[Sony Xperia P, U, Sola, Go] saanil:
My Review for Xperia Sola:

1. Sony phones have always been good looking. Their new phones of the Xperia NXT series are not different. The NXT series comprises of 4 models – Xperia P, U, S and Sola. All models are available here except the Xperia P. P, U, and S share the same looks whereas Sola is the only model to have different looks. I do not think anyone can hate Sola’s looks. Thee design is quite unique and pleasing to the eyes. Build quality is also very good – materials look and feel sturdy and I did not find any part to be loose or creaky.

2. The Dual core processor does its job fairly well. The touch is quite responsive, opening apps is a quick, scrolling is also quite fluid and the touch buttons at the bottom also work effectively. Their so called “floating display touch” works only on the home screen and the stock browser. I have not yet tried playing any kind of games on it but I think basic games should run without any hassle but doing that will drain out the battery pretty fast.

3. Battery is pretty average. Unfortunately this is one area where Sony has gone horribly wrong. Why couldn’t they just provide a 1500 mAh battery? The phone lasts a day on minimal to moderate usage. One of the major battery consumer is Android OS services – I think this is happening because of the bloat ware already installed. God knows how many times you will have to charge it if you play a game or watch a movie on it. For ex: today the phone went to 13% in 24 hours on just some voice calls and nothing else. This was after disabling background data, disabling data connection/auto sync, turning off Bravia engine and setting the screen brightness at 40%.

4. I do not know what the WOW! thing is about Bravia engine. Those who think that it is a great technology just look at an AMOLED screen at 50% brightness and let me know what difference there is. In fact I find AMOLED to be better than BRAVIA powered screen. Those who still think Bravia screen is good – try running your phone with it and let me know what battery performance you get. A good screen nonetheless at the price being asked.

5. There is no front facing camera. Those looking for Video calls – this is not the phone for you.

6. The UI is pretty neat – almost all the basic things are done quickly. However I did not find a task manager. Samsung has an inherent task manager and I think Sony should also have included a task manager of their own.

7. Music quality/loudness is average – nothing great but not bad too.

8. Camera quality is good for occasional pictures (meant to be put up on Facebook etc).

9. This phone will be getting ICS.

10. There is a notification light which blinks when there is a missed call or an unread message. A feature which many phones do not have – Even my SGS2 does not have this. I know this is not a WOW feature but it is quite useful.

In short this phone is for first time Android users or those people who want a stylish phone with moderate to low usage. Those looking to do a lot of gaming or using tons of apps on this – kindly look at some other models.

I have bought plenty of phones previously and after buying all of them I always had a feeling that I had got the right product. But sadly this time it has not happened – The only issue that is bugging me seriously is the battery life. I do not care about Bravia screens or NFC if I have to sacrifice my battery life in order to use them. I know all smart phones these days suffer from insufficient battery life on heavy usage but at least they give decent battery life on moderate/low usage. Xperia Sola fails to do even that – this shortcoming just eclipses all its positives. Sorry if I am too harsh on this phone but I just wrote what I am feeling. This phone would have been perfect at this price if only a better battery was provided – probably a 1500 mAh one.

I feel Sony has gone wrong with their product strategy this year. I do not see people buying Xperia U, S or Sola in huge numbers for one reason – phones have got the basics wrong. All of them have some issue with them. I even went to xda forum in the Xperia S section to see what kind of battery life people were getting. My fears were proved correct when many people were not happy with the battery life. Although a firmware update from Sony might increase the battery life, what remains to be seen is when will that happen for Sola. The Xperia P is supposed to be launched in some time which IMO will suffer from similar issues. Plus it will face intense competition from the Galaxy Advance which is slated to be launched in the next week. I think in the Android space, Samsung is the king and will remain so this year too. They will be in the forefront with S3, Ace 2 and S Advance.