The idea of a dedicated gaming phone is not really revolutionary. Nokia's experiment with this concept gave us the N-Gage. However, it failed to make any impact in the market, and even the redesigned QD didn't live up to expectations. Now, Sony Ericsson (SE) is trying to regain its mobile market share with the help of its highly popular PlayStation brand. Unlike Nokia, SE has better chances of succeeding in its plan, thanks to the latest CPUs and Sony's expertise in gaming.
Design And Build Quality
The retail box contains the phone, a charger with detachable USB cable, 8 GB memory card, and earphones. The device we received for review was white, with the other available colour being black. The phone measures 119 mm (l) x 62 mm (w) x 16 mm (d) and weighs in at 175 grammes.
Surprisingly, the four buttons below the 4" screen lack any sort of backlighting. Hence, in the dark, you end up having to guess the button positions, and invariably end up missing them.
Most of the body is made up of glossy plastic to keep the weight in check, but the company should have used matte plastic, at least for the back panel, to provide a better grip. The phone creaks when pressed near its joints, which is sad for a high-end device.
The main highlight of the sony ericsson mobiles are its slide-out gamepad. The sliding mechanism is solid, and looks like it can take a lot of wear and tear. The gamepad gives you the feel of a PSP's controller. It sports four directional buttons, as well as the iconic PlayStation face buttons.
The shoulder buttons are also present, and are the reason behind the oddly placed volume rocker. For some stupid reason though, the design team decided to paint the device's sides in silver. This looks bad and reminds me of the cheap Chinese FM radios that try to fake a metallic build by painting plastic silver. In short, the cheap plastic takes away the premium feel of this device, but thankfully its internals are solid enough to withstand the wrath of gamers.
Display
The 4" LED-lit LCD has pixel dimensions of 480x854. The manufacturer seems to lack confidence in the durability of its hardened glass screen, as the display ships with a scratch guard. The panel manages to show lively colours, and its contrast is also good. However, the display is too dim, and you will have to set the brightness to maximum. What's worse is the tendency of the screen to start losing colour accuracy even at viewing angles close to 45 degrees.
Design And Build Quality
The retail box contains the phone, a charger with detachable USB cable, 8 GB memory card, and earphones. The device we received for review was white, with the other available colour being black. The phone measures 119 mm (l) x 62 mm (w) x 16 mm (d) and weighs in at 175 grammes.
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Most of the body is made up of glossy plastic to keep the weight in check, but the company should have used matte plastic, at least for the back panel, to provide a better grip. The phone creaks when pressed near its joints, which is sad for a high-end device.
The main highlight of the sony ericsson mobiles are its slide-out gamepad. The sliding mechanism is solid, and looks like it can take a lot of wear and tear. The gamepad gives you the feel of a PSP's controller. It sports four directional buttons, as well as the iconic PlayStation face buttons.
 |
Display
The 4" LED-lit LCD has pixel dimensions of 480x854. The manufacturer seems to lack confidence in the durability of its hardened glass screen, as the display ships with a scratch guard. The panel manages to show lively colours, and its contrast is also good. However, the display is too dim, and you will have to set the brightness to maximum. What's worse is the tendency of the screen to start losing colour accuracy even at viewing angles close to 45 degrees.
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