The newly sans Ericsson Sony Mobile Communications held a press event
yesterday on the eve of Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona, and
presented two new Xperia-branded Android smartphones, the Xperia P and
Xperia U. We've already brought you all the official details, and now
it's time for the complimentary hands-on post.
The Xperia P and
Xperia U, when looked at from over a metre or so, would be virtually
indistinguishable from each other (and from the higher-end and
previously announced Xperia S) if it wasn't for the slight difference in
screen size. Sony sure has put unifying design into all of its new
devices. Unifying, recognizable, and quite different from anything else
currently on the market. So… that's good, right?
Well… yes and
no. It's interesting that Sony brought the blocky corners to the rest of
the world (meaning outside Japan – where many smartphones have the same
corner design or similar), so I appreciate it going for
recognizability. And while that will make you instantly say “hey, that's
a Sony” the problem is that you'll never know which Sony. Not for sure, anyway.
And
the branding doesn't help either. These three smartphones, which are
very similar in appearance, are differentiated in name just by one
letter. True, Sony isn't the only company doing this (see HTC, Huawei,
and to some extent Samsung which started the whole company
brand+smartphone brand+letter madness with the Galaxy S). Yet Sony's
devices are the ones which most closely resemble each other. So that
could've been done better.
The next problem here is that
spec-wise, both the Xperia P and Xperia U are okay phones. Okay, but not
‘wow', if you know what I mean. That has to come with the price point,
yet Sony keep insisting that synergies within the group will make its
phones stand out. That, in fact, was the exact thing they said back in
2001 when Sony Ericsson was formed – that Sony will step in with its
know-how in electronics and bring integrated experiences.
Now we
hear the same tune. But this time, because the Ericsson brand is gone –
this time it will actually happen. In case you're wondering, this is the
same company that Sony Ericsson was a month ago. The same people are
working there. It just changed its name because Sony acquired Ericsson's
stake in the joint venture, that's all.
Sony has also remembered
that it has movie and music studios in the group somewhere, and thinks
that people will buy Sony smartphones because they come with Music
Unlimited and Video Unlimited services.
I don't think so. But it
is in a way refreshing to see a company focused less on raw specs and
more on user experience. That said, Sony is focused on that just
theoretically for now – we'll have to wait and see if they actually
deliver something different in this regard.
And the last issue I
have with the Xperia P and Xperia U is that they run Android 2.3
Gingerbread. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was announced in October.
HTC is launching devices running ICS in April. So why can't Sony do that
too? The new Xperias will ship in “mid-Q2″, so presumably in May. But
they'll ship with Gingerbread.
Sure, an update to ICS is
promised, but didn't Sony learn anything from the Xperia X10 debacle of
yesteryear? Or maybe that was Sony Ericsson that learnt that, and Sony
still hasn't. We'll see.
The Sony Xperia P, with its unibody
design and 4-inch screen, is the middle-market offering among the three
new Xperias. Here are some hands-on pictures:
And here's a hands-on video showing it in action:
The
Sony Xperia U is the entry-level device in the range, and thus should
be the most affordable. It comes with some interesting gimmicks too,
such as interchangeable colored bottom tips, and the ability to set a
specific notification light color. Here's the Xperia U in all its glory:
And here it is on video:
More pictures of the Sony Xperia P and Xperia U are right below this paragraph in the dedicated gallery. Enjoy!
