[Xperia Play General] TLRtheory:
Exactly the opposite for me... but then again my experience with the Xperia Play hasn't really left a lot to be desired.

First of all, there's a bit of irony here that kinda makes me grin... and it's that you're a huge part of the reason I've been getting nothing but flawless performance out of my Xperia Play. Do you remember being the creator of this topic? All since you posted that, I've been using, re-using and referring people to that particular ROM because it gave me level of consistent smooth function that can be described as nothing less than 'perfect'. Sure it's not Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean or whichever bundle of already-existing abilities that people decide to call new for whichever fad update people go wild over... but since these android updates are generally repackaged abilities that any owner of >2.1 Android can get, there's not much reason for me to sacrifice the polished stability of my GB build for anything else. Don't need to upgrade to ICS/JB for notification toggles, because we can already get something that includes far more customization than anything ICS/JB's stock options offer (LINK). Don't need JB's Project Butter because the performance was already silky smooth... we can the look of ICS/JB (LINK), we can get the data monitoring/data management of ICS/JB (LINK), the camera (LINK) and gallery (LINK) of ICS/JB, and even the power management (LINK)...

all without ICS/JB

.

The idea that this phone *died* because of slow-ness, lag or unresponsiveness always sounds odd to me because my Xperia Play hasn't really ever been slow or unresponsive. Like you though, I was always open to the idea of something better... which is why I reached out to more powerful phones like the Atrix, Evo 3D and Galaxy S3 - thinking that a paired PS3 controller or MOGA would give me a superior experience. Know what happened? The Atrix pretty much self-destructed, the Evo 3D's gaming worth ended up being a trainwreck with loads of games sacrificed the moment it was upgraded to ICS and the situation for GS3 gaming ended up being a frustrating mess. First off, having to pair the MOGA to it alone turns what should be quick and seamless into a chore - and that holds true regardless of whether we go through the MOGA App itself or the "alleged" universal IME. If the quotation didn't make it clear, there's a lot about the universal IME I dislike.

On paper, that should be the clear-cut killer app that totally makes the Xperia Play obsolete... yet it does everything but. It'll make the MOGA ideal for emulators, but by far and large - the appeal of the Xperia Play has been that it's so good at present-generation gaming that it doesn't need to piggyback yester-decade's antiquated games. Not only is the universal IME a ***** to set up, but there's so much sacrificed when trying to pretend the MOGA+uIME replaces Xperia Play. The lack of a d-pad automatically compromises it's practicality for many games where analog locomotion feels weird, and if we want the MOGA Controller that does have a d-pad, we'd be sacrificing portability even more than the existing MOGA (which is easily the bulk of two Xperia Plays even before a phone is put into it)... but for the sake of getting into just how horribly off it is to say MOGA > Xperia Play, let's pretend it isn't automatically on a lower level because of it's cumbersomeness.

Just as an example, let's cite Eternal Legacy. Eternal Legacy is natively a touch-only game that got a special edition for Xperia Play that makes it completely optimized... and by complete; I mean the physical gamepad can be used to manipulate the entire game from menu navigation, map navigation and combat. While it would seem like an RPG should be okay for a touch-screen, having physical controls is still much more precise and much faster way to perform multi-menu operations... so a gamepad is definitely the superior option. First of all, finding a working version of the damn game for the GS3 is annoying in itself... and since it was only truly prime with Xperia Play's gamepad, we have to resort to the only half-ass usable MOGA+uIME+GameKeyboard (or JC6) combination which requires tons of setup, and outputs an experience that's only half-workable (it really only works for field navigation... nothing else). We can plug any phone of any specs into that equation and get the same result, and plug many different games into that equation to also find games in high masses that are only half-playable.

If you see where this is going, you see that I just stepped up to the most well-known of the "steroid phones" and actually ended up making sacrifices... and for what? Fluidity? My Xperia Play experience has already been smooth... and on a stock ROM. We could revive the note that I'm a heavy supporter of GameKeyboard (which also delivers the same sense of half-playability to native touch games)... but Xperia Play's already got over 450 Android titles stacked under it's belt with the count still growing... so it's not only the most heavily supported physical gaming solution, but it's software support is very much so alive... and as the person who's taken on the tooth-gritting (often overwhelming) task of databasing Xperia Play's software releases, I can say from a very strong stance that it's support hasn't faltered.

From here, we could cite the Xperia Play's low internal memory... and to that I'd note how that's become a non-issue with MiniTool Partition and Link2SD. With that combination, I've amassed over 340 installs and I still have 85.4% of my phone storage free.

From here, we could note that Xperia Play's only rocking half a gig of RAM and a single-core processor with it's only real saving grace being an (outdated) Adreno GPU... yet we can have our minds blown as we see beefier phones like the Atrix struggling to run N.O.V.A. 3 as well as the Xperia Play does.

Of course there's stronger phones out there, but I've already got the prime for gaming. MOGA's doing quite well in it's own right and I love to see it getting out of the "only good for emulating old-ass games" category that so many other BT controllers tend to quickly fall into... but it doesn't compare to or replace the Xperia Play at all.

Another thing worth mentioning is just how far it's evolved. Look at any of the old reviews for Xperia Play, and we find that a lot of the original complaints aren't even valid anymore. It records in HD now, the prior complaints of auto-dimming have been handled, and while everyone loved to complain about the lack of integration into Sony's official gaming ecosystem - look at how quiet they've become now that it's been resolved.

Honestly, what puzzles me is exactly what one would be doing to get their Xperia Play to a point of being sluggish, slow or unresponsive. When people see my videos, I'm consistently bombarded with questions about what magic tweaks/kernels/whatnot I used to get my Xperia Play so smooth... and the answer's always the same... nothing. It's a simple stock ROM that I debloated through Root Explorer, paired with a carefully-chosen launcher that's optimal for fluidity and battery life... and it's been VERY smooth, fast and responsive.

Xperia Play's definitely not in the limelight, nor is it burning up the media... and from that it's easy to perceive that the Xperia Play's dead, but for anyone in the know... it's software support and fanbase are still stronger than any other physical gaming medium

in the entire world of smartphones

. This is why all my stronger phones have been sold or given away so that I can go back to my Xperia Play. No point in having a dual/quad core with as much memory as a desktop computer when my phone's already eating up any software I throw at it with ease.