[Xperia Play General] ^I'm_With_Stupid:
It brought back some memories going through the thread, tons of familiar faces. It's been four years since I used my Xperia Play as a daily driver, and during that time it's sat in my drawer. I bought a Nexus 5 after the Xperia Play. For three years I had that. I used it to explore my interest in Android development, an interest kindled because back then I loved my Xperia Play so much and wanted to do everything I could to help make it amazing.

So now I work as a developer by day, mostly Android development. Broke my Nexus 5 after 3 years, incredible phone (except for camera and battery). However, finding development for it was so easy it took the fun out of it. Then my work got me a Samsung Galaxy S7 and there was no bootloader unlock for that, ruining a perfect phone. As you can tell, I've been secretly missing the development chaos that was the Xperia Play and a couple days ago my S7 broke. I only had one working phone in the house, and I needed one for work. I opened up my drawer and turned on my gin2kitkat xperia play for the first time in four years.

I have an M8 coming because I wanted something good for music and I missed the dependable Snapdragon 800. This is just a stopgap until I see what else comes out, but back to the topic at hand. The Xperia Play, the one that started it all. Holy **** this phone is still ahead of it's time. The way the touchpad slides out so satisfyingly, the way the touchpads just work and it feels better then some modern console controllers. Games still work, emulators were meant to be played this way. Even when I opened up games on my Nexus 5 and S7 I knew I was getting a second rate experience. Games that require any onscreen buttons are just not that fun. To the point where I barely used emulators, it just felt so degrading. Now that I'm testing everything out again, I don't know if I'll ever go back. Every once in awhile I would google "Xperia Play 2", then "Xperia Z Play" and finally "Xperia X Play". I would buy any of those phones in a second, without hesitation even if it cost as much as a flagship.

What I'm trying to say is Sony had something really special, something no ones had since, and they messed up big time. They messed up by not supporting it, they messed up by not marketing it and they messed up by not releasing a followup. In 2017 a gaming smartphone would be "cool". I believe it would turn a profit. I believe if they were to follow it up today, same touchpad design but with flagship specs and a PS4 tie in, it would sell. As long as they didn't half-ass it (ala G5 "friends") and actually took it all the way (ala Moto Mods) it would carve out a dependable niche in the market. Hopefully one day we get something like it. Some day…

For now, it pains me to use something with such potential. But, it makes me so happy that this community is still surviving. Nougat! You guys have Nougat! I remember being in the Lollipop thread doing everything I could to help (not much at the time). All I wanted back then was to never have to worry about not getting an Android update. So it was on to the next phone. And now, in 2017, it's no different. Just me and my M8 waiting for the next best thing. Hopefully 2017 has some surprises in store.

Shoot me a pm if anyone needs any help with any Xperia Play development, I'd be happy to help.

LONG LIVE THE XPERIA PLAY!