Sony smartphones

Anybody got one? Better yet anybody got a recentish one they want to sell? 🙂 Just wondering how good and how good VFM they are compared to the competition. I’m thinking I’ll probably be getting one when I get round to joining the 21st century, as they appear to be the only option with HW support for ANT+ (so I can write an app to download my Garmin).

My brother has one for work as well as an HTC Desire HD. He hates the Sony. It’s one of the Xperia Play ones, I think.

I’ve got an Xperia Mini Pro. I like it ‘cos it’s small but does all the smart stuff that I want it to. Decent interface, quick enough.

The Xperia Play ones did get poor reviews IIRC

There’s an experia play on here atm I am told.

The Play isn’t on the ANT+ list (and as mentioned it seems to get rubbish reviews) – thanks for the tip though.

I got an xperia ray at the weekend and I quite like it. The main selling point for me was that it’s smaller than most other smart phones but just as quick, I couldn’t be bothered walking round with a big boulder of a phone in my pocket all day.

Had their Original X10i Android phone and now have an ARC.

The X10 was a decent phone and one of the few that had supported 3 different versions of Android. Its still going strong with my OH.

The ARC (replaced by ARCs, essentially a clocked version of the ARC) is a nice phone. Works well, camera is good resonable speedy for a single core handset.
Feels nice in the hand and looks quite nice too. Screen is bright and clear. It works will with no real issues I can think of.
As with any Android phone rooting is useful to clear out some of the crap the phones ship with. Also allows you to properly backup your phone (I use Titanium Backup natch)
Not sure they standout that much from other Android phones available, but it does everything I want it to.

I had a X10 mini, great little phone, though Sony’s own UI was terrible, nothing that can’t be sorted be putting a new launcher on.
The only issue I had was that the software became unstable and had to be re flashed every now and then.

I think the X10 mini and mini pro were a little underpowered at the time.

Not sure they standout that much from other Android phones available

That’s fine – I just want to make sure they’re not worse. For me they standout because of the ANT+ hardware support. Thanks for the feedback.

I’ve had the xperia ray for 5 months. went for sony because the camera’s better than anything else I looked at, low light sensor is handy.

Having realised how much the slimness of a device helps it “disappear” in a pocket (rather than just the overall size) I might have had a longer look at the xperia Arc, because there are times when I’d like a bigger screen. Ray and Arc are exactly the same spec, bar the size. Same price too, as I remember.

Overall, very happy with it.

I have the mini pro, for what I want; small size, hard keyboard and good at keeping a signal in marginal areas, its great. However the camera is shat and the battery life is poor, so swings and roundabouts.

I was going to get an Xperia Ray but I had a play around on one and the screen felt quite unresponsive compared to the Samsung Galaxy W I tried. Felt like you had to sometimes press down quite hard to get things to work.

That’s fine – I just want to make sure they’re not worse.

I really don’t think you’d be disappointed with one.

I dont find the screen unresponsive at all. the lightest of touches does the trick, and accurate too: you can reliably pick out tiny links on an un-zoomed browser screen.

I have had an Xperia Mini for the last few weeks; I like it a lot. I particularly like the bit of the settings that lets you look at what has been using the battery and when, how good the signal has been and how much the screen and wifi have been on since you last charged it; I’ve not seen that on another phone (not that I’ve seen many).

The only annoyance is the auto-brightness feature that I believe is common across all Sony’s phones; it’s not damped at all so in poor light the screen sometimes sits there flickering unless you put your finger over the sensor…

Sounding good – all I need is somebody selling one then 😉

xperia x10 here, had it for nearly 2 years.

no complaints really, its a good phone that does what i want. contracts up in june though, iphone for me next time. no real reason why, just want an iphone.

I have an Xperia play up for sale -£130 and it’s yours 🙂

Read the thread, chojin – sorry!

What is this “read” you speak of?!

dunno of a Sony Live is any good to you, £100 on Virgin PAYG, unlockable for £15, just got one, seems good – certainly fast.

I bought an Experia Arc S a few weeks ago.

It was only £230 inc a top up on payg. Nice screen, 1g processor, excellent camera, and not too bad on the battery for a smartphone, all things considered.

dunno of a Sony Live is any good to you

The list is here http://www.thisisant.com/pages/developer-zone/android-api – it seems it is. Where do you get one for £100?

Xperia X10i here, running a custom Wolfbreak ROM. No complaints, although Sony/O2 are tragic when it comes to getting updates released, hence the ROM.
Upgrading in 3 weeks, so if you can wait that long you can have it for £40 + postage.

Hence why both my Sony Xperia’s have been changed to world generic firmwares.

I dont find the screen unresponsive at all. the lightest of touches does the trick, and accurate too: you can reliably pick out tiny links on an un-zoomed browser screen.

Could just be the one I tried then but not sure why they’d have a dodgy one as the test model! I wanted to like it as I don’t fancy a massive smartphone but still want to be able to watch videos and browse the net.

aracer – Member
dunno of a Sony Live is any good to you
The list is here http://www.thisisant.com/pages/developer-zone/android-api – it seems it is. Where do you get one for £100?

Read the thread! 😀

Virgin:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sony-ericsson-live-with-walkman-including-10-credit-now-unlockable-99-virgin-mobile-1141981

X10i not on the list unfortunately, TFO – otherwise I’d snap your hand off.

I have a funny feeling I might have to stick to the standard Sony ROM to get the ANT+ to work 🙁

Thanks for the link, cynic-al (and all the advice from others) – I googled for it on virgin but didn’t find that.

aracer – i could sort you a Mini-pro or an Ace depending on your needs and budget. I’d be more interested in selling the Mini-pro as it’s currently unused. £50 for the Mini, £150 for the Ace?

Thanks, themilo – might be interested, but I think I’ll put it off for a little while until I work out if it’s possible to interface to a Garmin watch in the way I want to. There don’t appear to be any commercially available apps with this capability, so I’m all on my own here (I’ve never even written an Android app, but have the SDK for that and ANT+) – it seems I should be able to simulate what I do on a PC with an ANT+ stick.

Xperia Arc here. Love it to bits- slim, light, very responsive and claer screen. I wish it was waterproof though. I’m on my second one now 🙁

Should have got an Xperia Active, Ambrose!

I love my Xperia Arc also, only miss a few features of my previous HTC.