spending too richly in obtaining the construction materials. Nothing wrong with that for the most part, we don’t begrudge manufacturers making savings where they don’t cost the end product, but we did manage to induce a little creaking from the frame, particularly around the volume rocker.

Internals

You should be familiar with Qualcomm’s hardware inside the Xperia Arc by now. The current 8255 Snapdragon and its Adreno 205 graphics buddy have already appeared in the myTouch 4G, Desire HD (and its US cousin the Inspire 4G), Incredible S, Desire S, and the rest of Sony Ericsson’s 2011 Xperia line. The second-gen chip combo’s characterized by distinctly improved power efficiency relative to the original Snapdragon and somewhere in the region of 15 percent better overall performance. 720p video playback is no problem and our Xperia Play testing showed all Android games will work flawlessly too. Today  they will, anyhow. The same proviso that applies to the Play is valid here. This summer will be an extremely active time in terms of manufacturers upgrading their smartphone lines with dual-core processors and juicier GPUs, meaning that come fall, there could well be things and games your humble 1GHz Snapdragon core is no longer perfectly capable of handling. The 1500mAh battery inside the Arc doesn’t quite match the Play’s endurance, but will still give you a solid day’s worth of regular use (and not much more). The slight gap between Sony Ericsson’s two phones can be easily explained by the fact the Arc’s powering a screen that’s five percent larger and a great bit brighter than the Play’s.

Display

The first thing you’ll notice about the Arc’s 4.2-inch display, necessarily before you’ve turned it on, is just how black  it is. There’s a dark border framing the LCD, but as you can see above, there’s almost no telling the two apart. This compares extremely favorably with most other handsets on the market presently, whose screens tend to be a dark shade of grey rather than properly noir, and gives the inactive Arc a thoroughly gorgeous and futuristic appearance. Sadly, that doesn’t carry over once you switch the handset on, as the Xperia Arc can’t maintain such black levels in operation — it isn’t, after all, an AMOLED panel — and also suffers from narrow viewing angles, meaning you’ll be seeing colors wash out relatively quickly as you move off-center. When viewed head-on, the Arc’s display is actually above average in terms of contrast and color saturation, but we found ourselves getting annoyed with its dull appearance while looking at it lying on our desk. Viewing comfort at oblique angles hasn’t tended to be a pain point for smartphones so far, but as they grow increasingly larger and fancier, it’s becoming more important.

Of course, Sony Ericsson has a panacea for all our display worries with the inclusion of its Mobile Bravia Engine inside the Arc, leading it to describe the phone’s 854 x 480 screen as a Reality Display. The Bravia voodoo embedded within basically does a host of image optimization to give you a sharp and eye-pleasing result, and we must agree with SE, it really succeeds at its task. The visual improvements are relatively subtle, but very much tangible in practice. The only fly in the Reality ointment is that the MBE only kicks in when you’re looking at pictures or video and will do nothing to improve your general UI or browser experience. Still, the things you’ll truly care to see in most detail will indeed be multimedia items, so the Bravia Engine is an appreciated addition. A further commendation is earned by the outdoor performance of the Arc’s screen — it impressed with its visibility in direct sunlight, though we couldn’t conclusively determine how much the Bravia magic was helping with that. It certainly wasn’t making things any worse.

Camera

Let’s get the big news out of the way first, the Xperia Arc takes some really beautiful and detailed shots. It’s able to focus quickly even under challenging conditions (in our side-by-side testing, the Arc managed to focus in a low-light situation where the Play could not) and its biggest antagonist is color noise when there’s not enough light around. Sharpness is retained very well by the Exmor R sensor and there’s no reason to fear noise reduction software will blast away the tender detail in your images. If there’s one thing to bear in mind with the Arc’s output, it is that SE is doing a little bit of its own post-processing to boost colors on every shot, resulting in occasionally oversaturated pics. We understand the reasoning behind this, as it most often improves images by making them appear more vibrant and less drab, but we would have liked the option to toggle this function off.

Though actual performance gave us little cause for concern, Sony Ericsson’s custom camera software is more of a hit and miss affair. The hits are a pair of neat slideout menus, which are accessed in much the same way as Android’s window-shade. Looking at the phone in landscape mode, you have one on your right, containing a gallery of the photographs you’ve taken, and one on your left filled out with camera options and adjustments you can make. The latter displeased us a little with its scant array of available tweaks, which curiously enough doesn’t even allow you to toggle the Arc’s Macro mode on and off. You have to set the camera to automatic scene recognition and it throws the macro on when it decides it’s needed. This isn’t unheard of, as other handsets such as Motorola’s Droid X do the same, and is arguably not a huge deal for a consumer-centric phone; we’d certainly prefer to have auto-macro than none at all.

Software

There’s little on the Xperia Arc that we haven’t already discussed in our Xperia Play review. It features Android’s finest mobile build to date, skinned with Sony Ericsson’s mostly successful aesthetic tweaks and performing smoothly and responsively. For the most part. As highlighted in the camera section above, the Arc benefits from a customized camera app, which is certainly an improvement over the default in terms of functionality, but managed to crash on us a couple of times. Moreover, the Timescape widget can be a real spoiler with all its resource consumption, forcing the occasional stutter in UI navigation, however given that it’s merely an optional extra you can remove within seconds of turning the phone on, we can’t bemoan it too much. The onscreen keyboard, particularly in portrait mode, would’ve been better left in its stock Gingerbread form, though we really like Sony Ericsson’s changes in the messaging, contacts, and applications subsections. All three work spectacularly, with nary a hint of lag, and look splendid. Additional, though entirely superficial, marks are earned for the neat ghosting animation you’re treated to when tapping the unlock or mute sliders on the lock screen.

Browser performance is a little unconvincing, as neither scrolling nor zooming is on the same level as what the finest Android, Windows phone 7 or iOS devices can do. That said, the Arc can chew through web-based Flash video like a champ, which is likely to be a lot more important to users than the amount of butter their scrollwheel’s been greased up with. Beyond those Sony Ericsson peculiarities, you’re really looking at your standard Android user experience. You get access to a truly vast array of applications, games and content, backed by the knowledge that the insatiable growth of the platform will only attract further development efforts. Amazon has just delivered an Appstore and a music cloud storage service tailored specifically to Android, while RIM has made its PlayBook tablet compatible with Android apps — it’s an OS with a truly bright future ahead of it. Having version 2.3 preloaded on the Arc also means you’re starting at the highest possible entry point and won’t have to fret about upgrades for a good few months at least. Additionally, if you’re a big Gmail and / or Gtalk user, there’s no better phone OS than Google’s own to make use of those services on the move.

Wrap-up

Sony Ericsson could’ve called this the Xperia Art and no one would have been surprised. Its 4.2-incher is one of the most photogenic smartphones we’ve come across yet and its design exhibits an artistry and a flamboyance we rarely get to see. Construction materials might have been better, but then the Arc comes in at a very reasonable £425 ($680) price off contract — placing it at the lower end of the Android smartphone pricing scale in the UK — so some tradeoffs have to be expected. Where we can’t hide our disappointment is in seeing poor video recording attached to a strong camera sensor. It just feels like a missed opportunity for Sony Ericsson to not match the hardware’s capabilities with suitably strong software and thereby tie this up as a comprehensive multimedia standout. We also can’t help but be vexed by the Arc’s shallow viewing angles, though they were admittedly offset by strong performances in video playback using the Mobile Bravia Engine. The UI tweaks on top of Android, while pretty to look at, do appear to be more resource-intensive than the stock stuff and Sony Ericsson’s input does seem to have led to a tiny bit less stability and responsiveness all round.

All that said, we liked the Arc and we think it has a lot to offer to the right sort of buyer. If you’re obsessive about display technologies and vanilla Google software like we are, we’d advise looking at the tried and tested Nexus S. But if you just fancy an uncomplicated, big-screened phone to enjoy movies on during your daily commute, the Xperia Arc might just be your perfect candidate. It doesn’t really lack anything on the feature front, but it’s Sony Ericsson’s execution and occasionally odd design choices that hold it back from being a triumph.

With its Greenheart range of phones, Sony Ericsson has shown its concern about the environment. Sony Ericsson Cedar is another phone from the company’s Greenheart range which already has models like Elm and Hazel. Sony Ericsson Cedar Greenheart is crafted primarily out of recycled materials and is an entry level handset which will perfectly suit mobile users concerned about the environment. Read on the Sony Ericsson Cedar review to know more about the device.

Sony Ericsson Cedar – Looks And Design

Sony Ericsson Cedar mobile phone has nothing extraordinary to boast about its looks and design. The phone is made up of recycled plastic and easily slips into your pocket measuring 111 x 49 x 15.5 mm. It is quite light weighing just 84 grams. The back of the phone has curves at both end which makes gripping of the phone a bit difficult. The major focus of the phone’s weight is in middle. The curved back though makes the phone visually appealing. We felt that the ergonomics of the phone could have been made better.

The Sony Ericsson Cedar mobile screen is non-touch TFT which measures 2.2 inches and is capable of displaying pictures of resolution measuring 240×320 pixels. Though the viewing angles of the screen are good but when you tilt the phone, the contrast is cut down drastically. Brightness level on the whole is decent. The keys of Sony Ericsson Cedar are semi-rubberized in nature which offers a pretty good grip. Entry of texts is also pretty comfortable.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Applications

The phone is equipped with some preloaded apps such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Users can also download other applications on their phone. Sony Ericsson Cedar Youtube application helps you to.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Features

Despite being a pretty basic phone, Sony Ericsson Cedar handset has some great features. Two of the most impressive features of the device is its support for 3G and reasonably priced price tag. The alpha-numeric keypad coupled with optional widgets are some of the other features of the device.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Specs

With an internal memory of 280 MB, Sony Ericsson Cedar has decent storage for storing photos, music and videos. The memory can be increased to 16GB with the help of microSD card. We were a bit disappointed to discover that there is no inclusion of microSD card along with the phone. We believe that this can be one of the major Sony Ericsson Cedar issues when it comes to phones within the Cedar’s range.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Camera

Sony Ericsson Cedar has a fixed 2 MP camera which is capable of clicking pictures of resolution measuring 1600×1200 pixels. Sony Ericsson Cedar camera quality is that of a basic snapper and since the camera lacks advanced features, hence clicking photographs in dim light is a problem. The camera is good for basic snapping and picture messages. Sony Ericsson Cedar video is best suitable for MMS and with the phone recording QVGA videos@15 fps, video recording of the phone is not so great.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Connectivity And Multimedia

One of the highlights of Sony Ericsson Cedar is its support for 3G. The phone also has support for GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth 2.1 with support for A2DP profile. There is also a microUSB 2.0 and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Internet browsing on the phone is somewhat hindered poor page formatting and since the resolution of the screen is pretty low, hence watching videos is not that a great experience.

The phone has a stereo FM with RDS which will be loved by music lovers. Sony Ericsson Cedar sound quality is decent enough and listening to music is facilitated by the presence of mega-bass equalizer. The music interface is pretty simple and we enjoyed Sony Ericsson Cedar music quality a lot.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Battery

The phone is powered by a standard Li-Po 1000 mAh battery which provides a talk time of around 12 hours when the phone is operated on 2G and up to 5 hours when operated on 3G.  The battery life of the phone is quite good.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Accessories

Sony Ericsson Cedar box contents are standard in nature. During unboxing, we found the device to be equipped with a charger, battery and user guide.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Colors

The phone is available in two colors – black/silver and black/red.

Sony Ericsson Cedar Cost

Sony Ericsson Cedar price in the USA is around $ 120 while Sony Ericsson Cedar price in India is approximately Rs 5,000. Sony Ericsson Cedar is more than an entry level phone with its 3G support, improved functionality and decent interface. There are no major issues with the device and if you are looking for an environment friendly device equipped with decent features, then you can bank upon Sony Ericsson Cedar.

When Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone will be released in March, there will be 50 games for the device available by default. There are many famous and popular games among these. It is known that the supported games include Assassin’s Creed, Guitar Hero, Battlefield, Dead Space, Dungeon Defender, The Sims and Fifa 10.

As we already mentioned, Xperia Play will be released in the United States in March. Customers in Europe will probably have to wait until April to be able to buy it.

Xperia Play Tech Specs

The smartphone runs on a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor that  can run games at a 60 frames per second framerate.

There is 400 MB of integrated memory in the device, which is expandable with microSD up to 32GB (8GB card will be included in the package).

Xperia Play features a 4.0 inch capacitive LCD touchscreen with a 480×854 pixel resolution and 16.7 million colors.  It also has a 5.1 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash, image stabilizer, geotagging and video recording capability.

In terms of connectivity, it is backed by the HSPA network to Wi-Fi (you can play with your friends over WIFI connection), Bluetooth and A-GPS. On the left side there is a 3.5 mm jack for headphones and a micro-USB port, while on the right side we find that the volume and other buttons for gaming.
The Xperia Play has a video output that allows you play the games on a TV screen for example. It weighs 175 grams and its dimensions are 119 x 62 x 16 mm. It also has got stereo speakers, but these doesn’t seem to be very powerful as the device is quite small. It would be a better idea to use decent headphones instead.

The phone has a sliding controller board like we have seen on phones with a physical QWERTY keyboard.

Xperia Play battery life

Sony Ericsson says that it is possible to play with the device for 5 and a half hours without having to recharge it.
Talking with the phone drains the battery a bit less. Manufacturer promises that the phone battery enables 8 hours and 25 minutes of talk time and 425 hours of stand-by.

Xperia Play Price

The exact price of Xperia Play is not yet known, but it has been suggested that it could be around $750 USD or 550 Euros without a contract.

Xperia Play Games list

The full list of games on Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is not yet known, but some titles have already slipped through:

* Assassin’s Creed
* Guitar Hero 6
* Battlefield
* Dead Space
* Dungeon Defender
* The Sims
* Fifa 10
* Bruce Lee
* Asphalt Racing
* Gun Brothers
* Super KO Boxing 2
* Family Guy Timewarped
* Millionaire City

Conclusion

In addition to gaming, this phone has so many features, that it can be difficult to put the device away from your hands for a while. For example, you can listen your favourite music with your own headphones, take pictures or surf the net. At the same time you can also stay informed with the latest news via twitter, facebook and the like. You can also take photos or videos with the camera and send them to your friends via bluetooth.
The game features combined with the latest version of Android OS  Gingerbread 2.3 show that this is definately going to be a device worth buying.

Sony Ericsson Yendo – Looks And Design

Sony Ericsson Yendo is a stylish phone which looks pretty much like Xperia X10 Mini. However, Sony Ericsson Yendo mobile is a solid touch screen handset which is made up of plastic with a soft matte coating on its back. The phone is comfortable and solid to grip and overall has an elegant design.

On the size front, the phone is reasonable with dimensions measuring 93.5x52x25.5 mm. Sony Ericsson Yendo is pretty light weighing just 81 grams. The phone is equipped with a 2.6 inches TFT capacitive touch screen display which is capable of displaying 256 K colors of resolution measuring 240×320 pixels. Though the readability of the screen is affected in sunlight, but considering the price tag associated with the phone, we felt the display to be reasonably alright.

You can find the micro-USB port located on the left side of the phone with on the upper right side, you can locate the volume keys. The overall looks and design of the phone is quite appealing.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Specification

The phone is powered by 156 MHz processor and the phone’s internal memory measures up to 5 MB. The memory can be increased to a whopping 16 GB with the help of microSD card. Sony Ericsson Yendo colors are rich and vibrant with the phone being available in several colors such as black, blue, red, silver, pink, orange etc.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Features

Being a walkman phone, Sony Ericsson Yendo is equipped with several astounding features. Some of the standout features of the phone are:

* The four corner touch user interface of the phone allows you to find important phone feature in one hand operation.
* The MediaGo app available in the phone allows you to easily share file between your PC and phone.
* The phone also has robust social networking features which allow you to easily stay in touch with your family and friends.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Connectivity and Multimedia

Being a budgetary phone, Sony Ericsson Yendo’s connectivity is not that robust as compared to other high end phones. The phone only supports 2G Network along with support for GPRS and EDGE. There is no support for 3G and Wi-Fi. Local connectivity is supported by the presence of Bluetooth2.1 and USB 2.0. The web browsing experience of the phone is also quite decent.

The phone is equipped with a FM radio along with RDS. The interface of the FM is simple and so is the video player MP4 videos are decent enough. Sony Ericsson Yendo is unable to play DivX/Xvid or AVI files.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Camera

Sony Ericsson Yendo comes with a 2 Mega-pixel camera which is capable of clicking pictures of resolution measuring 1600×1200 pixels. The camera lacks flash and autofocus, but to be honest considering the phone budget we did not expect the camera to be that great. The camera interface is pretty simple and straight forward. Sony Ericsson Yendo Video did not impress us at all. You can record videos at the rate of 30 fps.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Battery

The phone is equipped with a standard Li-Po 970 mAh (BST-38) battery which offers a talk time of around 3 hours with a standby time of approximately 300 hours.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Launch Date

Announced in June 2010, the phone was launched in October 2010.

Sony Ericsson Yendo Cost and Final Say

Sony Ericsson Yendo Price in India is approximately Rs 8000 while the price of the phone in United States is approximately $175. Sony Ericsson Yendo is a mid range priced phone whose application and features match pretty well as compared to its counterparts in this segment. If you want to have touch-screen experience at a cost effective price point then go for Sony Ericsson Yendo.

With a large high-res screen, a Snapdragon CPU and ample amount of RAM the XPERIA X10 is nothing short of the top-end Android smartphones currently on the market. However its outdated Android version was holding it back and it found it hard to compete in the top tier.

Android 1.6 Donut wasn’t terribly bad for its time but it’s no match for either the functionality or the performance of Eclair and Froyo. That’s why we felt that the recent Eclair update it received was significant enough to justify a new article, rather than just update the old review.

Of course we aren’t going to repeat everything and we are going to focus on the new stuff only. If you feel like reading about the hardware we suggest you check out our original review.

Now let’s start with the XPERIA X10 update changelog so you know what to expect here.

• 720p HD video recording
• Continuous auto focus in video recording
• 5 homescreens
• Live wallpapers
• HTML5 support in web browser
• Backup and restore app
• New lock screen

Now these are only the big ones – the ones you notice straight after powering the phone on. There are also a few dozens of minor tweaks including new system fonts, a thicker notification bar, etc.

There are also a couple of notable absentees from the list. Multi-touch and 16M color support are still a no-go on the XPERIA X10, even after the Eclair update, which got Sony Ericsson quite a lot of critics already.

Now those two aren’t deal-breakers in isolation, but they certainly matter and give the X10 somewhat of an uneven start. They have basically reduced the XPERIA X10 error margin to a minimum so let’s hope all the rest of it works as promised.

User interface

This is how we started the software part of our first review of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10: “The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 runs version 1.6 of the Android OS which seems a bit outdated now that version 2.1 is already available on several handsets.”

Seven months later Sony Ericsson finally arrived at the 2.1 Eclair stop. Unfortunately, Android is all about Froyo these days and their X10 flagship is still not providing users with the latest available Google platform.

Yet the upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2 is mostly a performance upgrade, while Eclair also brought a lot of new features so we won’t be deducting so many points this time. Plus Sony Ericsson offers its own Timescape and Mediascape UI as a compensation so it’s not too bad really – it’s just prioritizing different things.

The changes brought by the X10 update from Donut to Eclair start with the lockscreen. The arc slider we appreciated so much is now gone to be replaced with an iPhone-style horizontal slider.

A lot of the users were complaining about that lockscreen, saying that they were unable to complete the pattern required for unlocking the devices easily, which explains why Sony Ericsson got rid of it. We however are rather sorry about that as we found the arc pattern the most natural and comfortable unlocking move. Still it’s nothing that a lockscreen customization app won’t fix.

Next we come to the homescreen that now has been extended to five panes, rather than three. There’s also support for live wallpapers, which we really find very attractive – no matter how power-hungry and unpractical they may be.

Unfortunately the notification area remained untouched and our hopes for Sony Ericsson to add some radio controls there remained unanswered. Well at least there’s still the power widget but you will have to go to the homescreen each time you want to use it.

Probably the most notable improvement of the general user interface of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is its performance. Indeed as the benchmarks below show the X10 is much snappier now (though you probably won’t feel it as three times snappier), making better use of the Snapdragon CPU that’s inside it.

Backup and restore

Sony Ericsson added a cool new app, called Backup and restore, to the XPERIA X10 with the update. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what it does but it takes a personal try to see how quickly it works. Indeed it’s certainly the quickest way to backup your applications, contacts, messages, settings, bookmarks etc. on the X10 and is probably among the more functional too.

Not only does it allow you to select what kind of content should go into the backup (you can create as many files as you want, each with different stuff inside), but it also allows scheduling automatic backups that will start at a pre-set time.

This way you can make your phone backup your information each night when you aren’t using the phone so it doesn’t take you some of the quality time you spend with the handset during the day.

Timescape UI

It wouldn’t be too long of a shot to suggest that it was Timescape and Mediascape that were responsible for the delayed X10 update. Sony Ericsson has made it clear on numerous occasions that those apps are rather important for the smartphone experience so they had to make their Eclair port that works flawlessly before they release the update.

They finally did and social network fans will certainly appreciate the effort. There isn’t much new functionality added but the current one is probably more than sufficient anyway.

With Timescape giving you an aggregated view of all your social network updates along with your recent correspondence (SMS, MMS, email and call log) you can stay in touch as easy as it has ever been.

You get eight tabs, which you can alternate by horizontal sweeps, by scrolling the icons on the bottom or by simply pressing any of those icons. In addition to you Facebook and Twitter updates and recent messages and calls Timescape also shows your freshly captured photos and tracks you have listened to as of late. It’s almost like an automatic diary.

And you can update your status straight from here, or go to the email/message client with a single click to reply to something you have received.

This time the option to make Timescape your homescreen is nowhere in sight so you have to rely on the widget to enter the app. We actually prefer it this way as we also like keeping other widgets around so it’s not too great of a loss.

Mediascape brings all your media together

Mediascape is to your multimedia files, what Timescape is to your social activities. You get three different categories – Music, Video and Photo, each showing your recently added, recently viewed/played files and your favorites in small rows of thumbnail images at the top of the screen.

All the three tabs feature a More button, which will lead you to the full-featured galleries. Choosing more in the Music tab will lead you to the typical music player sorting – recently added, recently played, favorites, albums, tracks, genres, etc.

A really cool feature of the photos tab allows you to link your X10 to a Facebook or Picasa account you will be able to access your web images straight from you handset. Most other Eclair devices do that for Picasa only.

The music and video player have pretty much identical interfaces with neat styling and straightforward controls. Equalizers though are still a no-go on the X10.

The Timescape gallery is originally meant to work in portrait mode only. The gallery contents can be filtered by Recently Viewed, Favorites, Albums and Friends.

Images in each category are then displayed on a separate screen. Even if you choose to view all the pictures stored on the handset unfiltered, you will still be looking at a single vertically scrollable screen of thumbnails.

Only when you select a single image, the accelerometer comes into play allowing you to auto-rotate it.

The video tab has no online access here but you get all your videos in a plain and easy to use thumbnail view. Like most of its Android siblings, the XPERIA X10 lacks support for DivX and XviD videos and those files (if there are any stored in your memory card) don’t even get listed.

The new update gets rid of the lag when browsing images. Zooming is also rather fast so the performance is great generally. However, there’s no multi-touch, so you will count on double tapping or the dedicated on-screen controls for zooming.

Items in the galleries (albums and tracks in the music library, images in the gallery) all have an added Infinite button, which has been often praised in Sony Ericsson marketing materials.

Touching the button, will list all the related content – both local and online.

For instance, you can view all the other tracks in the same music album, all the images taken on the same day, related content in the PlayNow media store or even related videos on YouTube. You can even start a relevant Google search.

8 megapixel camera

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 sports an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash capable of taking photos at a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. We never expected the Eclair update to have some too great effect on the still shots and we were right.

The camera was pretty decent to start with and we didn’t see any reason for messing around with it in the first place. The Cybershot-inspired interface is reasonably comfortable offering five icons on the left – capturing mode, resolution, scenes, focus mode and camcorder switch. On the opposite you can set the exposure compensation and go to the camera album.

The camera interface puts the most frequently used options on the viewfinder so they’re a touch away (they can be hidden of course), but to get to the rest you need the extended settings menu. It includes options like geotagging, image stabilization, self-timer, even “smile level” to tweak the sensitivity of the smile detection.

Unfortunately the only thing that was wrong with the UI before the update is still present here – the LED flash needs to be turned on manually each time you need it and that setting is buried into the extended settings menu.

The other things we are not particularly fond of is the noticeable lag when rotating the camera interface. The moment you tilt the phone the camera UI flips to another orientation, and unfortunately, it takes at least two seconds each time. So much for catching the moment.

The image quality has remained pretty good with good detail and colors. The noise-suppression is probably a little too aggressive for our liking and the contrast could be increased but none of those are too bad.

Video recording goes HD

Now here’s the big upgrade – the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 got cool HD video recording @24fps with continuous autofocus after the update. This has more than twice the resolution of the FWVGA videos that were available before that so it’s certainly worth some attention.

This is also only the second (after the Sony Ericsson Vivaz) HD-capable cameraphone to pack continuous autofocus in video mode. It’s efficiency is a whole other question of course as picking the correct object to focus on at all times is a task hard enough even for dedicated camcorders, let alone mobile phones.

Still we like it better this way than no autofocus and kudos to Sony Ericsson for incorporating it. Here’s a video to show you how fast it adjusts.

It may take the X10 a few seconds to refocus after you reframe, but unless it’s very rapid action you are trying to capture (and cameraphones aren’t particularly good at that anyway) this won’t bother you too much.

The promised framerate is 24 fps and the handset delivers it nicely. There is an interesting trick Sony Ericsson use to achieve this – when there’s more action in your viewfinder putting a strain on the processing capabilities, the camera simply lowers the quality, instead of reducing the framerate. The result is a smoother video that has less detail, instead of a more detailed but jerkier one.

Videos are captured in MP4 format with AAC audio. Check out a couple of HD samples that we captured with our test unit.

Final words

So where does the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 stand after the update? It didn’t quite manage to take over at the top of the smartphone food chain, but to be honest we never actually expected it to. One year is a really long time in this business and understandably competitors haven’t been standing still.

However not coming straight from the R&D labs brings a huge pricing advantage to the X10. Indeed it can be found for nearly half the Desire HD price, which makes it a pretty decent bargain.

With Eclair virtually all the functionality is already there and compatibility with Android Market apps has been expanded greatly. The performance also takes a great leap forward and while it’s still not at Froyo levels, it’s good enough not to be bothering.

So as a result you get a device that won’t give you bragging rights but will give you all that it promises and throw in a few nice surprises on top (particularly for video enthusiasts and social network lovers). Sounds like a package that’s good enough for us.

Sony Ericsson are on the move recently and the Aino is very much part of the agenda. But living in the shadow of the Satio and X10 is not much fun we guess. So, the Sony Ericsson Aino is keen to live a double life. At first glance, it’s a touchscreen PMP, but on a second look it’s a regular slider phone with an extra big screen. It’s not the ultimate PlayStation phone but it does have Remote Play, to wirelessly pair with Sony’s PlayStation 3.

As far as feature phones go, the Aino has pretty much everything – excellent connectivity, full-featured navigation, a great camera, plenty of internal storage and a simple-but-snappy touch media menu.

By the way, don’t let anyone tell you touchscreen functionality is limited to the proprietary Sony Ericsson multimedia menu. We were pleasantly surprised with Opera Mini, which seemed to quite agree with the Aino touch system. Touchscreen navigation is all there and it performed very smoothly. This means touch controlled Java games might work as well.

All right, this was just a single little secret revealed. Let’s take a closer look at what else the Aino may be hiding there.

Key features

* 3″ 16M-color capacitive touchscreen, 240 x 432 pixels
* Quad-band GSM support
* Tri-band 3G with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 2Mbps HSUPA
* 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash; geotagging, touch-focus, face detection, image stabilization; VGA video recording @ 30fps
* Some degree of touchscreen functionality – touch-enabled media and camera interface
* Touch works in Java apps as well, e.g. Opera Mini
* Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS; Trial version of Wisepilot navigation software
* Wi-Fi with DLNA
* FM radio with RDS
* Stereo Bluetooth 2.1
* microSD card slot
* Wireless Bluetooth headset with 3.5 mm audio jack and nice headphones, desktop docking station and 8GB microSD card in box
* Remote play for Playstation 3

Main disadvantages

* No standard USB port
* No 3.5mm audio jack (but there’s one on the Bluetooth headset)
* Touch control is limited to camera, gallery, multimedia players and some Java apps
* Media library updates very slowly in the touch media menu
* No DivX/XviD support
* No xenon flash
* No camera lens cover

The box contents are a sweat deal too – the matching desk stand and wireless headset would fetch a pretty high price as a separate purchase, but with Aino they are part of the experience. And the 8GB microSD card in the box should be enough for most people.

Uncomfortable questions start to emerge though – the Remote Play feature doesn’t really do much more than DLNA and is useless with anythingbut PlayStation3. The touch functionality sounds great but not having it in the built-in browser sucks.
But asking these questions is missing the point. If you owned the original PlayStation, then upgraded to PlayStation 2 and have the 3rd version sitting next to your BRAVIA set, well this love letter in the shape of Sony Ericsson Aino is addressed to you.

According to the manufacturer, Sony Ericsson S312 is literally created for spontaneous photo and video. Despite the low price, this phone has several features that allow fast work with the camera. But first things first …
Design of majority of inexpensive candy bars from Sony Ericsson has long ceased to evolve significantly. Minor adjustments of the keys are made for the new models, which slightly retouch the front panel, and now the “new” phone is born. Alas, this is partly true for Sony Ericsson S312 as well.
The device is made in a monoblock form factor, traditional for Sony Ericsson devices in parallel lines and edges and not less than the traditional dimensions and mass (100 x 46 x 12,5 mm/80, 1 g). Plastic Case of Sony Ericsson S312 has a silver side faces and dark blue front and rear walls. It is noteworthy that in addition to blue, they plan to release models in the light-silver case that is sure to catch the fancy girls.
The mirror sheeting display is originally made. It is not abrupt halt at the edges of the shell and rests in a plastic frame, but as a smooth “rolled” on the edge. The absence of the plastic frame on the perimeter of display has given the new product a fresh and even futuristic look. The device is pleasant to hold in your hand – to the extent of heavy, pleasant to the touch, and pleases the eye. For the budget model it is the ultimate dream.

Display

LCD display of the novelty is a typical budget solution proven by time. On the one hand, a small diagonal and low resolution of 176 x 220 makes viewing the photographs and videos not very comfortable, but on the other hand, 262 thousand colors will not miss a single detail. The brightness and clarity of the new item is to the occasion. The one hundred percent truthful rendition is also pleasing. But viewing angles, alas, are not the best.

Luggage

When creating S312 the developers had a difficult task before them. On the one hand, they had to maximally reduce the cost of the device, and on the other – making it a good cameraphone. They decided to maximally cut through the installation of a novelty CMOS-sensor, which has only 2 megapixels. Even by yesterday’s standards it is quite modest, but by today it is very little. Naturally, the built-in camera is not equipped with auto focus. So that S312 could be called a cameraphone, it’s equipped with additional buttons (which we have already said), but also found next to the lens, LED flash.
Of course, the camera on this shoot was no better, but the increase in functionality, according to the manufacturer, should probably somehow compensate the shortcomings of quality. Of course, there are also drawbacks.
The exposure adjustment fails to improve the quality of images. Small details are lost (this is typical of any cameras without AF), noises are present in large numbers even when shooting in sunny weather, but under complex lighting automation is simply lost. The only thing that can be commended for the camera in a novelty, is a good color reproduction. Video clips also did not differ with decent quality – noise and lack of detail is not visible except when playing back footage on a small phone. So we can draw the following conclusion – S312 camera is easy to shoot, fast and convenient, but there are no pretensions to quality.

Communications

In terms of communication capabilities S312 belongs to the classical GSM-models of recent years, working in the 900/1800 MHz bands. Work on the Internet is carried out thanks to the GPRS / EDGE module. Reception of the new items in the measure of sensitivity, and the quality of voice are good enough.
Connectivity is maintained by the Bluetooth module, and the A2DP profile provides phone compatibility with wireless headphones. Bluetooth has been tested on sample and data communications with HP iPAQ Pocket PCs 4700. Devices quickly find each other, but the transmission of data (two dozen pictures) on your PC, as always, was very slow – average speed was 0.13 MB / sec.

Multimedia features

Despite the fact that the manufacturer has put the usability of the camera at the heart, all the other multimedia capabilities of modern phones are also not forgotten. Audio player is different with neutral interface and many options sufficient for not too demanding user, among which is worth mentioning 4-band EQ and level controls low and high frequencies. Video player did not have any settings, although it is extremely simple to use. Program for viewing photos has a little more opportunities. With the help of it the image can even impose one available in the arsenal of phone digital effects – for example, take a picture black and white or in shades of brown.
It is slightly annoying that all these players are not collected in a single multimedia unit, as in more expensive phones of Sony Ericsson, and literally scattered on the menu. But the FM-radio traditionally allocated to a separate tab, is located on the main page. It is good that producer sets FM-module with the ability to receive RDS-message even in their low-cost model.

Conclusions

Unlike many other budget sets, which practically do not stand out from the large gray mass of their own kind, Sony Ericsson S312 boasts a special feature – thoughtful management of the camera, as well as the presence of an LED flash. But not to increase the value, the camera is installed at the new items, alas, outdated. For this you can indefinitely blame the manufacturer, but otherwise the S312 simply ceased to be called a Budget.
Also pluses to this phone should include a fresh design, quite comfortable operation, long battery life and a complete set of hardware inside.

Sony Ericsson T715 is another slider which belongs to the middle-price category, aimed for the mass market. The novelty can become prominent, as it has all the prerequisites – curious design, it is available in several colors, simple menu, decent functional. Now let’s consider everything in order.

Design

First of all I’d like to mention that I had the pink device. No, I do not mean that I am the enemy of this color but it somehow annoys me. However this can be accepted and understood by the part of the female audience, and may be someone would like to buy T715 because of its color. Corners of the shell are smoothed; however, this device does not cease to be a neat block. In addition, its size of a credit card allows you to put the phone in almost any pocket. Of course, the phone is not a slim one; we can’t call it thick, neither, so it can be called medium.
Now let’s have a look at exterior – the back panel is made of metal. It is removed easily. On the back lid is situated the eye of the camera, LED of the flash, slit of the polyphonic speaker. On the right side there is the camera button and volume control wheel, on the left side – the universal connector.
It has already become a tradition to decorate the backside slider with funny patterns. Sony Ericsson T715 is not an exception.

Display and Keyboard

Sony Ericsson T715 is equipped with a 2.2-inch display with 260 thousand colors. The screen itself behaves well, even in the sun. Though it doesn’t have big viewing angles, but they are enough. You can even e-book or play games.
Above the screen there is almost an invisible light sensor, which is responsible for automatic adjustment of backlighting. By the way, this can be done manually in the old-fashioned way.
Themes of the menu are very beautiful; a couple of them seemed to be drawn especially for girls.

Keys are stylish. Yes, don’t get surprised they are really stylish. However glamorous central navigation button hides a drawback. It is arranged so that when you press it in left or right direction you can easily press the green or red receiver. In addition, the navigation button is not very convenient. In order to stop arguing I will say that I did not like the control elements, but I can assure you that I met much worse ones.
Plastic keyboard is more or less adequate. Initially, small distance between vertical buttons strains a little, but if you press them with pads of your fingers, then you can avoid pressing unnecessary buttons. Due to uniform lighting all designations are clearly visible in the dark.

Menu and Functions

The menu has not changed, however, I did not expect to see anything new. So everything is done like in old models.
One of the most useful functions is “Organizer”. Here we see a convenient calendar; there is also a simple reminder, as well as editor of notes. Here is a file manager, timer, and stopwatch. And finally it is equipped with a flashlight. When you have to go downstairs from the 5th floor in pitch darkness, then you will understand why it is sometimes needed.
Alarm clock is a very useful thing, that’s why it is included in the main menu. Here are five independent pieces.
From useful things we should also mention Google Maps.

Entertainment

Music player is completely inherited from its predecessors. I mean both the interface and opportunities of musical applications. We can not say something special about the sound quality – the volume is sufficient for the underground, rock music sounds a bit synthetic, tint. However, with good headphones – Sony, Philips, etc., you can listen to music though it isn’t Nokia N96.
With the admission of FM-stations there is no problem in the city limits. It supports RDS, respectively, the names of stations and information is displayed on the screen.
To the usual arcade and Sudoku (games of T715), is added chess simulator Kasparov Chess.

Camera

Those who need a 5 MP camera should choose another phone, as T715 can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 3.2 MP, plus it does not have autofocus. The functional reserve of the camera is small. For example, there are several filters, presets for white balance, night mode, and the ability to attach geo notes on the photo. There isn’t any GPS-receiver in the novelty, so the location is determined by BS.

Conclusion

Sony Ericsson E715 is a typical representative of a mid-priced device segment. And it wouldn’t be appreciated, if not pleasant shape, and in our case, a cool color. It has too many competitors, among them this novelty can easily get lost.

Sony Ericsson Aino is a musical mobile phone with great screen. It is, really an interesting model and is indeed worth attention.

Design

The Novelty from the Swedish-Japanese joint venture is very voluminous. It hardly fits in the palm, and it is clear that someone may not like it. Well, someone has a small hand. However, if you’re a lumberjack, a master of shovels and sledgehammers, or just a big man, then this is your size. However, everyone has his/her own taste. Want a great phone? Here’s a great phone.
What I personally do not like is the fact that it is not very comfortable to hold, the phone seems somewhat unpretentious, despite the verified design.
By the way, when we first met it we all thought that the device is fully touchscreen, and has no keyboard, seeing the large diagonal display. Half a minute later we could find the keyboard, moving the top half of the shell.

The quality of the materials used does not cause problems – everything is done solidly, reliably, on the reverse side of the cover is relegated stylishly executed corrugated metal insert. I really liked the decision.
Of course, inserts on the ends could also be made of metal, but it would make the device even more slippery, and, of course, will increase its value.
Oh, how nice it was to see in such a multimedia device standard 3.5-mm audio input, but alas … Sony Ericsson took up the old one and put on the left side the firm universal connector. On the right side there is the camera button and control wheel of sound, in the bottom we see the slot for the dynamics of polyphony. In short, everything is as usual.
In general, the device produces a pleasantly strong impression with a high quality and successful combination of materials and, of course, great display.

Display and keypad

It is equipped with a 3-inch display, with non-standard resolution of 240 x 432, high brightness (adjustable by hand), greater viewing angles.
Screen is convenient, comfortable to understand information. It allows you to read e-books, to watch photos and video. I will tell you honestly, Aino is suited for this purpose perfectly. You can watch images on your PC.
Interestingly, when the keypad is locked (the phone is closed) the screen turns into a horizontally oriented one. Simply put the closed device, go with a finger across the screen, thus removing the lock, you’ll see five icons multimedia features and … can chose what you want to run. Finger input is easy, because all the icons are large (even as beautifully drawn) and mistakes simply do not happen. The sensitivity of the screen is what should be. Just great!

Camera
In Aino is installed an 8-megapixel camera with flash. Resolution is impressive; there are users that pay attention to it. As we already know, the camera works only when the phone is closed. Interface is touch, you can take a snapshot by traditionally pressing the shutter button, or simply clicking on the screen by selecting the focus point. After 1.5 seconds the camera “catches” the focus and makes that shot. By the way a very amusing feature. As I already mentioned, it’s very convenient to control – the icons are large and well-painted.

Focusing speed is high, misses almost do not happen. You can assess the quality of images from a merely remark that the matrix starts to make noise even when adequate artificial lighting.

Entertainment

Yes, Aino does not belong to a series of Walkman, but the MP3-player will be enjoyed by all without exception, I am sure for one hundred percent. Music application is tastefully decorated. It’s nice that some of the settings slightly redraw that somehow distinguishes the shell of what we have seen in old models. Also, we note that the scroll bar to display the names of songs is located on top. If you flip phone, then it will turn taking a horizontal position and an image. There is no sacred meaning in this act, if you do not pay attention to animation styles. These are decorating tricks to please the user’s eyes. Most of all I liked the tape, which swirls while playing videos.
When the track comes to an end, it ends on one side of the tape. If anyone remembers, the way it happens in the recorder, it may cause nostalgia. There are more animations with CD, records, flying balloons, etc. This looks more than amusing.

Outcome

Sony Ericsson Aino will interest fans of products of the Swedish-Japanese joint venture. Moreover, everyone wants to hold it in his/her hands and play with touch screen. Price is 20 thousand rubles. For me Aino is a decent device, which has many pluses, at least a rich and complete set of gorgeous screen.