Sony Xperia S hands-on

Already thinking that the recently announce Sony Xperia ion is simply too much phone for your taste – or for the matter, its size is too much for your poor hands to handle? Well, never fear! That’s because the Sony Xperia S might actually be the perfect device for you, as it retains some serious hardware under the hood and flaunts a design that’s not only neat looking, but also has a more compact body. Set to launch globally sometime in Q2 2012, we’re eager to see how this one shapes out in the end.

From a far distance, it’s rather difficult to find any difference between the designs of the Xperia S over its bigger brother in the Xperia ion, but trust us, there are some notable characteristics to its appearance than jumps out. Well, it still features a curved back that makes it very comfortable to hold in the hand, while its smaller footprint makes it considerably easier to handle. Upon closer inspection, one can find a translucent acrylic piece separating the phone towards the bottom. Indeed, it’s not something we tend to see on phones, which gives it a very fresh look, but it’s actually a part of the handset’s antenna system.




Now if you want detail, you’ll be glad to know that the Xperia S is packed with a 4.3” 720p (720 x 1280) display that’s crammed full of detail wherever you look. Obviously, fine text is easily distinguished, but it’s nice to see that it maintains its clarity at all angles. However, there’s a noticeable bluish tinge to the handset’s display, which of course results in some very saturated looking colors. Nevertheless, it’s undeniably eye-catching either way, and as a whole, it helps reel in the attention of people right from the start. Blessed with a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 processor with 1GB of RAM, it manages to deliver a mostly responsive performance – though, the skin running on top of Android 2.3 might seem to be a culprit with its not-so instantaneous response at times.



Rounding things off, the handset is feature-filled from head to toe with things like a 12-megapixel auto-focus camera with an Exmor sensor, 1080p video recording, 1,750 mAh battery, aGPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Yes, it’s a bummer to see Gingerbread on board with this beauty right from the beginning, but we’re hoping to see it blessed with Ice Cream Sandwich very quick. There’s no denying it has a lovable design, but it’ll need to excel in all areas to truly be deemed as a threat in the Android space. So far, there’s no word on pricing or an exact availability date, but either way, we’re sure there are a few of you already eying this one.