Sony

Sony Xperia Z Review

Sony’s Xperia Z is a bit late to market, but brings a slightly larger and more attractive version of the company’s Xperia ZL flagship.

Its claim to fame is a waterproof shell that is a perfect companion for someone looking to take it to a cottage or the sea.

Other than the aesthetic changes — the device is notably taller and more slippery than its stouter, grippier companion — the internals are unchanged.

You have a 5-inch 1080p display, a 1.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage with a microSD slot, a 13MP Exmor RS camera, a 2330mAh battery, and Android 4.1.2 pre-loaded.

Unfortunately for us, and for you, the device does not come with Android 4.2.2, which the ZL was recently updated to. This means that you’re going to be two software versions behind the latest and, performance-wise, notably behind the ZL. Android 4.2 brought a lot of added features to the Sony device, so we’re hoping it is updated soon.

As Bell points out in its marketing campaign, the claim to fame is the waterproof nature of the chassis, but there are some caveats to note. Users must ensure that all ports, including the headphone jack and charging port, are closed securely with a built-in flap.

I tested this claim and found the device to work as advertised. Submerging the Xperia Z in water resulted in continued use and no issues with performance or the display. As this is the first high-end smartphone in Canada that can boast such claims, it’s worth considering for that reason alone.

The Xperia Z is a gorgeous smartphone – Sony’s best to-date. The all-glass design is something that any user would be proud to hold, but one must be careful not to drop it. Other than aesthetics, there is no real reason to choose the Xperia Z over the ZL, which is cheaper, smaller and available across more carriers. If waterproof is your thing, then go for it; if not, the ZL, with its IR blaster and camera shutter button, is actually a comparable smartphone.

The Sony Xperia Z is available for $149.95 on a 2-year term from Bell, or $649.95 outright. It comes in black, white and purple.

• 
  

•  Xperia Tipo review

Why to buy:

Xperia Tipo is Sony’s lowest cost smartphone that comes with Android 4.0 ICS version, 512 MB RAM and 800 MHz Processor supporting it. The design is good and it’s handy too.

Why to avoid:

The Camera work is not satisfactory and multitasking/swapping applications is slower too.

Our Take:

Xperia Tipo is a good buy in this price range, but you might have to be satisfied with its limitations.

Rating: 

Price: Rs. 10,499

For best mobile phone deals: http://shopping.telecomtiger.com/

Detailed Review

Design:
Xperia Tipo is Sony’s low cost Xperia series smartphone, but a good one. The handset dimension’s 103 mm, 57 mm and 13 mm in height, width and depth. Tipo is a light weight phone with just 99.4 gm. The phone comes with 3.2 inches scratch-resistant TFT touch screen with 320 x 480 pixels screen resolution. It is available four attractive colours - Black, Red, Blue and white. The design of the device is good and is easy to carry. On the top it has a 3.5 mm earjack. The right side has a USB charger/PC connecting port whereas, the left side of the phone gives you volume/camera key on the upper side. It lacks with front facing camera. Below the screen is a physical home key with back and menu key along its sides. On the back of the device you have a 3.2 megapixels camera but lacks with LED flash light. And below the camera is a speaker grill. Overall, the phone is handy with a different and attractive look that will attract the youth, but it fall short with its small screen size.

                         

Interface/OS:
The Sony Xperia Tipo runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. This phone is power backed by 800 MHz Qualcomm processor and 512 MB of RAM. When tested, the mobile functioned smoother and easier but, sometimes delays in multitasking and swapping applications because of its weak processing.

                                                       

Camera:
The Xperia Tipo comes with an average 3.2 megapixels camera with auto focus, but lacks with LED flash light. It does not carry a front facing camera for video calls. The camera has all smart features like, Geo-tagging, image stabilization, smile and face detection and touch focus. It has in-built photo light, 3D sweep panorama and auto focus functions enabled with 4X digital zoom. The image playback supported formats are BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WBMP and the image captured supported format is JPEG. When tested, the outdoor images were clear and rich with colours whereas, the indoor shots were clear with flash support but the colours were dull. The camera captures the picture fast and the overall camera performance is average.
Memory:
Sony Xperia Tipo in-built holds 2.9 GB memory space, from which 2.2 GB is user accessible memory with 512 MB of RAM. It allows you to extend it up to 32 GB through micro SD extension slot.
Battery:
Xperia Tipo comes with a standard Li-Ion 1200 mAh battery which, to an extend has done justice to this device. It delivers the stand by time of up to 400 hours on 2G and up to 350 hours on 3G. The music playback time for this music centric phone is up to 17 hours and the Talk Time from the battery is up to 13 hours on 2G and up to 6.5 hours when on 3G. The overall battery performance when tested was great with average daily use but it discharges early with more browsing and 3G use.
Audio/Video:
Xperia Tipo is amazing and so its music player, but it's not exclusive to this particular phone infact it is available on other Xperia models as well. This phone has a FM radio with RDS player and it supports MP3, 3GPP, MP4, SMF, WAV, OTA and Ogg vorbis audio playback supported formats. Track ID music recognition is in-built in the device and 3GPP, MP4 and AMR are audio recording supported formats. It comes with xLOUD Experience, the audio filter technology from Sony. The video quality of the phone when tested was good and the colours were sharp and rich of outdoor shoot. The video playback and recording formats are 3GPP and MP4.
Features:
Xperia Tipo from Sony is in-built with all basic Android smart phone features and applications and you can purchase or download latest android applications to your phone. In-built it has many social and other apps integrated like, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc. The list of pre-loaded application include: Google Voice Search, Google Talk video chat, Google Mail, Google Calendar, and Google Maps with Street View. For connectivity and communication you have multiple options like USB High speed 2.0 and Micro USB support with Native USB tethering. As well as WiFi and WiFi Hotspot functionality with DLNA Certified you can connect/access to internet. Synchronization via Exchange ActiveSync, Google Sync and Facebook is possible. aGPS is in-built in the device and you have a WebKit web browser with Pan and zoom functions in it. Bluetooth technology helps you pair with other devices and share data with them.
Conclusion:
The Sony Xperia Tipo is truly a compact smart phone in Sony’s Xperia series. It has its own fixed target audience but this phone is much better than others in this price range. Its 800 MHz processor, 3.2 megapixels camera and Android 4.0 version are its main key features that gives it edge over its competitors. But it trails with less 512 MB RAM, small screen size and no front camera. This might be a reason to think. So, we give this phone 3.5 star rating.

Sony Xperia tipo dual review

As the A listers of the mobile industry, launch some of their high-end creations in this season, another big player ‘Sony’, is quietly tapping on a market that few, from the big league, have stepped into. The dual-SIM market has plenty of buyers. But is anyone paying attention? Well, Sony is and has thus launched its tipo Dual, that runs on Android 4.0. Here’s an interesting equation = A dual SIM + by Sony + on Android 4.0 + that if you bargain hard, it can be yours for Rs. 9500/- Read our review to know how well it performs.

Hardware

First impression of the phone. It’s a basic Android phone, but despite the low price, Sony has not considerably pulled down the quality of the product. But yes, we do wish the screen had a better resolution, more real estate!

There is a micro USB slot at the side similar to the tipo

The camera is also a similar 3.2MP fixed focus shooter without flash

The power button and 3.5mm audio jack are at the top

Sony also launched a sibling of tipo dual, the ‘tipo’ that we reviewed recently. Both have identical features, except the additional dual-SIM capability of tipo dual. So let’s concentrate on judging how good this phone is as a dual SIM phone.

Sony has already got brownie points during the unboxing of this phone – for including two micro SIM adapters! The adapters are easy to use.

Both SIMs are to be inserted near the slots placed one below the other, near the camera lens. The lower slot has a metallic plate, which makes inserting and removing SIM, hassle-free.

The battery in tipo dual has as much fuel, as the tipo phone. The battery can give upto 5 hrs of talktime. Wish there was more battery to support longer talk time with two SIMs in one phone.

The back cover does feels light quality, but opening and shutting it several times assured us that the cover won’t give up on its strength easily. On pressing the power button, you are greeted with the Xperia logo….followed by the very useful 11 step setup wizard. We have pictures of the most important ones. Pictures are explanatory enough to suggest how well planned the dual system of the phone is, at-least in the beginning.

Dual SIM

One can name the SIMs to make identification of SIMs simpler.

There are also ways to segregate duties of each SIM from becoming default SIM , to which one the user wants to dedicate to data gathering.

Activating the SIM is pretty simple by this toggle ‘press’ button, placed just below the volume rocker. The screenshot indicates the message that appears on the screen, when the toggle button is used. SIMs can also be customized with different ringtones and notifications.

The dual SIM phone is a single standby phone, so you cannot use the SIM 1 for calls and SIM 2 for data at the same time. If the first SIM is active for outgoing calls, SMS and data, then the SIM 2 would go on standby mode. But you can receive calls and SMS on both the SIM cards. If the user is getting a call on SIM1, then SIM 2 cannot receive a call at the same time, and vice versa.

You can keep track of data usage from each SIM separately. You can also set data warning when it reaches a particular limit.

The message inbox does not indicate which SIM the message has come for. But when you open the inbox and open the particular message, it identifies the SIM there.

The contacts, once synced are difficult to be identified, which contact belongs to SIM 1 or SIM 2 since they are imported in the phone before using.

The call logs and the missed call register identifies which SIM received the missed call!

Conclusion

It is great indeed to find an Android 4.0 phone at such low-cost from a popular mobile maker.This is Sony’s first attempt at making a dual sim phone and the company has done a pretty good job with the tipo dual. The battery life is decent, but since it is a Dual SIM phone talk time is less than the single SIM tipo phone. If you are looking for a small and powerful Dual SIM smartphone running Android 4.0, the tipo dual is a good choice.

Pros

• Dual SIM
• Android 4.0 out of the box
• Option to customize each SIM card and appoint data services separately
• Option to keep tab of data usage from each SIM

Cons

• Screen resolution can be better
• Fixed focus camera