[Sony Xperia P, U, Sola, Go] cajhin:
Xperia SX, new owner, first impressions

Update: I received a new SIM; problem remains: with 3G Data active, I cannot send SMS. With 2G data, no problem.

Ideas anyone?

---------------------

Short version:

8/10

Buy if you want an iPhone5 (non-S) running Jellybean, and you have tinkering skills and patience to remove the Docomo bloat)

Long version / brain dump:

Here's what I have learned about the SX so far, in case you are thinking about getting one, too...

REASON

I had an eye on the SX ever since Sony announced it. I found it hard to find detailled info about it, this thread is the only place I know.

Now I finally got one to replace an Xperia Ray, because I lost all hope of anyone doing another small quality smartphone anytime soon. I just like compact things that are no bigger than they need to be, and 3.5 screens are just right for my taste.

(I wish Apple would build a WinPhone with Samsung components that is the size of a stack of 24 playing cards, with zero bezel. For what I do, I don't need more screen)

BUYING

It seems that the SX is not available at all in Europe, new or used, I couldn't find a single phone on the market.

I bought it from kyoex.com, recommended on this thread; I agree, nice guy, speaks English well and is reliable.

A regular SX is only available from Docomo (Japanese carrier), heavily branded. Kyoex had a Docomo shop remove the Sim lock - this could be a serious problem if you buy a locked phone from a private person.

Note: I got a used SX for $100 less. Each used phone is different, but I was lucky and the phone is just perfect. I guess the previous owner took it out of the box, didn't like Orange, and put it back. Shipment to Germany with DHL took ~5 days, no problems.

BODY

Size is closer to the Ray than I expected. Ray feels a bit better in hand: rounded sides, rubberized back (the black backs on Ray and SX are rubber; the colored backs are plain plastic, SX back is thinner and rougher surface). The Ray has an angled bottom that is just right when you rest the phone on your pinky.

The volume buttons look a bit cheap, but overall the SX looks really nice in real life.

The power button is placed wrong - fashion puts it on the side of the phone, because new phones are too large to reach it on top. But for a 3.7" phone, 'on top' is the right place. I consider this poor design (function follows looks).

The inside behind the cover (on the Orange model) is yellow, nice touch (reminds me of the HTC HD mini).

Battery is the same as the Ray (ba 700).

DISPLAY

Overall a good, sharp, bright enough display. Slightly wider than the Ray, but almost the same height - plus the virtual buttons, which can extend the display when apps go fullscreen.

Visibly warmer-than-neutral color (yellowish tint).

It's subtle, but the font smoothing is lighter than usual; I cannot see individual pixels, but small fonts are thinner than on the Ray, and I sometimes can clearly see fuzzy grey tones when there should be black ink. This does not really bother me, but my idea of "Retina=300dpi=cannot be improved in my eyes" is shaken. I now think 450 dpi displays could be -slightly- better.

OPERATING PERFORMANCE

Everything's nice and fluid while doing stuff and tinkering with the phone.

Makes the Ray feel slow (except for scrolling, that's also very good with LegacyXperia Roms. Both are okaaay, compared to WinPhone which scrolls *really* smoothly).

SOFTWARE

Came with the latest Rom update (9.1.C.1.103), which is 4.1.2. I don't expect any further updates.

(The other phones in the 'Blue board' family, like T/TX/V, just received 4.3, so there's hope; but 4.1 to 4.3 isn't a big step anyway).

The Sony stuff on top of AOSP is ok IMO. The Docomo stuff on top of Sony is awful, at least for me, because a) it's a lot, and b) much of it is Japanese-only. I have no idea what all this stuff does. To remove it, I had to root first (this worked: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=48226979)

Next: CWM

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=47598604&postcount=356

Note: last cmd in bat fails (SU tool fails) > get Android Terminal Emulator > run /data/local/tmp/step1.sh

Looks like there is a newer cwm version available.

With CWM, I made a backup of the stock system, then started removing *docomo* and *.jp.* apps. Which broke my phone app. Restore, repeat (this time with an app called "System app remover", which was very helpful).

Then I installed my must have apps. And I've still got looots of free space, this feels so good coming from a Ray with 400MB available storage and 350MB Ram.

I don't plan to tinker a lot with it; primary mission objective is to have a boring but reliable phone. I still tinker with the Ray.

Besides, Docomo does not allow bootloader unlocking (the Sony procedure won't work for the SX). And, there is zero ROM development outside of Japan. It looks like there are ROMs on jp boards, but as I don't understand a single word, I don't have the slightest clue what these things are.

I would have liked to download a clean, stable Sony stock Rom without the Docomo layer, by the way. (Drakunov links to 4pda below, but the forum is down almost always).

WIRELESS

The SX seems to be the only Sony model that is limited to Japanese LTE bands. It does not work in Europe. I don't really miss it, 3G is faster than ever with the SX.

5GHz Wlan on the home network works well.

Phone calls are ok. Loud enough but the sound is so-so. It has active noise suppression, need to try that out.

Everytime I dialed a local number, a popup asked if I want it to add the international Japanese prefix... No! This can be configured out deep in the settings menu.

NFC: it's my understanding that this doesn't work for general things like pairing a BT headphone; it can only used for a specialized system (Felica) that seems to be popular in Japan.

Note: sending SMS was broken for me; looks like my 2011 sim card is confused by LTE. Workaround: 2g data only. Fix, i hope: get a new sim.

CAMERA

Hardware is fine (Sony Exmor R backlit, similar to iPhone5 and Ray). Results are better than Ray, better details and lighting, probably mostly a software thing. Auto mode likes to shoot HDR, which gives mixed results.

Overall, I like it. It's not really the big love I was hoping for, but it grows on me, it's fast, and it just works without glitches. Which I cannot say about the hackfest that is my old Ray.