[HTC Desire S] FK1983:
Xperia Play vs HTC Desire S (my review)

Ok so my girlfriend got a HTC Desire S yesterday so I thought it would be good to fully compare it and test it head to head against my Xperia Play!

Build Quality:

There is no denying the HTC Desire S is built very good, it feels great in your hand and fits in your pocket perfectly, the Play on the other hand feels bulky and the build quality isn't quite as good (although still very good)

Winner: HTC Desire S

Screen:

The Xperia Play has a 4" LCD screen, the HTC Desire S has a 3.7" (LCD?) screen, I hate to say it but the HTC Desire S screen blows the Plays out of the water on a grand scale :(

The brightness is amazing, the colors are so vibrant, everything looks so bright and crisp, holding the Play next to it makes the Plays screen look REALLY washed out, the colors look very faded and the brightness isn't anywhere near the same scale (although hopefully this is just the auto brightness that can't be turned off on the Play, this doesn't explain the poor/faded color though)

Winner: HTC Desire S

CPU, GPU & Ram:

Both devices have a 1ghz Snagdragon Processor and the Adreno 205 GPU, the Play has 512mb Ram while the Desire S has 768mb Ram giving it 256mb more than the Play.

Winner: HTC Desire S

Internal & External Storage:

The HTC Desire S has 1.1gb of internal storage and comes with an 8gb sd card, the Play has a tiny 400mb of internal storage (why SE why!?) and comes with a 8gb or 16gb sd card (mine had the 16gb card with it)

The internal storage on the HTC Desire S is excellent, you shouldn't run into any issues too quickly with filling it up, the Play on the other hand is REALLY lacking here with such a small amount of storage, 400mb just won't cut it, I have already faced a lot of issues with filling this up on my Play, in the end I rooted and altered the settings so the apps always save to sd card now, even with that I still only have around 150mb free.

Winner: HTC Desire S

Performance:

Although the HTC Desire S has the extra 256mb of ram it just doesn't perform as well as the Xperia Play, general use, apps, games, multi tasking, everything runs smoother and faster on the Xperia Play, the desire has a habit of stuttering with very small freezes.

Not sure why the desire with the same specs but more ram isn't performing as well as the Play, maybe the Play uses a faster type of ram or maybe HTC sense is slowing the desire down?

Winner: Xperia Play

Gaming:

The same can be said with gaming, the Xperia Play runs games much better than the HTC Desire, Cordy (the stunning platformer) really shows off the performance on both devices, the Play runs the game in the "HD Graphic Setting" from the menu as default and runs at a constant 30FPS with no slow downs at all,

The HTC Desire S on the other hand shows a warning when you first play the game saying the game will run best on "Simple Graphic Option" and sets this as default, I switched it to the hd setting anyway and yup, major slowdowns and stuttering running at 18-27FPS with a lot of drops.

Other games give the same result, NFS Shift, Asphalt 5, 6, Fast 5 and Angry Birds Rio, all run better on the Play although the colors looks much better on the Desire S.

Add to this the Xperia Play has a gaming pad and it really does own in the gaming department.

Winner: Xperia Play

Camera:

Both devices feature a 5 mega pixel camera, the Play uses the stock camera app and is really at a disadvantage because of it.

The HTC Desire has many features that are absent from the Play such as zoom, touch to focus, face detection and 720P Video Recording to name a few!

Both Devices take superb quality pictures, hard to tell any difference, the Desire has a better video recorder and because it has 720P means it is better quality.

Winner: HTC Desire S

Battery:

The play features a 1500mah while the Desire S has a 1450mah battery, both devices drain the battery at a fast rate while playing games or running any highly demanding apps.

Winner: Tie

SE Home vs HTC Sense:

Let's get this out the way right now, HTC Sense walks all over the buggy mess they call SE Home.

HTC Sense is full to the brim with features and customization, it runs fast and smooth, has loads of widgets, skins and even sound sets, SE Home on the other hand is horrible and has a lot of bugs, it can't even get the order of the apps right after a reboot, it refuses to acknowledge apps on the sd card for no reason but then works fine again until it decides to play up again.

SE Home lets the Play down big time, you do need to use another launcher on the Play to get the best from it.

Winner: HTC Desire S (HTC Sense)

OS & Software:

The Xperia Play runs on Android 2.3.2 while the HTC Desire S runs on Android 2.3.3, both run very well and have near on the same stock features.

The Xperia Play has a lot more content in regards to games, 7 free games, the Playstation app, the Xperia Play launcher, lots of links to more games etc, the HTC desire on the other hand has no games installed as standard and has one link which takes you to the Gameloft store to buy games.

The HTC does have a few cool little extras though, the HTC Hub, Pocket mirror and most of the standard apps (calender, alarm etc) have had a Sense makeover so look a lot better than stock.

The Play is aimed at gamers, the Desire is aimed at general everyday use, totally depends on what you want from your device!

Winner: Tie

Winner:

I hate to say it but the HTC Desire S is the better device out of the two, HTC certainly know how to make the software side of their devices shine and this is where the Xperia Play is suffering, the Play could be so much better if SE updated it with more features and if they fixed the bugs.

On the gaming side of things the Play is easily the winner outperforming the Desire on every level apart from the contrast/color, add to this the Plays gaming pad and you really do have a superb gaming device!

For me I am more than happy with my Xperia Play, I will be keeping it for now and will enjoy it for current and retro gaming, I just really hope SE improve it with some updates, the camera app needs urgent attention!