Sony Xperia miro Review

Introduction:

Let's say you are a young, socially active individual who is looking for a decent smartphone, but isn't quite ready to drop a boatload of cash on one. Well, the Sony Xperia miro, which we are reviewing today, is made just for you then. It is a low-end handset with a 3.5-inch screen, 5-megapixel camera, and a number of built-in social networking features. Add to all this the blessing of running Android 4.0 ICS out of the box, and we have a clear winner on our hands, don't we? Well, we aren't too sure about that yet, which is why it is now time to put the Sony Xperia miro under the spotlight and see what it has to impress us with.

Box contents:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Screen protector
• User guide

Design:

We aren't happy to say it, but the Sony Xperia miro looks about as exciting as a monolith. (Hint: they aren't exciting.) If it wasn't for the sloping metallic plate underneath the row of capacitive keys on its front, the handset would have had no distinctive visual features whatsoever. What soothes our disappointment a bit is the fact that Sony is offering the smartphone in various color combinations, including a snowy-white version. On the bright side of things, the Xperia miro feels well built, despite being made of boring matte plastic. Due to its petite size, the device fits nicely in the palm and can be easily operated with a single thumb.



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

The three capacitive buttons under the screen are well spaced out and aren't susceptible to accidental presses. We really wish, however, that the lock key, positioned on top, and the 2-button volume rocker, located on the right side, weren't so tiny.

What could possibly be better than a notification light? Two notification lights, of course! The Xperia miro has a discreet RGB LED right next to the earpiece, but what you'll be noticing a lot more often is the light strip at its bottom. Each time you have a missed call, a new Facebook message, or simply when the battery needs to be recharged, it will let you know by glowing in the respective color. A nice, handy feature, we must admit.


Display:

And suddenly, there were pixels, thousands of them, exposed by the 3.5-inch display's mediocre resolution of 320 by 480. At only 165ppi, graphics don't look particularly pretty on it. Reading tiny text can be a challenge, if not impossible, which is why you'll find yourself zooming quite often when browsing the internet. If that is not enough, finger smudge builds up on its surface rather quickly, and getting it off is easier said than done.

At least we can safely say that the screen's color representation and viewing angles are okay, and if you put a little effort into it, using the smartphone on a bright, sunny day is not entirely impossible. For that, however, you'll have to boost its brightness to the maximum manually as there is no light sensor present on the device to do that for you.

Interface and functionality:

Kudos to Sony for launching the Xperia miro with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box instead of making us wait for an update. The user interface has been altered using a fresh dose of Timescape UI, which is an interface with heavy focus on social networking. That explains why you get Sony's very own Timescape widgets, which aggregate a user's Facebook and Twitter feed, so that messages and events are listed chronologically in one place. If needed, support for additional social networks or services, such as Gmail, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and many more, can be added.

You get a total of five home screens, which can be customized using some of the many additional widgets that come pre-loaded. The stock Android gallery app has been replaced with a custom one, which conveniently lists photos and videos in chronological order and can pin-point the location where they have been taken on a map, as long as the geo-tagging feature is on.


The Sony Xperia miro also comes with goodies like a Power Saver, which, if enabled, can switch off a number of features and reduce the screen's brightness in order to preserve energy. The Recommender app can also come in handy as it suggests cool games and software one can download from the Play Store. The Smart Connect app, which is also on board, can launch apps when a certain event is triggered. For example, the Walkman music player will launch once you plug in your earphones, and the alarm clock will be brought forth when you plug in your charger in the evening.

Processor and memory:

We were surprised to see that the Sony Xperia miro is quite responsive despite its seemingly weak hardware specification. The smartphone comes with a Snapdragon S1 SoC by Qualcomm – the MSM7225A clocked at 800Mhz, with Adreno 200 Enhanced graphics and 512MB of RAM. Even with a live wallpaper running, there is no lag when shuffling between home screens or switching applications. Gamers would be pleased to know that most of the 3D games we tried were playable, including Gears and Guts, Minecraft, and Temple Run. Dead Trigger (yes, that Dead Trigger) also runs at a decent frame rate, believe it or not, yet a graphics glitch spoils the entire experience.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Sony Xperia miro	1439	2864	15,9
HTC Desire V	1807	2866	19,7
Sony Xperia U	2266	5419	28,3
LG Optimus L5	1470	2665	14,2

Getting a microSD card for the Xperia miro would probably be a good idea. Out of the 4 gigs of on-board storage, only 758MB are available for software, and about 2GB are allocated for music, photos, and other files.

Web browser and connectivity:

Brace yourselves with patience if you'll be surfing the internet on the Sony Xperia miro. With both Chrome and the stock ICS browser, zooming and scrolling around content-rich web pages is often choppy, and even moderately heavy sites tend to lag. And that's without running Adobe Flash content on them as the plug-in doesn't come installed, although embedded YouTube videos are playable. Basic internet pages, however, and mobile-optimized sites are not a problem to enjoy.


All standard connectivity features are supported by the Xperia miro, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G at up to 7.2Mbps. Hooking up the smartphone to a computer, be it for file transfer or simply to charge its battery, is done via its microUSB port.

Camera:

Now that's a nice surprise. Turns out that the Sony Xperia miro, equipped with a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, is capable of taking photos that one definitely won't be embarrassed to post online. Colors in our outdoor shots are properly balanced and an the amount of detail they contain is within the acceptable levels. Something you'll have to live with, however, is that focusing can sometimes take a while, especially when light is scarce. When shooting indoors, there is a noticeable drop in detail, but photos are still passable. Unfortunately, videos don't look particularly nice and the maximum resolution, at which they can be taken, is only 640 by 480 pixels.



Something we have to warn you about is that the camera module is positioned really close to the handset's top side. When shooting in landscape mode, our fingers got in the frame on several occasions, until we finally got used to keeping our appendages out of the way. We also gave the front-facing camera a try, and while it performed well in favorable lighting conditions, it is practically unusable in low-light scenarios.

Sony Xperia miro Sample Video:



Multimedia:

The tried and tested Walkman music player comes loaded on the Sony Xperia miro. Chances are you won't be looking for a substitute as it gets its job done well. Goodies like a lock screen controls and a home screen widget come standard, as well as audio enhancements like an equalizer, surround effects, and Clear Bass for tweaking the lower end of the frequency spectrum. Turning the xLOUD feature on boosts the output of the built-in speaker quite a bit, without distorting the sound. Another neat thing about the music player is that it can download music info and album art automatically, in case your collection isn't well organized.


The stock video player may be pretty basic in terms of features, but it supports a multitude of file formats, including DivX and the H.264 codec. 800 by 480 pixels is the highest supported video resolution, which is okay since anything beyond that wouldn't have made a noticeable difference on a HVGA screen.

Call quality:

Voice tones come out loud and distinctive from the Sony Xperia miro's earpiece, and don't sound crackly even when the volume is turned up all the way. The built-in loudspeaker has a high output, which renders it pretty usable when your hands are occupied. We only wish that the microphone was a bit better as our voice sounded slightly artificial on the other side of the line.

Battery life:

According to Sony, the 1,500 mAh battery on the Xperia miro will last a whopping 24 hours on a single charge, but that's when the smartphone is used with moderation. The cell is rated for 6 hours of continuous talk time, or 22.7 days of stand-by – pretty average figures that we are a lot more willing to believe.

Conclusion:

Now that we've gone over its pros and cons, we can safely conclude that the Sony Xperia miro is worthy of bearing our seal of approval. It earned our sympathies with its responsiveness and decent main camera, which are features not often seen on low-end Androids. Yeah, it may have a screen of below average quality and its looks might be uninspiring, but it is better to hold on to an ugly, yet functional device, than a flashy smartphone that has the snappiness of a sloth.

Before getting the Sony Xperia miro, however, perhaps you might want to take a look at some of its alternatives, such as the Sony Xperia U, which offers a faster processor and a better, high-resolution screen. If your budget can handle it, the HTC One V is also worth checking out as it has superior build quality and an even better camera. Another alternative worth considering is the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, which is equipped with a dual-core processor and a bigger, better screen.

Firmware version: 11.0.A.2.10, Android 4.0.4

Sony Xperia miro Video Review: