Preview: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 'PlayStation Phone' gets us closer to VR

First look

The leak of Sony's PlayStation Phone has created a lot of anticipation, turbulence and distraction in the minds of game fanatics. It is expected that the Sony's new devise would be a crafted synthesis between gaming console and smartphone. It will be all inclusive of web browsing, email, GPS navigator, maps, camera and video, etc. Surely, the rumor has rocked both the gaming and telecom world but it should be assured that no dirt is dished out when it comes to precision engineering in midst of all the excitement.

playstation smartphone

What’s new?

The device off course have some surprising elements like couple of installed emulators - one for the original PlayStation, and another for GameBoy Advance. Its exterior includes tiny power button at the top right corner and the volume rocker right between the two gamepad. In this version the controller sticks have been chucked out – being replaced with circular touchpads.

What’s been refreshed?

As soon as the screen glides away you will find four shiny Android soft keys ( back, menu, home, and search). For some unknown reason the middle two buttons are swapped around in the OS. The key board has been left untouched by the designers which shares a little bit of similarity with X10's with sharper graphics.

Features

If we talk about its additional features, one must say that Sony has paid some serious attention. An SE feature has been embedded in the horizontal-scrolling apps menu which allows custom sorting of alphabets, usage frequency, and installation time. The device has been provided with a quick release button at the bottom right of the menu that floats your icons. With the feature the user can drag them around to rearrange the list. By using the PlayStation Pocket one can get access to end number of games to be downloaded. The gaming company has endowed the phone with specs like: Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread) running on 1 GHz processor, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, GPS support, Java support, exciting games, etc.

playstation phone specs

What’s good?

The gaming smartphone of Sony is definitely a revolutionary attempt for getting one step closer to the virtual reality. A compartment for the phone's 1500mAh battery (interchangeable with the X10) can power the phone for a full day even if 3G connection is ever active. With additional slot for SIM card and microSD card, the user don't have to pull out the battery for replacement. If a user has not placed the battery properly a minor dislocation can cause the power button to recess. Excellent audio quality can be experienced while talking and listening to music on this smartphone. For convenience Mediascape has been split into several widgets like: music player, gallery browser, and media shortcuts.

What’s not so good?

The smartphone has still given some reasons to critiques for speaking against it. WiFi is not there and it is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset; even the Chinese teardown struggled to get past the chip's shield cage to check its ID. The user can play only Android Games in it, so the traditional PS and PSP games will be useless, unless you are having the emulators.

Industry buzz

The initial details reveal that the smartphone will be having a 4 inch screen (touchscreen) with 854 x 480 pixels. A 1GHz processor would power the Google Android 2.3 operating system. A 5 megapixel camera on the back haves an LED flash accompanying it. There were some complaints regarding X10 as it is not immune to scratches even if handled very carefully. So one has to wait till the launch of Sony Smartphone that these issues rectified or not. Sony BRAVIA Engine has already won many plaudits for its exceptional visual brilliance and a crystal clear image. Furthermore, the award-winning Exmor R for mobile sensor with the f/2.4 lens, enables the capture of high quality, bright pictures, and HD videos even in low light. Its earlier mobiles were a decent start but much more is being expected from this smartphone.

Wrap-up

The fact cannot be denied that the launch of Playstation smartphone is being eagerly waited by many.But, the gamers would have to wait for getting clarifications to the questions like: how will the games be billed and delivered? How much will they cost? And most importantly, how much will the phone itself cost?. In the meanwhile, we can satisfy our adrenaline needs by playing God of War 2.

Picture Gallery

Playstation Smartphone

Via: Gsmarena/ Engadget/ Wirelessandmobilenews