Phones Review: Nokia releases official video shot entirely on the 808 PureView

Nokia has released a brief video that was shot totally using the Nokia 808 PureView, taking full benefit of its constructed-in forty one-megapixel camera. The video, which was posted by Nokia on YouTube, reveals the sort of photograph and HD video quality you’ll be able to count on from the Symbian-powered smartphone.

Introduced at Mobile World Congress, the machine made fairly a noise due to its insane camera know-how – a few of it good, a few of it not so good. Prefer it or not, many of the Windows Phones could do with a better camera, and so a Windows Phone with this sort of technology could be very tempting. For those who can put up with a little bit of chunk within the trunk, that’s – the 808 PureView isn’t exactly thin.

Although Symbian is being phased out, Nokia is clearly sending it out with a bang. The 808 PureView is reportedly going to reach on Might 7, although that will change. First costs counsel it will cost somewhere within the region of £500 but hopefully a network or two will being that down into something extra managable.

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Best 5 Phones Under Rs.20000

The Samsung Omnia W is powered with Microsoft window phone 7.5Mango operating system. Qualcomm MSM 8255 snapdragon chipset, 1.4 GHz scorpion processor and Adreno 205 GPU are well supported in this smartphone. This model comes with Bing maps and GPS with A GPS navigations services. Beautiful looks and sleek design are well presented in the model. Samsung Omnia W is inbuilt with GSM networking technology. The handset is appearing black and white two beautiful colors. Touch phoneis enabled with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n as WLNA features. Micro USB 2.0 and Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR data connectivity features are well integrated in the model. Samsung Omnia W is supported with 3.5 mm audio jack sound output device and loud speaker option. Stereo FM radio with RDS option is also available in the model.

HTC One V

Price: Rs 18,300

HTC One V runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS and powered by 1Ghz Processor. It has a 3.7-inch LCD display with HTC TouchWiz UI and 480 x 320 pixels screen resolution. It has a 5MP primary camera for HD video playback & recording.

Its has features like Multi-format music player with Beats Audio. It also supports high speed high speed data and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, GPS data connectivity.

Its Support Multiformat Video/Audio Player, FM Radio, 8GB Internal Memory, Upto 32GB Expandable memory.

Samsung Galaxy S

Price: 19,400

An excellent 4" AMOLED screen and 720p video playback capability gives it an edge in this category. The handset's sound quality is also very good. Additionally, its 1 GHz CPU, 16 GB of onboard storage, and a 5 MP camera won't disappoint you either. The device is easily available in brick and mortar shops for a little over 19k, and considering its stellar multimedia performance, it's totally worth it.

Nokia N8

Price: Rs 18,400

This is the phone that actually took off a chunk of sales from the point-and-shoot cameras, rather than its rival smartphones. Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash, and a 12 MP camera sensor ensures that no other phone comes close to this device's imaging performance, except for the upcoming Nokia 808 PureView. An HDMI port, aluminium casing, and a great battery life distinguishes it from the other devices. Moreover, after the Nokia Belle update and a recent price cut, it's a steal.

Nokia E6

Price: Rs 17,000

The Nokia E6 has got a sleek design, is ultra compact and smart. The combination of QWERTY keyboard and the touch screen makes it possible to type single handed and faster.  It is not just the powerful features that the Nokia E6 comes with but the battery is equally powerful, in fact the battery life is quite unbelievable.  Just to give you an idea you can watch 4 movies, chat and talk and the E6 will still last for the whole day. Surprisingly, the phone is also capable of 720p video playback, along with sound quality that can compete with any of the similarly priced music-centric mobile phones. GPS with free voice-guided satellite navigation and an 8 MP fixed focus camera adds extra value to this gadget. With the recent Nokia Belle update, its touch-and-type UI has gotten even better.

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Sony Xperia P and Xperia U delayed until May 28th

The Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia U availability has been pushed back to the end of May, according to online retailer Clove. Although Sony never officially unveiled an exact release date beyond Q2, the retailer states on its website availability has been pushed back from May 7th to May 28th.

Sony has no official comment but has assured us they'll keep us informed. The devices along with the original launch date were announced back at MWC in Barcelona earlier this year. Both NXT series devices fall in line under the flagship Xperia S, which has already made it to market.

The Sony Xperia P chimes in as Sony Mobile's new midrange device, offering a 1GHz dual core processor and a high resolution 4-inch qHD display with the company's new White Magic technology, designed to offer superior sunlight visibility and battery saving optimisations, the result of a more finely tuned light sensor and an addition white sub-pixel in the display itself.

The Sony Xperia U is the smallest of the NXT series devices, aimed at a younger market due to its lower price point and customisable coloured caps. The U features a 3.5" FWVGA display and like it's bigger brother, a 1GHz dual core processor. Although the human curvature design found on all of the NXT devices, the U is the only one with a glowing see-through element that changes colour depending on the predominant pixel colours on-screen.

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HTC One X VS Samsung Galaxy Note

Two phones that have been selling like hotcakes this past month are the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy Note. Both powerhouses, the defining commonality between the two is a question of inches - both the Note and the One X are sizeable beasts that couple ample specs with a handful of phone. So how do they compare? Will the 4.7-inch One X hit the spot with its quad-core power or will the victor be the Samsung Galaxy Note, measuring 5.3-inches and endowing the gift of penmanship upon its bearer?

Design

Neither of these phones inspired us in terms of design, but one thing they both do very well is hide the fact that they're so very big. On the one hand, you've got the HTC One X, slender dimensions and curved backing. While plastic, it feels solid with its polycarbonate unibody and it sits in the hand and pocket without an problem. Moving onto the Samsung Galaxy Note, its additional fascia size makes its slender profile feel unnaturally slim. That said, it is bigger, markedly so and is too big for most to use comfortably in hand and pocket.

Both phones are constructed entirely out of plastic, with the HTC One X being a unibody construction it has no removable battery. Design flourishes include glossy sides with matted backing and it comes in black and white. That said, the black version looks a bit like a scuffed grey in our opinion. In turn, we'd go for the white every time.

The Samsung Galaxy Note looks like a bigger, more curvaceous Samsung Galaxy S2. It has an attractive chrome-like trimming along its sides and feels comfortable in our large hands. It has a removable battery cover and in turn doesn't have quite the same solid-factor as-found on the HTC One X. Also, with the chrome-like sides being rounded and high-gloss, it's pretty slippery. That said, our unit has been with us for a few months now, has experienced a fair few knocks and drops and we can attest to it being one hardy handset though please - don't test the theory with your own Note.

Screen

While both large, the screens on the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy Note are very, very different. Starting with size, HTC's offering is 4.7-inches while Samsung's Note is 5.3. In addition, resolution is also different to accommodate different aspect ratios. The HTC One X comes in at 1280x720, while the Samsung Galaxy Note is 1280x800.

While resolution alone might make you think off the bat that the Samsung Galaxy Note wins out, thanks to the size difference, the HTC One X actually packs a higher concentration of pixels making for a sharper image.

Aside from size and resolution, another area the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy Note differ is screen tech. The One X an uses LCD 2 panel while the Note uses Samsung's Super AMOLED technology. There are a few factors associated with the types of screen.

1. AMOLEDs have better blacks and more vibrant colours, usually making things like photos look better without any tweaking, they also do wonders for user interfaces and videos.
2. The AMOLED screen on the Note uses pentile technology and is therefore less sharp than a non-pentile LCD (pixels share their green sub-pixel making for less detail)
3. LCD displays can arguably deliver greater colour accuracy. While images may not look as vibrant and saturated, they look more representative of how they will be outputted to a monitor or printed.

The Samsung Galxy Note looks absolutely incredible, there's no denying. Blacks are absolutely endless and colours really do pop right out at you thanks to the screen's vibrance. That said, the screen isn't quite as clean when delivering a uniform colour as on a quality LCD panel like that of the HTC One X and sharpness is noticably lower..

While not offering quite the levels of vibrance and saturation as the Samsung Galaxy S2, the HTC One X delivers a fantastic picture overall on amongst the best LCD display we've used on a mobile to date. In addition, by minimising the distance between the Gorilla Glass fascia and LCD panel, viewing angles and outdoor visibility are superb, beating the Galaxy Note.

So while we're torn as to which display rocks our world harder, with the HTC One X being sharper and and clean like a back-lit sticker is our victor. A first in the face of AMOLEDs? Maybe, but try them out side by side, you'll see what we mean.

User Interface

Both running Android, the HTC One X has the latest version available, Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4.0. while the Samsung Galaxy Note runs Gingerbread or Android 2.3. It's worth bearing in mind that the Galaxy Note will be getting the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich in the next few months if you're prepared to wait.

On top of Android, both manufacturers have overlaid a custom skin, limiting the amount of true Android you actually see, but adding other functionality to the phones.

HTC's is called Sense 4.0 while Samsung's is TouchWiz 4.0. Touchwiz is lighter than HTC Sense however still offers a redrawn UI, menu system and trademark Samsung Aesthetic with some programs, widgets and hubs. These hubs could add value, potentially, at a push, however we're inclined to see them as bloatware. Sorry Samsung.

HTC Sense does doesn't have hubs but instead a much more integrated set of applications and widgets as well as what is in our opinion a considerably more attractive UI. It's heavy. Lighter than Sense 3.5, but still, heavier than Touchwiz and heavier than it should be. Some of the user interface is sensational, the overview mode, the widgets, the lock screen, however once they hit a happy place, they kept adding, re-imagining ICS's already great multi-tasker and throwing their locations service in there.

That said, we prefer it to Touchwiz. We're playing with fire favouring it as many Android purists use Sense as a poster child for 'how Android smartphone makers get it wrong', but their latest version is a big improvement, is easier on the eyes and sits better with our day to day use.

As far as keyboards go, we favour the HTC One X keyboard over that of the Samsung Galaxy Note in landscape, and if you don't tweak any settings, the Samsung Galaxy Note edges slightly ahead in portrait. The Note looks most like the stock Android keyboard however packs S-Pen support as well.

What's great about the HTC keyboard however is you can activate a Swype style input through the settings without having to swap your keyboard out. If you activate this, it turns the large phone into a potential one handed handset which we can't say for the Samsung Galaxy Note in any circumstances.

Camera

Two camera phones that are well and truly head and shoulders above most of the competition, the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy Note pictures are impressive to say the least. Both sporting 8-megapixel cameras, the HTC One X packs an f/2 lens and a 28mm wide angle while the Samsung Galaxy Note lens packs an f/2.6 with a slightly less wide angle.

Jumping into the images and the outdoor shot shows that the HTC One X has ever so slightly more dynamic range between lights and darks, though both look very lively and vibrant. The shot does a good job of illustrating how attractive the slightly wider angle makes pictures look with the building edges framing the shot nicely on the One X.

Indoors and in the dark, we can see that the One X has pulled a lot more detail out of the brick work than the Samsung Galaxy Note. Turning on the lights and the One X has done a better job of not washing out the side of the image with the light source. The shot looks sharper and while some may put this down to edge sharpening, we don't mind this as it results in an overall more pleasing image.

So the Samsung Galaxy Note has won across the board so far, however when it comes to macro, the Samsung Galaxy Note was able to focus closer and retain more detail as can be seen in the stone.

Both stunning, but our preference? The HTC One X.

Storage and Connectivity

Expandable vs. non-expandable, that is the question. HTC kindly offer 32GB of onboard storage on their One X as well as 25GB of Dropbox cloud space for two years. This is perfectly suited to anyone with an all you can eat data allowance for whom 32GB physical storage is ample.

In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy Note has 16GB of on-board storage, however offers expandability via microSD card. This means you can get a total of 48GB on it should you so choose.

Web browning both phones is speedy and impressive thanks to the power under the hoods. The Samsung Galaxy Note benefits from a larger screen and is our favourite of the two in terms of overall experience, though the HTC One X holds its own thanks to its incredible resolution and whites look considerably more accurate on the Super LCD 2 panel than on the Note's HD Super AMOLED display.

Performance

Dual-core vs. Quad-core, that's what it comes down to however the reality is, the processor affects far more than just speed, impacting battery life and stability as well.

With its 1.4GHz dual-core Exynos processor, the Samsung Galaxy Note powers through day to day tasks with no hiccups, it plays back games incredibly well and the UI looks smooth. It even ploughs through high res video files and is rammed with codecs for drag and drop playback with no encoding necessary. That said, what is odd is the fact that some menial actions such as pressing the home button take a full second or so to register.

The HTC One X is just quick. It consistently makes short work of everything from a phone call through to a 3D game. Not questioning the speed therefore, we can move onto other factors that spark our attention - stability.

The Samsung Galaxy Note has been out longer, its processor was created in house by Samsung and it has also got the advantage of having its radios within the Exynos chip, in contrast to Tegra 3. In turn, our HTC One X reset itself on a couple of occasions and didn't always register our micro SIM card immediately. That said, stability wasn't our biggest gripe with the HTC One X, battery was.

The Note has a giant 2500mAh battery in contrast to the 1750mAh battery on the HTC One X. In a real world situation, this works out to the Galaxy Note dying after a pretty full day of semi-intensive use. Much to our dismay, the HTC One X hardly lasted a working day.

As far as call quality goes, both phones deliver good microphone performance and volume, however the HTC One X speaker is significantly clearer than the Samsung Galaxy Note pushing it ahead and making for a very mixed comparison.

Conclusion

The HTC One X is an incredible phone. It offers better call quality, a better camera, a better quality screen in our opinion and a faster processor. It also works better as a phone thanks to the size, with the aspect ratio making it very well suited to video playback. That said, we'd sooner recommend the Samsung Galaxy Note based on one factor alone - battery life. The Note also offers a larger display, S-Pen support which works very well and expandable storage. It's unfortunate that we couldn't even get a full day out of the European Tegra 3 powered HTC One X. If HTC were to optimise the power management, we would change our verdict. In its current state though, our comparison winner is without a doubt, the Samsung Galaxy Note.

compared by recombu.com

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Toshiba’s 13-inch tablet might be just what the doctor ordered

Toshiba’s approach to Android tablets have been nothing if not unique. While most of the manufacturers are looking at the tablet market from the phone up, Toshiba has been looking at it from the laptop down. The Thrive tablet, for example, was clearly designed to offer everything you’ve come to expect in a laptop, right down to the user-replaceable battery. It wasn’t perfect, especially with the obnoxiously large laptop-style power adapter, but the approach was refreshing. Now, Toshiba has come back to the table with three new tablets for the market, but by far the most interesting seems to be the Excite 13. The tablet world seems to stop at 10 inches, so what makes Toshiba think they can crank it up to 13?

What works better on a 13-inch screen? Almost everything

The most important feature that any tablet needs to compete with from now on is screen resolution. At the end of the day, however, competing with the screen resolution on the iPad 3 is just plain silly. Nothing has the pixel density of the new iPad, period. In no way does that make me feel badly about my television, my dual monitor workstation, my laptop, and certainly not the Excite 13 though.

For a user who is not planning to take their tablet out of the house, the screen size is a serious boon over any kind of benefit gained by screen resolution. Because the 1600×900 on the Excite is right on par with most laptops and desktops today, websites display in their full glory, especially when viewed through Chrome for Android. The web is still being make for an average screen size lower than the resolution on the Excite, so websites fill the screen with no need to zoom in or fit to the screen.

It’s not just the web that looks good on the Excite. Android 4.0 was built with every screen size in mind, and the Excite 13 tests the bold claims made by the APIs with its massive screen. As it turns out, most apps look really great on this screen — especially games and utility apps. Google Maps, for example, gives you a massive view of the world around you, and the 3D view of a city is really useful when looking for a location or checking for directions.

For the tablet gamer, Angry Birds Space and Temple Run! both looked incredible on the larger screen. Nearly your entire field of vision is occupied by the game when you play with the tablet in your lap. Movies and Youtube videos, especially in HD, look amazing on a true 16×9 display, and when curled up on the couch you might as well be holding an IMAX screen in your hands.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however. Google’s own Camera app that comes with the Excite 13 looks absolutely absurd. The useless space on the panel and the comically large buttons really speak to why some apps should be fine tuned, or replaced, with more appropriate applications. I suspect that many non-tablet apps will look comical on the Excite 13, though there wasn’t an opportunity to fully evaluate that.

Serving a niche market is a good thing.

The Toshiba Excite 13 is not for everyone. While Toshiba will happily sling market research about how most people use their tablets at home, I’m sure that this is not a tablet that will cause users to smash their iPads on the side of the road and rush into Best Buy stores because they have seen the light. The Excite 13 looks like a really great tablet that will work for a very specific market.

As a laptop manufacturer, Toshiba is no stranger to making devices for niche markets. The Excite 13 is plenty light, absolutely thin, and offers mini versions of the USB and HDMI ports offered on the original Thrive. The Excite 13 will still slide into most laptop bags for those who still want to be mobile with the device. Also, according to Toshiba, the battery life is good enough that the tablet will make a reasonable living room computer without the need to keep it tethered to the wall.

For a long time I have advocated for 7-inch tablets as the go-to size for a truly portable device. The tablet I can slide in my back pocket is the tablet I would take with me. The Excite 13 is the opposite end of the spectrum, but still grabbed my attention. There’s no way I will try to type with my thumbs on this device, or try to pull it out for that quick photo, but it’s the tablet would serve as the perfect browsing device in the home, and make Google Hangouts a really great experience. Toshiba took advantage of the extra screen size not only for battery life, but also to place four speakers in the box, making the tablet plenty loud.

All told, the Excite 13 is the first tablet I have seen actually justify the fact that it has a higher price point than the iPad, and that will likely be its biggest selling point.

Keep your eyes peeled for a full review of the Excite 13 when it’s released!

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Nokia 3208c Specifications

General Information
Brand Nokia
Model 3208c
Weight 90 G
Form Factor Bar
Dimensions 108.5×48.6×13.2 MM
Operating Frequency GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900

Display Details
Display Color 2.4 inches, TFT resistive touchscreen, 262K colors
Display Size Nokia 3208c has a display size of 240 x 320 px

Memory
Internal Memory Yes, Up to 13 MB
External Memory Yes, Up to 4GB, 1GB card included
Memory Slot Yes, microSD Card

Message
SMS Yes
MMS V1.3
Email Supports IMAP, POP3, SMTP

Music
Ring Tone Vibration, Polyphonic, MP3
FM Yes, Stereo FM radio with RDS, 3.5 mm audio jack
Music Yes, Music Formats : MP3, AAC, eAAC, Music Play Time : up to 11 hours
Speaker Yes
Headset Yes

Data
GPRS Yes, Class 32
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Wirless Protocol No
Port Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Edge Yes, Class 32
Infra Red No
Salespack Mobile, Battery, Charger, Headset, USB Cable, Free 1GB Card, Stylus, User Manual

Others
Colours :
Pearl White, Graphite Black

Camera
Camera Yes, 2 Mega Pixels Camera
Camera Res. 1600 x 1200 Pixels
Zoom Yes, 4x Digital Zoom
Video Yes
Video Recording Yes, QCIF@10fps
Video Player Yes, Video Formats : 3GP

Software
Games 2 Games + Downloadable
Java Yes, MIDP 2.1
Browser Yes, WAP 2.0/xHTML

Call Records
Phone Book 1000 entries, Photocall
Missed Calls 20 Entries.
Received Calls 20 Entries.
Dialed Calls 20 Entries.

Battery
Stand By Time Up to 350 hours
Talk Time Up to 7 hours
Li-ion 1020 mAH

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Review: Sony Xperia S

The Xperia S is not only the first Sony branded device but it is also the device that Sony hopes will revive the company’s relevance in the smartphone space. Kaz Hirai has already pointed out mobile is going to be a key area of focus for the company and Sony smartphones will be backed up with content and services owned by Sony Corporation. In our first impressions, we pointed out some positives and negatives of the device, but we took it around for a longer drive. Read on to find out if the Xperia S has what it takes to stand against the likes of the iPhone 4S, HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S II.

LOOKS

In my first impressions post I highlighted that the Xperia S had a very languid and understated industrial design. That does not change. There are no two ways about it. The Xperia S is an absolute visual treat. While saying this, I must also highlight that the design is inherently Sony. The device marries elements with the monolithic design language of the BRAVIA HDTVs and matches the fascia with a unique edgy shape. Adding to the unique flavor of the design we have the ‘Transparent Element’ adding a bit of Tron like visual brilliance.

The idea behind the ‘transparent element’ is not only to add a bit of panache to the visual aspect of the device but also accommodate the antenna of the device. This is where the user gets to see the markings of Android keys. However, these are not buttons as the actual buttons are housed a notch above the transparent element highlighted with three dots for back, home and menu. There is an obvious flaw in this design as the user gets lulled into tapping the transparent element for control of the device when the actual buttons are slightly above.

Moving away from the fascia and the much talked about transparent element, the front is also home to a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera and a suite of sensors alongside the iconic ‘Sony’ logo on the top. The rear of the device is slightly convex which makes it very comfortable to hold. Adding to the user comfort is the use of a very premium looking soft-touch/matte finish plastic cover. Previously, Samsung has been hammered for its use of wafer thin plastic elements in the Galaxy S II, well Sony has gone ahead and pulled a similar thing with the Xperia S. The plastic back is as thin has the Galaxy S II, however due to a more premium finish the slenderness of the cover gets masked.

The back is also home to the 12-megapixel camera and the former ORB like logo from the Sony Ericsson brand lineage. Looks like Sony Mobile Communications will retain the same logo. Sony claims the device has a special coating, which protects from scratches, however in my testing I found out that the device got scratched very easily. My year old Galaxy S II has less scratches than the Xperia S which I have been using for the past two weeks.

In this day and age of anorexic smartphones the Sony Xperia S comes off as a fat lady. That’s not a bad thing. With dimensions of 128 x 64 x 10.6 mm and a weight of 144 grams the Xperia S boasts of a very solid form factor, however the sharp edges hinder comfortable handling of the device over long periods. I wish Sony had shaved off the sharpness a wee bit to enhance user comfort.

The left hand side of the device houses the charging/micro USB port, which is hidden via a plastic door. The right hand side also houses a similar door for the mini HDMI port and also houses the volume rockers and the camera shutter button. Yes, the Xperia S has a camera shutter hardware key. It’s about time that Android OEMs start doing this, but for Sony this is routine as it has always equipped its smartphones with camera shutter buttons. Coming back to the doors for ports, I must say Sony could have done a better job with the plastics as the these doors are not only irritating to pull out, but also extremely flimsy and can fall off anytime very much like the Nokia Lumia 800. Apart from this, the top end of the device houses the 3.5mm jack and the power button while the bottom end houses the speaker grill.

HARDWARE

In terms of spec sheet firepower the Xperia S is no slouch but it is a tad behind the curve if one compares it to the quad-core slickness of the HTC One X. The guts of the device are powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor, which gets an additional boost with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. Weirdly, only 25GB of this memory was available to the user.

Also on board is a 4.3-inch TFT LCD display with resolution of 1280×720 pixels, along with the additional BRAVIA engine technology while viewing videos and photos. All this converts into 343 pixels per inch, a number higher than the iPhone 4/4S. What does this mean for the user? For starters, immensely sharp and crisp text. Secondly, generally users will find the device to be very useful for video and general viewing of photos.

As the display is a TFT LCD, the viewing angles are not outstanding and the HTC One X blows away the Xperia S in terms of legibility under direct sunlight. One thing that offsets the user experience while using the Xperia S is the unnatural color reproduction. This could perhaps be a side effect of the BRAVIA engine. In fact, some Xperia S users of also reported a yellow display issue, but in my testing I faced no such issues. Weirdly, there is no way to set up automatic adjustment of the brightness of the device. Users can only manually set a brightness level.

Overall, I believe the Xperia S does indeed boast of fantastic display technology, but it’s just not the best out there in the market. The HTC One X and the iPhone 4/4S both posses better display technology, but the Xperia S is not far behind. Most will not even notice the difference, but if you’re the picky type then chose either the iPhone 4 or the HTC One X.

SOFTWARE

Software is where things start to fall apart for the Xperia S. In a nutshell, Sony has shipped its latest hero device with outdated software that was released way back in December 2010. There is no reason why the Xperia S should not come with Android 4.0 ICS right out of the box. Sony is promising the update is just around the corner but it was not out by the time of filing this review.

With Gingerbread running at its heart, the Xperia S starts off with a massive disadvantage especially when the HTC One X already ships with it and to make things worst even the HTC One V ships with it and that’s a lower tier device.

The good news is that Sony’s proprietary Timescape UI is basically a lightweight Gingerbread skin that does not tinker around a lot with the core Gingerbread experience. For starters, the Sony overlay adds a much-needed visual gleam to the Android 2.3 user interface. We get a number of Xperia live wallpapers that are coupled with a theme. Of course, there is the usual array of Sony widgets such as the ‘Timescape’ social feed that integrates Twitter, Facebook and other feeds. Most OEMs bundle similar social media aggregators and frankly there is nothing new out here.

Sony has customized the entire music player UI. Users get a visually expansive coverflow like view of their album art and the core UI is bifurcated between playing tracks and My Music. Sony has armed the device with its xLOUD audio technology, however just like Beats Audio on HTC devices, it acts like a massive bass boost. Yes, the low end definitely sounds clearer but also the overall mix gets oversaturated with the bass and the over sound of the song loses sonic fidelity.

While HTC partnered with Dropbox to integrate 25GB of online storage space in its One series of smartphones, Sony has raised the stakes with 50GB of storage courtesy Box on the Xperia S. This obviously is very handy. Other than this, Sony loads a pile of bloatware on the device. There are a number of useless icons in the app drawer, which are not apps but links for paid services like Music Unlimited. No thanks!

Then there is the Tracker ID app, which basically is a poor man’s Shazam. Sony also bundles an Office Suite, which also acts like a file manager. The office suite handles most Microsoft Office file formats but has problems deciphering some Excel formulas.

With the Xperia S, Sony is making a huge deal of NFC functionality. Sony says that it will bundle two smart tags, which will connect via NFC and allow the user to set up custom profiles. I could not test this feature as my review unit came without the smart tags. Frankly, this is not a major feature and its existence will not be a deal maker for most users.

As far as power management goes the Xperia S, which allows users to disable features of the phone at a pre-determined charge level, which also can be customized by the user. This feature is very similar to Smart Actions found on the Motorola devices and it helps users to coax out more juice out of the battery.

The keyboard on the Xperia S was a disappointment. The auto correct was not as sharp as the one found on the Galaxy S II and the size of the keys was a tad small for my taste. I found the Galaxy S II to have a better stock keyboard. Having said that, one of the beauties of Android is the ability to customize the experience and one can easily download a superior third party keyboard in the vain of the SwiftKey keyboard for Android.

Shocking as it may sound, the Xperia S does not come preloaded with the PlayStation Suite, however Sony is saying that the device will receive it in a form of an update. Talking of updates, the device demands the user to hook it up with a PC or a Mac. Over the Air updates are not available on the Xperia S.

On the whole I feel, the software experience offered on the Xperia S is very impressive considering the existence of Gingerbread, but at the same time I cannot help thinking how much better it could have been with Ice Cream Sandwich. More so I believe it is absolutely criminal that in 2012 we are getting a hero smartphone with software released in 2010.

PERFORMANCE

Generally, I found the Xperia S to be an exemplary performer. It is among the best Gingerbread experiences I’ve ever had, perhaps even the best including the Galaxy S II by a notch. I found the UI to be pretty stable and fluid, but often I would endure the odd frozen screen or two. But apart from that I did not find much to complain about.

The device handled games like Shadowgun admirably, but here is where the hardware advantage of the Tegra 3 devices became apparent, as devices like the HTC One X would show detailed shading effects something that’s not possible on the older 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 chipset.

Sony made a real big deal about its 12-megapixel camera. In my opinion the camera performed pretty well but I found the performance a notch below the HTC One X and the iPhone 4S. One would have thought the 12-megapixel camera on Xperia S will be among the best Android shooters in the market, however that’s not the case. The color reproduction in images is slightly dodgy and the level of noise in images is higher than the competition. Sony has added a 3D panorama mode to the Xperia S, which adds a fun element to the imaging experience. For video though, Sony has done a very good job. The device reproduced smooth 1080p videos and handled motion very confidently.

Web browsing wise the Xperia S was an impressive performer. Pinch to zoom was smooth and general load time of web pages was very fast.Battery life of the Xperia S was quite impressive. The phone lasted a whole day on a regular basis while I was incessantly using the phone for calls, and also using a lot of 3G for browsing the web and for e-mail. Call quality was also very good. I managed to get clear call signals even in my basement. General speakerphone volume was also quite loud. I found it to be slightly louder than the Galaxy S II.

VERDICT

At Rs 32,549 I cannot recommend the Sony Xperia S. The device does many things well, but frankly there is not even a single feature it can claim to be the best. For me its not enough of an upgrade over say a device like the Samsung Galaxy S II. Apart from this, the fact that it ships with Gingerbread is not ignorable. If one has the extra cash then one would do better to opt for the HTC One X, which admittedly costs the extra Rs 5,000 but gives a better display, faster processor and runs on Android ICS. Or one can hit the other extreme and pick up the Motorola Atrix 2 instead, which gives similar features (better specs than the Galaxy S II but slightly inferior display and camera than the Xperia S) but is a cool Rs 10,000 cheaper. I would recommend the Xperia S once the price comes down to the sub-Rs 30,000 level and it gets Android ICS update.

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