Sony Xperia S review

The Xperia S is the first Sony-branded phone we’ve seen – Sony having bought out Ericsson’s part of the Sony Ericsson joint venture in February. It’s a hugely powerful smartphone, with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, a 4.3in screen with a huge 720×1,280 resolution and 12.1-megapixel main camera.

With a lack of contrast, some seriously wacky colours and mushy details, this cropped, zoomed-in photo of the Xperia S’s screen shows its faults – click to enlarge

We were disappointed by the Xperia S’s screen. It’s bright and clear, with a massive 720×1,280 resolution, but while it shares its high resolution with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus‘s screen, it’s a TFT rather than OLED panel, and so can’t generate the same levels of contrast. In a side-by-side comparison with other flagship phones such as the Motorola RAZR or Nexus, the Xperia S’s screen didn’t have the same punch, despite both those handsets using PenTile displays that don’t have RGB subpixels for every pixel.

By comparison this zoomed-in crop of the Galaxy Nexus’s screen shows more contrast and better colour balance. The pixel structure is more noticeable here, but not so evident in actual use – click to enlarge

While the phone’s screen resolution is decidedly next-generation, the phone unfortunately only runs Android 2.3. According to Sony, an upgrade to Android 4.0 is planned for Quarter 2 2012, which seems like a long delay considering the latest version of Google’s operating system has been out since October 2011. Sony has tweaked Android, although the customisations aren’t as extensive as on previous Xperia phones. You get Sony’s Timescape app, which aggregates Facebook and Twitter feeds, plus Sony’s Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited apps.

Timescape is interesting in that it supports plugins to extend it to other services, but support isn’t comprehensive – there aren’t any plugins for professional network LinkedIn, for example. Instead of the carousel home screen we’ve seen on previous Xperia handsets, the S has a simpler Feed widget and a Friends widget that shows the status updates of eight favourite people.

Video Unlimited has a selection of films that you can buy or rent – the latest blockbusters cost around £12 to buy or £3.50 to rent, both in SD quality, while older films can start as low as £7 to buy and £2.50 to rent. It’s not as good a selection or as good value as Netflix, but it compares well with Google’s own Play service, which has a similar selection and charges £3.50 for rental.

Music Unlimited is a subscription-based service which gives you unlimited access to a selection of songs for £10 a month – check out the website at https://music.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com to see if you like the selection.

There’s a host of other software installed by default, and you can uninstall most of it if it doesn’t suit your needs. The Astro file manager is a good addition, and the OfficeSuite viewer lets you view office documents. Sony’s also added a feature from Android 4.0 – the ability to drag app icons onto one another to create folders, which saves precious screen space.

A Tags app lets you manage your NFC smart tags – depending on where you buy the Xperia S, you’ll receive some free tags, or you can buy them online for as little as 11p each. You can associate a number of actions with a tag, such as turning on Bluetooth, and then place the tag where you most often need Bluetooth, such as in your car. This makes it easier to associate actions with events in your daily life

The speedy 1.5GHz processor ensure everything runs smoothly; with the scratch-resistant, shatter-proof glass panel providing a smooth and reactive interface. We’re less impressed with the touch-sensitive buttons under the screen, which weren’t particularly responsive. The icons for these appear in the translucent block near the bottom; though unlike on the Sony Xperia P this doesn’t reflect colour changes onscreen, or provide colour-coded notifications.

We couldn’t fault the Xperia S’s 12.1-megapixel camera, however. It takes crisp, colourful shots in all lighting conditions, and can shoot 1080p video too – video clips were slightly jerky when panning, though. The camera prefers well-lit conditions, as we noticed more noise creeping in as the scenes got darker, but the LED flash helped in the gloom. The handset may not have Android 4.0, which comes with a lock screen camera shortcut as standard, but Sony has implemented a similar idea here, and the Xperia S can go from standby to taking a shot in 1.5 seconds.

Despite the Xperia S’s impressive specification, we can’t help but feel disappointed; the screen’s huge resolution is impressive, but it lacks the vibrancy of other phone displays we’ve seen recently. Performance, storage and battery life are all acceptable, but you’ll have to wait a while for Android 4.0. The HTC Sensation XE has just received the Android 4.0 update and has a better overall screen despite its lower resolution, so is a better option.