Sony Xperia P Review

Introduction:

The Sony Xperia P is the company's first smartphone to feature WhiteMagic technology. What kind of witchcraft is that, you ask? Well, thanks to some display manufacturing ingenuity, the handset's screen is capable of outglowing almost any smartphone currently on the market, which ensures its excellent outdoor visibility.

Other than that we are dealing with a reasonably priced mid-range Android handset with some pretty decent specs. The processor inside it has a couple of cores ticking at 1GHz, an Exmor R camera of 8 mexapixel resides on the unit's back, and a shell made out of anodized aluminum protects the smartphone's internals. We cannot hide that we have high hopes for the Xperia P, so without further ado, let us fire it up and see how it performs.

Box contents:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Wired headset with in-ear headphones
• Start-up guide

Design:

At a glance, the Sony Xperia P looks more or less like a slightly smaller version of the Xperia S. The curved back side, the sharp edges, the glowing transparent strip at the bottom of the device – all of these visual cues have been taken straight from the company's flagship. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. The smartphone looks just as attractive as its boxy big brother, so we are more than happy with the way it has been designed.



You can compare the Sony Xperia P with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

What makes the Xperia P different, however, is that instead of plastic of one kind or another, Sony has chosen to treat its mid-ranger to an aluminum shell, which covers most of its back side, with the exception of areas where antennas are located. At first, the presence of premium materials is not evident, but then you feel the difference once the coldness of the anodized metal is sensed by your fingertips. The lack of a microSD card slot and the non-removable battery are the trade-offs associated with this design trait. At 10.5 millimeters, the smartphone is not too thick, but far from being impressively thin either, so it won't remain unnoticed while it is resting in the pocket of your jeans.

Sony Xperia P is one of the smaller (narrower) smartphones out there, yet using it with a single hand might require a bit of an effort as the display is situated relatively far from the device's bottom side. As a result, your thumb might find it difficult to reach the very top of the handset's elogated body. On the other hand, the physical buttons, all of which are located on the unit's right side, are pretty easy to operate, and the 2-stage camera shutter is really convenient when taking photos. The transparent band below the display is where the usual capacitive Android keys are, and it is great to see that they are really responsive to the touch.


Display:

We are genuinely amazed by how blindingly bright the LCD display on the Sony Xperia P can be. At 935 nits, its outdoor visibility is nothing short of excellent even when Mr Sun is shining right at the handset’s front side. That is thanks to Sony’s very own WhiteMagic technology, which we see in a smartphone for the first time, and hopefully not the last.

Brightness aside, the screen exhibits a great level of detail due to its 275ppi pixel density. The exact resolution is 540 by 960 pixels (qHD) spread over 4 inches of real estate. As a result, everything looks nice and sharp, from tiniest of text fonts to the smooth curves of home screen icons.

In terms of color representation, however, things could have been a bit more accurate. Unless the brightness is set to a high level, whites appear yellowish, but once the display is glowing near its maximum, shades of yellow start looking greenish. Thankfully, you won't be noticing these flaws all the time due to their dependency on the brightness setting, which gets adjusted automatically by default.

Interface:

To no surprise, we have the Timescape UI running on the Sony Xperia P. We have discussed its traits more than once already, so check out our Sony Xperia S review to find out more. Sadly, Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread comes pre-installed, which is quite frustrating given how long Ice Cream Sandwich has been around for. Fortunately, an update will be released this summer.


In portrait mode, we find the on-screen keyboard a bit tricky to use, so typos can be common. Thankfully, the auto-correct feature will take care of them on the fly, and the auto-complete bar can be quite useful.



Software:

If you are into social networking, the Timescape app will surely come in handy. It aggregates your Facebook and Twitter feeds for easy following of friends' activity, and the widgets it is accompanied by make doing so even more convenient. The Recommender app could also be quite useful with its suggestions for apps and games that you might be interested in.

Processor and memory:

With a 1GHz dual-core processor – the NovaThor U8500 by ST Ericsson, the Sony Xperia P should theoretically have no troubles performing every day tasks with ease, especially when it is equipped with a whole gigabyte of RAM. That is mostly true for the times when a static live wallpaper is used, but live wallpapers (more than a few of which come pre-loaded) introduce a slight lag when navigating through menus and home screens. Still, that does not affect the device's overall usability much. We tried playing a complex 3D game – Frontline Commando, and it ran without any difficulties. Inexplicably, Fruit Ninja, which requires far less processing prowess, dropped frames when too much objects were present on the screen.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Sony Xperia P	2187	5404	29,4
HTC One S	4867	7012	60,7
LG Optimus L7	1886	2842	19,2
Samsung Galaxy S II	3113	6076	51

Even though a microSD card slot is not present on the Xperia P, the 16 gigabytes of on-board storage should be enough for the needs of most users. That is, unless they shoot too much 1080p video, as every minute of footage occupies roughly 100 megabytes of storage space. The actual user-available storage is as follows: 11.26GB for files, documents, and media, and 2GB allocated for installed applications.

Internet and connectivity:

The stock web browser on the Sony Xperia P feels unpolished, so getting an alternative from the Play Store is highly recommended, in our opinion. Scrolling through heavy web pages is often laggy and gets quite unresponsive at times. Other than that, pages load pretty quickly and you get goodies like pinch to zoom, text reflow, multiple windows, and Adobe Flash support.


Hooking up to the internet is done either via Wi-Fi b/g/n or by using 3G at up to 14.4Mbps on the downlink. Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, and the FM radio complete the list of mandatory connectivity features. There is also a microUSB port for wired file transfer and charging. The Micro HDMI port makes connecting the smartphone to a TV possible, although a cable has not been included in the set. Last but not least, you get NFC, which allows Sony SmartTags to be used, yet keep in mind that no tags have been included in the set.

Camera:

The Sony Xperia P is well capable of taking some great-looking photos with its 8-megapixel camera. Even though we took our outdoor samples on a gloomy day, the images were rich in detail and the color balance was accurate enough. The automatic scene selection worked pretty well so in 9 out of 10 cases we ended up with a properly exposed photograph. When taking photos indoors, image quality degrades noticeably, yet low-light smartphone photos rarely look good as a whole.


When light is plentiful, focusing times are very short and the shutter lag is under half a second. In low-light conditions, however, the camera surely takes its time, which is why focusing can take well over a second.


By holding down the dedicated camera button, you can take photos straight from the lock screen, and it is nice to see that the feature works like a charm almost every time. Less than 2 seconds are required for the camera to boot up, to focus on an object, and to capture a frame.

As far as videos are concerned, 1080p footage looks okay, but the continuous auto-focus rarely serves its purpose if a close-by object is introduced in front of the camera. There is a front-facing VGA camera present, but its quality is mediocre at best.

Sony Xperia P Sample Video - stabilizer off:



Sony Xperia P Sample Video - stabilizer on:



Sony Xperia P Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Sony has thrown in a music player of its own, and we are pretty happy with it. The interface is simplistic, a useful home screen widget is present, and controlling the music playback can be done at any time from the lock screen. In addition, you gen an equalizer and a few other audio tweaks. Support for lossless audio is missing at the moment, but it will come along with the Ice Cream Sandwich update.


The video player does not boast a fancy interface, but it plays back any file format we have to throw at it. Anything of resolution up to 720p runs smoothly and looks really nice

Performance:

The earpiece on the Sony Xperia P is surely among the best ones we have heard lately. It does an excellent job delivering clear, natural vocal tones that are free of distortion even at the loudest setting. The microphone's performance is also well above the average as it captures voices that sound loud and distinct on the other side of the line. We should also mention the built-in loudspeaker, which is situated in a very unusual spot, namely on the phone's side. It is enhanced by Sony'x xLOUD technology, and after testing it out we can concluded that it is definitely loud enough for a decent hands-free conversation. Ringtones also sound loud enough to be heard even if the handset is inside your pocket.

The smartphone's 1305mAh battery is rated for 5 hours of 3G talk-time, which is somewhat below the norm for a device of this class. In stand-by mode, the handset should last for nearly three weeks before its battery is drained, which is more acceptable. If used as a music player, on the other hand, the Xperia P surpasses many of its competitors by delivering 80 hours of continuous music playback. Just let us remind you that the battery is non-removable so swapping it on the go is not an option.


Conclusion:

The Sony Xperia P is only an inch away from being the ultimate mid-range Android smartphone – packed with cool features, yet relatively inexpensive considering what you're getting in exchange. And what you get is a great camera, pretty interface, snappy dual-core processor, and one of the brightest smartphone displays to date, all encased inside of a solid aluminum package.

The only things that drag the smartphone down are its imperfect color representation and the aging Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Sure, a promised software update will take care of the latter, yet the former is something we will have to settle down with.

If you are determined on getting the Sony Xperia P anyway, chances are that your needs will be fulfilled, but we would advise you to check out a few alternatives first. For example, if you are more into AMOLED displays, the Samsung Galaxy S Advance is worth considering as it is another great Android mid-ranger that should bear a more affordable price tag. The HTC Sensation may be over a year old, but it does not lag behind in terms of specs and comes at an identical price point.

Sony Xperia P Review: