Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review

Product Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
Website http://www.sonyericsson.com
Specifications 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 400MB storage, 4-inch 480x854 TFT display, 5MP rear and VGA front cameras, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 62x119x16mm, 175g.
Price £449 SIM free

SONY ERICSSON'S Xperia Play is the best gaming handset on the market but that also means some compromise when using it as a phone.

The Android 2.3 powered smartphone looks fairly nice with a gloss black and chrome finish consistent with the Xperia series, however its build quality isn't as good as we'd hoped, with a surprisingly thin and flimsy rear cover. The phone's stand out feature is of course the slide out set of dedicated gaming controls.

The panel of controls slides out in landscape from the left hand side of the phone on a smooth spring loaded mechanism that looks cool and is unique, as nothing similar is available on other phones. Whilst the action is smooth, there is a fair amount of movement between the two parts when shut, which is annoying.

Other than the gaming controls the handset has the typical power button, volume controls and four buttons. The volume controls on the side are badly positioned due to the gaming shoulder buttons and therefore hard to use. The Xperia series phones typically have three physical button but the four buttons below the screen on the Xperia Play are smaller and crammed close together, making them awkward to use.

The large size and weight of the handset are rather a shame. It is 16mm thick and weighs a hefty 175g, but then it is a portable console. Whilst this is acceptable when holding the device with both hands for gaming, it really does prove irritating when using it as a phone one handed, which is typically the majority of the time.

The Xperia Play has a large TFT screen at 4-inches that has 480x854 resolution, resulting in crisp text and vivid colours. The major let down with the screen is its lack of brightness. Even on its highest setting the screen is still lacking, especially when compared to phones like the HTC Incredible S.

A 1GHz single core Scorpion ARM v7 processor, 512MB of RAM and 400MB of internal storage complete the line-up of main hardware components. Though these figures don't compete against some handsets on the market, especially since phones with dual core chips are arriving on the market already, we found that the handset performs extremely well.

The phone is responsive and nippy with no lag when swiping between home screens, loading apps or gaming. This is also helped by having Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed. And although 400MB of internal storage is pretty dire Sony Ericsson includes an 8GB microSD card with the phone.

Though the Play was dubbed "the Playstation phone" it is only Playstation certified so isn't a full blown Playstation product. Nevertheless it's a great little gaming device with some flaws. The main problem is that it won't play PSP games, only PS1 games that have been converted for the Xperia Play.

Whilst the gaming performance is good, with the Adreno graphics processor giving impressive frame rates, the graphics are only reasonable and not particularly stunning. The dedicated controls put the phone head and sholders above the rest for gaming experience and really help with certain games. They provide a much better level of control when used by more developers.

It also improves the experience for existing Android games that would otherwise use onscreen controls such as a joystick, which both take up space on the screen and don't provide the same level of control.

We think that the design could have been executed better when it comes to gaming. The edges of the phone dig into your hands and fingers and the position of some of the buttons mean they are hard to reach. There are dual touch controls available but we found these unresponsive and frustrating and we always ended up back on the D pad.

The selection of preloaded titles will mean there is something for everyone from fighting, to football, to sci-fi shooter. Sony said there would be over 60 titles available shortly after release so this is a reasonable start and provided developers back the format then desirable titles should follow.