My final thoughts on the Xperia SP.
Even though the Sony Test Lab is currently on hiatus for the time being I thought I would keep up my thoughts on the last phone they gave me, the Xperia SP.
Yes it seems to be a bit of a waste not to carry on this blog since I have built up quite a portfolio, and its not like I was doing this solely for the phones but also to exercise my incredibly opinionated views fuelled by my love of the Sony brand.
So lets press on!
Now a lot of people assume that I am always blindly in favour of Sony products because I have done some work for them in the past, forgetting that I was chosen mainly because of my passion for the brand prior to the invention of the group. Though to anyone who is actually bored enough to read my garbage will know that I am also quite a strong critic of them.
Today I shall be sharing my over all disappointment (though not complete disappointment) of the latest mid ranged Xperia phone, which is also the little brother with the Xperia Z.
I was very excited about this phone when I first heard about it. It was that excitement which was the reasons why it was given the phone in the first place, even when there were only a few available. What excited me about it most was it had some new Sony technology inside it. The Exmor RS sensor and Bravia 2 engine. It also had access to the new Playstation Mobile store too which I have already written about on here.
For anyone who doesn't know, the Exmor RS sensor is one up from the old Exmor R, which you would find in the old Sony phones such as the Xperia U, P and S.
It is used mainly for noise cancellation and better low light results with photography. In my previous articles I have seen some noticeable differences in performance when put to the test, though sadly nothing worth getting excited about, as results for the Xperia SP still seem to perform poorly as a whole during the low light and noise tests. So an improvement, but not much.
The same goes even more for the new Bravia2 engine. The original Bravia engine being used in the older Sony models such as the U, P and S to boost screen and viewing quality. The general idea was for it to sharpen up grainy videos (like the ones found on Youtube) and just given them a little make over. Personally, I have never been able to see the difference in comparison, ever. This is something which for me made no difference, even between phones with NO engine in and two whole generations up to the Bravia 2.
The Playstation Mobile device was slightly more successful than the other two. A new app which give you extra game access. I was really pleased to see that we not only had access to the Play store, but Emulators too. So having the Playstation Mobile Store on top means we have three sources for gaming. Don't get too excited mind, you wont be seeing any famous Playstation 1 games on here like you'd think. These are mainly indie game developers, many of which have done games with little or no depth. Often games with no more detail than say, Newgrounds?
Its good to have that extra option though, and there are some good games in there, just not many. The most famous being Lemmings. You will also find some very unusual games in there too, such as Korean Karaoke Dating games and Sensual Massage games
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Lets not forget, good or bad, its an option which no other manufacturer has!
Playstation compatibility was something I also enjoyed, its ability to link it up via a wire to a Playstation 3 controller and play games was great. Again, a novelty I only used once or twice but still fun and something almost completely exclusive to Xperia. Though personally, and I am sure I am not alone here, I hate wires, and having to connect a wireless game pad to a phone with a wire just screams "DATED".
I was really hoping it could all be wireless by now but sadly after much research I find this can only be achieved through rooting your phone. The wire didn't come in the box either, I had to buy my own one. I think most people wont bother with this, any that do will end up using a few times then never bothering again.
Even though the camera is only 8 megapixels, it still suffers from poor low light conditions and plenty of noise, even with the brand new Exmor RS sensor.
The Exmor RS sensor doesn't seem to do much considering that it is supposed to specialise in low light conditions. I dread to think how it handles with the full 13 megapixels on the Xperia Z. I have had some good results with photos though, its not all doom and gloom, the HDR feature on the camera has been incredibly useful and the fish eye effect is a lot of fun.
If you check out my Instagram account you will see that I have managed to produce some good images. The camera can take some sensational pictures in good lighting but to be fair, and this may be different with the rest of you, but most of the photos I take are in low light. Nokia seems to understand this with their adverts bragging about being the best in low light.
It depends on your needs. Someone who is looking for a high end camera phone would probably not been in this budget the for the Xperia SP, which comes in at the "low to medium" end of the phone market. In comparison to its rivals i'd say it performs quite well. Its the little features like HDR which give it an edge to its rivals.
Xperia's all come with a 1.5 second photo speed to capture those moments as they happen, over time that does tend to get slower. I am counting to about 5-6 seconds now. Again, disappointed. I have done factory resets with this phone a few times and the speeds get quicker again, though soon slow back down.
Another thing I mentioned on the first review was how much I liked the clear strip at the bottom of the phone. It lights up different colours depending on what notification you have. Green is an inbox message or text, blue is a Facebook notification and red is for running low on battery, you even have yellow for Snapchat now too. This was quite useful at times and is a great novelty. Its great at telling you if its worth checking your phone or not. This novelty however soon wears off and now I am finding my bedroom light up green or blue every 5 minutes while I am trying to sleep. You cannot turn your phone over either as it shines through both sides.
This may sound like a complete slating of the Xperia SP though please let me say this before I wrap this up. Spec wise for its price it is a very good phone. It has its problems but you are not going to get a perfect phone until you decide to spend £500+. Sony have done a fantastic job putting their own technology in to their phones and making it very personal to them. They are slowly creating a great ecosystem where the Xperia can communicate with your TV and games consoles. If you want a phone around the £200 price range I would suggest getting last years high end phones rather than a modern mid ranger. The new fancy sounding technology they are putting in to this simply isn't noticeable in daily practice.
Yes it seems to be a bit of a waste not to carry on this blog since I have built up quite a portfolio, and its not like I was doing this solely for the phones but also to exercise my incredibly opinionated views fuelled by my love of the Sony brand.
So lets press on!
Now a lot of people assume that I am always blindly in favour of Sony products because I have done some work for them in the past, forgetting that I was chosen mainly because of my passion for the brand prior to the invention of the group. Though to anyone who is actually bored enough to read my garbage will know that I am also quite a strong critic of them.
Today I shall be sharing my over all disappointment (though not complete disappointment) of the latest mid ranged Xperia phone, which is also the little brother with the Xperia Z.
I was very excited about this phone when I first heard about it. It was that excitement which was the reasons why it was given the phone in the first place, even when there were only a few available. What excited me about it most was it had some new Sony technology inside it. The Exmor RS sensor and Bravia 2 engine. It also had access to the new Playstation Mobile store too which I have already written about on here.
For anyone who doesn't know, the Exmor RS sensor is one up from the old Exmor R, which you would find in the old Sony phones such as the Xperia U, P and S.
It is used mainly for noise cancellation and better low light results with photography. In my previous articles I have seen some noticeable differences in performance when put to the test, though sadly nothing worth getting excited about, as results for the Xperia SP still seem to perform poorly as a whole during the low light and noise tests. So an improvement, but not much.
The same goes even more for the new Bravia2 engine. The original Bravia engine being used in the older Sony models such as the U, P and S to boost screen and viewing quality. The general idea was for it to sharpen up grainy videos (like the ones found on Youtube) and just given them a little make over. Personally, I have never been able to see the difference in comparison, ever. This is something which for me made no difference, even between phones with NO engine in and two whole generations up to the Bravia 2.
The Playstation Mobile device was slightly more successful than the other two. A new app which give you extra game access. I was really pleased to see that we not only had access to the Play store, but Emulators too. So having the Playstation Mobile Store on top means we have three sources for gaming. Don't get too excited mind, you wont be seeing any famous Playstation 1 games on here like you'd think. These are mainly indie game developers, many of which have done games with little or no depth. Often games with no more detail than say, Newgrounds?
Its good to have that extra option though, and there are some good games in there, just not many. The most famous being Lemmings. You will also find some very unusual games in there too, such as Korean Karaoke Dating games and Sensual Massage games
Lets not forget, good or bad, its an option which no other manufacturer has!
Playstation compatibility was something I also enjoyed, its ability to link it up via a wire to a Playstation 3 controller and play games was great. Again, a novelty I only used once or twice but still fun and something almost completely exclusive to Xperia. Though personally, and I am sure I am not alone here, I hate wires, and having to connect a wireless game pad to a phone with a wire just screams "DATED".
I was really hoping it could all be wireless by now but sadly after much research I find this can only be achieved through rooting your phone. The wire didn't come in the box either, I had to buy my own one. I think most people wont bother with this, any that do will end up using a few times then never bothering again.
Even though the camera is only 8 megapixels, it still suffers from poor low light conditions and plenty of noise, even with the brand new Exmor RS sensor.
The Exmor RS sensor doesn't seem to do much considering that it is supposed to specialise in low light conditions. I dread to think how it handles with the full 13 megapixels on the Xperia Z. I have had some good results with photos though, its not all doom and gloom, the HDR feature on the camera has been incredibly useful and the fish eye effect is a lot of fun.
If you check out my Instagram account you will see that I have managed to produce some good images. The camera can take some sensational pictures in good lighting but to be fair, and this may be different with the rest of you, but most of the photos I take are in low light. Nokia seems to understand this with their adverts bragging about being the best in low light.
It depends on your needs. Someone who is looking for a high end camera phone would probably not been in this budget the for the Xperia SP, which comes in at the "low to medium" end of the phone market. In comparison to its rivals i'd say it performs quite well. Its the little features like HDR which give it an edge to its rivals.
Xperia's all come with a 1.5 second photo speed to capture those moments as they happen, over time that does tend to get slower. I am counting to about 5-6 seconds now. Again, disappointed. I have done factory resets with this phone a few times and the speeds get quicker again, though soon slow back down.
Another thing I mentioned on the first review was how much I liked the clear strip at the bottom of the phone. It lights up different colours depending on what notification you have. Green is an inbox message or text, blue is a Facebook notification and red is for running low on battery, you even have yellow for Snapchat now too. This was quite useful at times and is a great novelty. Its great at telling you if its worth checking your phone or not. This novelty however soon wears off and now I am finding my bedroom light up green or blue every 5 minutes while I am trying to sleep. You cannot turn your phone over either as it shines through both sides.
This may sound like a complete slating of the Xperia SP though please let me say this before I wrap this up. Spec wise for its price it is a very good phone. It has its problems but you are not going to get a perfect phone until you decide to spend £500+. Sony have done a fantastic job putting their own technology in to their phones and making it very personal to them. They are slowly creating a great ecosystem where the Xperia can communicate with your TV and games consoles. If you want a phone around the £200 price range I would suggest getting last years high end phones rather than a modern mid ranger. The new fancy sounding technology they are putting in to this simply isn't noticeable in daily practice.
