Sony Xperia P review

The Sony Xperia P occupies the mid-range of Sony’s Xperia series, placed above the smaller-screened Sony Xperia U and below the highly-specified Sony Xperia S. Indeed, it lacks the 12-megapixel camera and 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and larger 4.3in screen of the Xperia S, but its 1GHz dual-core CPU, 8-megapixel camera and 4in screen still provide the Xperia P with a fantastic specification.

On top of that, the screen has a high resolution of 960×540 pixels, and Sony claims it has the brightest screen of all smartphones on the market. This is thanks to its WhiteMagic display, where an additional white subpixel has been added to the usual red, green and blue subpixels. This means it can generate a greater level of brightness than equivalent displays, which can be very handy for use on bright days.

The display looked great whether we were watching videos or browsing the internet, and the Xperia P is perfect if you primarily use it to watch media. The display’s high resolution also makes the Android 2.3.7 interface look fantastic, and the Sony Xperia P certainly feels high end.

This high-end feel is also a result of the smooth and responsive behaviour of the Xperia P. Swipe your finger slowly across the home screen and the Xperia P smoothly moves between screens; there’s none of the jerkiness you find on some cheaper phones.

You get the usual collection of navigation and media apps, but you also get MobiSystems’ OfficeSuite 5, which let us open and edit all our MS Word, Excel and Power Point documents with ease. OfficeSuite 5 has a great interface and is a worthwhile mobile app if you need to quickly view or edit a business document on the move.

The Xperia P also played our DivX, Xvid, H.264, MOV and MPEG4 test videos, but we couldn’t view our MKV video at a watchable pace. In addition to its various local media apps, the Xperia P also lets you stream media from DLNA-enabled media servers on your network. This is hugely convenient and it means you don’t have to download specific apps for your device just to do this, but we were prevented from playing the same files that worked on local storage, such as our Xvid video.

The Xperia P is also great for browsing the web thanks to its large screen, but it does feel a bit sluggish when loading web pages. Indeed, it rendered the BBC News home page in 14 seconds, which makes it slower than the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, which rendered the same page in 10 seconds.

The Xperia P comes with 16GB of storage and provides up to 13GB for users, but you can’t expand storage with a microSD card, which puts the Xperia P at a disadvantage to phones such as the Galaxy Ace 2. The Galaxy Ace 2 is like a nicer phone to hold (the Xperia P is so smooth it almost feels as if you’re going to drop it), but even so, we’re still enamoured by the Xperia P’s high-res screen, smooth animation and fast response. It’s a great option if you use your smartphone to watch videos.