Four months after making his American debut on Verizon Wireless, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G now available on AT & T. has not changed much. In fact, it almost exactly the same smartphone. But AT & T is a sports awards Bargain Bin $ 49.99, a free media dock, and speed of Internet HSPA good AT & T Network + 21. Thus, while the Xperia Play was a good phone for the Verizon players is an even better option at AT & T.Physical design, call quality, and the Web
One thing that certainly has not changed is the physical design. The game is always big and bulky Xperia at 4.7 by 2.4 by 0.6 inches (DRC) and 6.2 ounces, most of that weight is for the driver. The phone is made of cheap plastic feeling dark blue and silver. The four-inch, 854 x 480 screen looks strong, but weak, even with all its brightness to the highest setting (which is default). This is probably to help save battery life, which was a minute 9:18 amazing. You should be able to do some serious games before this is another screen slides horizontally to reveal a joystick charge.The absolutely wonderful. There are four directional buttons, four action buttons for PlayStation, two trackpads support for the PSP analog stick, Select and Start menu buttons, and two "fins" on the edge of the phone. Reflection of the PSP buttons, but are a little smaller and narrower than the PSP.
AT & T also contains a multimedia dock Xperia Play, which allows easy loading and connecting to a stereo system (via the 3.5mm jack included). Once docked, the phone automatically launch an application desktop alert, it also as an alarm clock.
With a greater emphasis on the game is easy to forget the Xperia is also a toy telephone. Fortunately, it does not disappoint in this department. The game uses AT & T HSPA network and 21 + 802.11 b / g / n Wi-Fi. The phone also works as a modem or a wireless service plan with the right. I have some pretty respectable speed the Xperia Thurs. Average discharge of 4 5 Mbps down, while additions were about 1-1.5 Mbps up. This is faster than we have seen in other "4G" AT & T phones like the Motorola Atrix 4G, which is not compatible with HSPA + 21.
RF reception was good, and call quality was average. Call a rich, clear voice headset, just the slightest fuzz from time to time. At the other end, the phone calls made a squeaking noise, although noise reduction is not present, you can hear almost everything happens in the background. Speakerphone sounds good, and should be strong enough for outdoor use, but barely. Probably can not hear the noisy street. Calls sounded good through the epoch Jawbone Bluetooth headset aliph ($ 129.99, 4.5 stars), and voice dialing worked well.
Gaming
The main reason many people will be interested in the Xperia is to play games. There are a few ways to download. The first and simplest way is to load the software game, ideally located on the home screen of your phone. This is a menu of mobile game titles from Gameloft, EA, and the Market. By pressing a game that will punt you over to Gameloft or EA mobile site, or directly to its inclusion on the Android Market. You can also go to the Android Market yourself and do a search for "Play Xperia optimized", but it will turn up plenty of tracks that are not really optimized.
Titles downloaded from the Android Market and EA are easy, but every time I slap on a number of Gameloft, which was addressed to a generic page that Gameloft is not specific to the game we wanted to see. You can play your way through a few more pages to find it, but must be linked directly. Once downloaded, however, have not had any major problems here is that problems.The, dubbed "Play" on one side, the work is not a phone Xperia PlayStation. There is no legal PlayStation emulator, and can not access the PlayStation Network. Rather, the game works Xperia "optimized" games for Android. Fortunately, the selection of available games is much better now than when we look at this phone from Verizon. At the time of this writing, there are many recent games that appeal to dedicated players like Assassins Creed, Dead Space, Minecraft, and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.
The phone comes preloaded with six asphalt, Crash Bandicoot, Defenders: Dungeon second wave, Madden NFL 2011, Star Battalion, and The Sims 3. These games are like a dream excellent joystick. Touch screens to limit their sense of control over the game, not to mention the fact that the finger is protecting much of what is happening on the screen. In this case, the physical buttons on the joystick allows you to see what is happening and really get into the game
So watch this: The Verizon phone has been launched with 55 titles. Currently, over 100, which is encouraging, but no evidence that the ecosystem continues to thrive. Sony Ericsson has said that there are more in the works, but the best option is to buy this phone if it supports the games you want to play for real now.Android, features and conclusions
Xperia Player 2.3.3 is the Android "Gingerbread" and pledges to keep your operating system updated. Unlike stocks essentially a version of Android on the Verizon model, Sony Ericsson has made adjustments here, but calmly, and serves primarily to enhance the Android feel a little 'warmer and more user-friendly, improved graphics to think instead of a monitor lock complicated.
Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset phone with a 1GHz GPU Adreno 205 is part of the middle range and not have the latest graphics hardware. (This would be the 220 Adreno, if keeping track.) For a game of telephone, benchmarks Xperia Play well below the latest dual-core Android devices on the market. Although it is good enough to play all the games available today, is far from the tip.
They feel solid and ready during long gaming sessions.
No memory card slot under the back cover. 8GB card is included, but will fit up to 32GB cards. The phone also has 134MB and the memory. Xperia Play to play traditional music formats from FLAC and WMA. Music player is a modified version of the standard of Android, and the music sounded good on both wired and Bluetooth headsets. Does not have an HDMI output for video, telephone, or dock. MPEG4 and H.264 video to play smoothly at resolutions up to 720p.
There is a 5 megapixel autofocus camera on the back of the phone. Photos look OK with a decent amount of detail and good color. But the autofocus was slow to an average of 1.3 seconds. The camera records video at 800 x 480 videos about 30 frames per second. There is a VGA camera on the front of the phone for video chat.
But really, it all comes down to that pad and games available. Either you want a phone that works like an intelligent hand-held game system, or if you do. If you do not, you can get an Apple iPhone 3G (4.5 stars) for only $ 49 There is no joystick, but there are still applications and games galore. If you want to stick with Android and stay on a budget, LG Phoenix (3.5 stars) is ultra-light and a bargain at $ 29.99. But if you want the raw power of Android, LG Thrill 4G ($ 99, 4 stars) has a fast dual-core processor and without 3D glasses to boot. Ultimately, however, if you want a phone that is made for games, and you like the games available now, Sony Ericsson Xperia 4G Play can not be beat.
Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 9 hours and 18 minutes
