Sony Ericsson pack a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash into this smartphone, though we weren't overly impressed with the results. We tested this tool by pairing the Play with a PlayStation 3 and it worked exactly as we expected it to. The Xperia Play also features a media sharing app allowing users to share videos, pictures and music over a Wi-Fi network. Users have access to a first-class browser, decent media playback and great email and messaging. The result is a smartphone experience on-par with the other big names.Īndroid also means that the Xperia Play is as business-friendly as most other smartphones - not that we expect to see too many Plays on the boardroom table.
SONY ERICSSON ANDROID
In 2011, it's a different ballgame Sony Ericsson's approach to Android is current and lightweight, using the latest Gingerbread build with a simple, fast Sony Ericsson overlay. With a focus on form over function, the heavily customised Android firmware used by Sony Ericsson resulted in an extremely poor user experience, and because this customisation was built so deep into the system it took way too long for Sony Ericsson to release updates. Sony Ericsson's first Android excursion - last year's X10 - was a bit of a dud. The 8GB microSD card is also on the stingy side after installing the games and transferring some music and videos across we filled this space in no time. Alerted to the problem we went hunting for an option to save directly to the SD card being installing more games, but to no avail. After installing a dozen games or so we were alerted that the phone had low memory and then spent ten minutes or so manually moving the app's data across to the memory card. By default all new game titles are installed to the phone storage rather than the included 8GB microSD card. Our only frustrations with the gaming implementation on the Play both concern storage. Crash is one of the real standouts, too, with smooth gameplay, exactly as it was when we played it on out PSOne all those years ago. Included in this list and pre-installed on a new Play is Crash Bandicoot, the first of what we hope will be many classic PlayStation game ports. We managed to play about a third of the games on offer at launch, and most of them are great mobile games. Measuring the success of Sony Ericsson's efforts is also completely subjective, but we happen to think it has managed to pull together a great list of titles. The quality and quantity of games optimised for use with the Play's controller was always going to be the make-or-break of this smartphone concept. The sensitivity of these pads is crucial, but there is no standard method for adjusting this sensitivity and most of the games we played didn't include this setting either.
SONY ERICSSON PS3
Rather than using twin analog controller sticks like a PS3 controller, Sony Ericsson opts for two touch-sensitive track-pads, a move that is great on paper but which ultimately hinders gameplay.
SONY ERICSSON PLUS
It features a D-Pad, the famous four PlayStation buttons, plus two extra paddles or triggers on the edge of the handset. The PlayStation controller itself is also well-designed.