[Xperia SP General] pavapizza:
Hi all XSP users

in just a few days, it will be 1 year since i own this phone. here i'm trying to give a sort of review-ish view and opinion about this phone

So without further ado, allow me to start (please forgive me for any inappropriate or ineligible english since its not my main language)

1 year ago i was looking for a replacement for my samsung galaxy gio which has become obsolete (hardware wise especially) because it cannot keep up with my demands. so at that time i was searching for a phone that meets my budget (cant go on a spending spree at that time) but still packs a can of whoop-ass.

at that time in my country was the time where 3 high spec phones launches samsung galaxy s4, sony xperia Z, and oppo find 5. all of them were top of the class. too bad they were all above my budget

other brand like HTC has no interesting line up for me, LG has some not bad spec phone but none to my liking.

Lo and behold i found out about the xperia SP about 2 weeks before the event. at the price it was offered, no other phone can match XSP specs, camera wise, processor wise (at that time of course). i bought the phone without hesitation.

my review

Size

for me this phone hits the sweet spot for size. although i can still held 5,5 inch phone without problem, but this phone is nice to grasp

screen size

screen size is adequate for me, although sometimes feel a little too small. too bad its not IPS

camera

one of the downfall for XSP for me. the camera quality is quite bad, my dads nokia x5 can even shot almost if not sometimes better images. though in my opinion since 4.3 update and using xperia M ported camera its a little bit better, i still wish it was better

processor

one of the best performance processor for midrange phone at that time and still is today IMO.

GPU

same, one of the best for playing games on a midrange phone

RAM

this is the ultimate donwfall for me in XSP. we were promoted with a 1GB RAM for XSP but how much did we get?? just a freakin' 768 ram.

thats downright false advertising. no amount of excuse and logic can justify a 1GB ram on spec sheet and only 768 in reality. this is what tied down our XSP from becoming the Beast that it could've and should've been.

although after 4.3 update the RAM increased to 848, it's still a long way from 1GB. even lenovo can put 900+MB on their 1GB RAM phone, so i am truly dissapointed at sony for this one.

My Experience

okay, hardware review aside, now im going to share how the phone feels for my daily usage

my XSP is LB, but i root it. i'll split this part to pre 4.3 and 4.3

PRE 4.3

the phone before the 4.3 update was so-so performance wise for me. mind you im a gamer, and understanding that our XSP have adreno 320 it should be handle all graphics intensive game, so i installed many heavy game. real boxing, real racing, asphalt 8, modern combat 4, NFS, chaos rings. all of that game should've played flawlessly if not for that darn RAM. you cant even browse and listen to walkman without the walkman suddenly stop. you gotta change the ram management and dalvik to help ease the RAM management, n i think that sucks. because if im not an xda member and dont root my phone, how else am i gonna improve XSP performance. there were slight regret buying this phone at that moment, but i cant change my phone again. no phone pique my interest yet again.

POST 4.3

post 4.3 update the phones performance got better a little bit since the increase in RAM but, performance wise its still so-so. if i have to give it a score before 4.3 was 7 and now it was 7.5. but luckily 4.3 update brings more than just bigger RAM it brings loads of things, from social camera, updated media apps, themes, so updating to 4.3 was like having a new phone all over again.

Conclusion

im still happy with this phone, eventhough theres major flaw (RAM)

so, will i still use this phone? YES

is it still one of the strongest budget mid range phone right now? YES (IMO, compared with other brand like samsung, LG, HTC, lenovo, OPPO)

will u still suggest this phone to friend of relatives? if they're not going to root it, NO, if they're going to root it then YES

well thats what i think about our beloved XSP

please share your opinion about this :good: