Focal Car Audio

Pros and Cons, October 1, 2012

Sony Xperia U

General:

The Sony Xperia U is an entry level Android device at a very reasonable price point of $219 (Although I find the price constantly fluctuating on Amazon). Keep in mind, if it’s not already clear to you now, that this is a very small/thin phone. Using the iPhone as a reference, the Xperia U 3.5 in display is NOT like the iPhone’s 3.5 in. Xperia U’s display is taller but thinner (considerably so, which you’ll notice when the keyboard comes up and how tiny certain icons such as battery, service bar, and general font), which still satisfies the 3.5 in, but keep that in mind when purchasing (I personally like small phones, not into the whole mini-tv in my pocket kinda thing). The phones I’ve owned in the past couple years are the Droid Pro Plus, Mytouch 4g, Blackberry Curve, Mytouch 3g slide, and the original iPhone. This is to help give the reader a sense of where I’m coming from and what I’m comparing to. I really enjoyed the Droid Pro Plus, which was my last phone before this phone, but I sustained a little bit of water damage on a hiking trip so I figured I’d try something new. I’m pretty picky, so the things that bother me might not bother you, but here goes:

Pros:

1. Fast
a. The phone is very responsive with the Dual-core 1 GHz processor
b. Very little lag overall. Using Angry Birds as the reference, cuz everyone’s played Angry Birds, there’s slight choppiness with the background enabled in the game but it’s perfectly smooth with it disengaged. It’s never really stalled even with background enabled, only the FPS has dipped a bit and it’s a bit noticeable, but other than that no issues.
c. Browsing with the phone is also a nice experience (in regards to speed). I’ve browsed through CNET, Gizmodo, and Slickdeals, which all have a lot of stuff on their pages. The pages load pretty quickly (on wi-fi – I’ve noticed most of the time the bottle neck is the phone not the connection, so even on wifi I’ve had phones that took a while to load pages) and when scrolling, there’s a slight millisecond lag with every scroll, but it’s consistent and smooth enough for me.

2. Crisp Display
a. The clarity of the screen is very nice with 480 x 854 pixels, 3.5 inches (~280 ppi pixel density)
b. You really can’t see any pixels with the naked eye

3. Dedicated Camera Button
a. Makes it much easier to take pictures, there’s a light press, which autofocuses, and a strong press, which actually takes the picture.
b. The key also allows you to take a picture outside of the lock screen in case you need to take a quick snapshot at something and don’t feel like unlocking your device, finding the camera app and then taking the picture. Nice little touch
c. In my opinion, the 5MP camera is good enough for the phone. It’s certainly not the best camera out there, but it’s far from the worst. It’s just average. A little noise here and there.

4. Swype
a. This is really the first time I’ve really used Swype. I don’t know what changed, but before I didn’t like using it, now with this device I love it. I don’t have particularly large or small hands, but this phone feels better with one hand than using it with 2 hands, just imo. So Swype really saved it for me, but you have to download it.

5. Front Facing Camera
a. Honestly, I haven’t used it yet, but it’s a nifty feature that I haven’t really had on other phones so it’s a plus for me. Skype and taking pictures of myself I guess.

6. Phone/Voice Quality
a. Now this phone doesn’t really beat the Droid Pro Plus or Blackberry Curve in loudness and clarity of voice, but it’s by no means “bad.” It’s just something to keep in mind and not get lost in all the features, forgetting the fact that the device is (or should be) primarily a phone. The sound levels peak a bit when at its max especially when using the xLOUD function which enhances the loudness of speaker. But nothing really new or surprising to me since most of the phones I’ve owned had similar issues.

7. App Stacking
a. Move an app over another and it stacks into a folder. Nifty

8. Screen Protector
a. Comes with it in the box, that’s nice.

Cons:

1. Texting
a. Now let the reader understand, my critique is not the texting experience overall, but this is where my pickiness really shines. When adding a new contact to text, you have to click the Write New button (indicated by a pencil and + Sign) then you have to hit Add Contact (Plus sign with a portrait) then you have to type in the Name which will eventually auto-populate, not in the bar but in the scrolling section below. Then you have to click the name itself then press done. My goodness, my other phone, all I had to do was press Write new, Type the name and it would usually auto-populate in the bar itself, in…

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