Sony Xperia U RS - 15,300
BUZZ RATING 7/10
Sony Xperia U review
Hardware/ Design
In terms of the design, Sony Xperia U looks quite similar to Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia S but draws more resemblance to the latter. It sports a 3.5-inch screen with 854x480p resolution. Just below the screen are the three standard Android touch buttons for back, home and menu.
What stands out in terms of the design of Sony Xperia U is that there is the illuminated transparent strip at the bottom. This strip can light up in various colours such white, blue, green, red, purple or yellow, depending on the theme that you choose. The colours in this strip also change automatically when you are browsing pictures or listening to music in accordance with the mood. Additionally, Sony Xperia U also comes with interchangeable bottom caps that can be set in black, pink, or yellow colours.
The smartphone looks sturdy despite being made up of plastic. It also features rubberised finish on the back. Coming to the specifics, the Micro-USB cum charging port is on the right panel, while the left panel houses the power button, which also doubles as the screen lock/unlock button, the volume rocker and the two-stage camera button. The 3.5mm audio jack is placed at the top panel while the back panel houses the 5MP camera.
The colourful bottom caps do add a dash of freshness in the overall design of the handset but they aren't much of an eye-catcher.
Display
Sony Xperia U sports a 3.5-inch Reality Display with Mobile Bravia Engine, which is quite bright, even outdoors. It also provides good viewing angles. Display has a resolution of 480x854 pixels and offers a decent pixel density of 280ppi. Another plus for the screen is that it is scratch-resistant.
The only disappointment is the width of the display and we would have preferred a slightly wider one to avoid the cramped keyboard in portrait mode or the hardly visible text on webpages in zoomed-out view.
CameraThe smartphone comes packed with a 5MP auto-focus camera with LED flash. Pictures taken in broad daylight were quite sharp but the shots were grainy and washed out in low light.
The camera comes with a dedicated camera button, which is placed on the right panel. However, taking photographs with the help of this button needs some getting used to as it comes with a two-stage shutter button. Also zooming in and out on pictures via the volume rocker was a bit jerky.
In nutshell, this is not one of the best 5 MP camera that we have seen on a smartphone.
There is also a VGA front camera that works decently and will help in video chats.
Sony Xperia U is capable of recording 720p videos with 30fps, and the quality of videos captured is substandard, leaving a lot to be desired.
Software/ Interface
Sony has not been able to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich on any of its 2012 models as of now and the same is also true for Sony Xperia U. It runs on Android 2.3 and is expected to get an update in the coming months.
Sony has also added its own UI atop Gingerbread in the smartphone, which is quite light and is easy to use.
In terms of the pre-installed apps, Sony had some interesting additions such as Timescape, TrackID, Wisepilot, Liveware Manager, PlayNow, Neo Reader and Office Suite.
Timescape app stacks up email messages, Twitter and Facebook updates in one place and is certainly an interesting addition to the smartphone. TrackID is just like Shazam or SoundHound, an app that identifies the track being played.
Sony also has its own app store - PlayNow on board, which houses some interesting games, music and apps.
Performance/ Battery LifeWith 1GHz dual-core NovaThor U8500 chipset powering this smartphone, Xperia U, is very snappy and responsive. Even while multi-tasking the handset does not cringe.
The browsing experience on this handset was good. The pages did open up quickly and the good display (small width aside) of this smartphone further enhanced the browsing experience.
The biggest drawback of Sony Xperia U is that does not have an expandable memory slot. This handset comes with an internal memory of 8GB, of which only 4GB is user accessible. Though, Sony is promising 50GB of cloud space with this handset but that is not really compensation for not having a microSD slot.
Like most phones from Sony, the audio quality for both voice calls and audio playback was quite good. Too bad you can't stock up your music collection on the Xperia U, thanks to the absence of the microSD slot
Sony Xperia U comes with a 1320 mAh battery and it gives a great battery performance. A moderate user can easily get a day/ day and half with a single charge.
Verdict
To wrap things off, Sony Xperia U is an interesting handset especially at Rs. 17, 399. If you can live with 8GB of memory with no expansion, this is a good Android smartphone to look out for. However, the competition around is quite tough and you might want to consider HTC One V for ICS goodness before you actually zero in on Xperia U.
Sony is just about to release the Xperia
U in the Indian market, for a price of Rs. 17,000/-. For that price we
believe the Xperia U has a lot to offer.
The first thing that comes to attention
as soon as you handle the device is different light bar at the bottom of
the phone. The bar is identical to the one on the Xperia S but with one
major difference. It can change colors according to the theme selected.
Not only the light bar, but also a small cover at the bottom of the
device can be changed to match the theme of the phone’s screen.
In terms of build quality the phone is
really solid, and feels really sleek and comfortable in the hand. It is
fairly thick at 12 mm and has a light weight of 110 grams. It currently
runs Google Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) (Upgrade to Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, planned in Quarter 2 2012) ,which is beautifully skinned with their Timescape UI, on top of a 1 GHz STE U8500 Dual Core processor.
On the back it has a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and will be
available in two colors black and White, with several replaceable bottom
caps.
- Good display
- Snappy and responsive
- Limited storage
- Not one of the best 5 MP cameras
Specifications of Sony Xperia U
| General Features | |
|---|---|
| In Sales Package: | Handset, Battery, Charger, Ringo Headset, Data Cable, Additional Cap, Screen Protector, SIM Card Adaptor |
| Form: | Bar |
| SIM: | Single SIM, GSM |
| Touch Screen: | Yes, Capacitive |
| Keypad: | No |
| Business Features: | Document Viewer, Pushmail(Exchange ActiveSync) |
| Call Features: | Conference Call, Hands Free, Loudspeaker, Call Timer, Call Divert |
| Handset Color: | Black & Pure White |
| Platform | |
|---|---|
| Operating Freq: | GSM - 850, 900, 1800, 1900; UMTS - 2100 |
| OS: | Android v2.3 (Gingerbread), Upgradable to v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) |
| User Interface: | Timescape |
| Java: | Yes |
| Processor: | 1 GHz, Dual Core |
| Display | |
|---|---|
| Type: | TFT |
| Size: | 3.5 Inches |
| Resolution: | FWVGA, 854 x 480 Pixels |
| Colors: | 16 M |
| Other Display Features: | Mobile Bravia Engine, Scratch-resistant, Anti-reflection Coating on Mineral Glass, Screenshot Capturing |
| Camera | |
|---|---|
| Primary Camera: | Yes, 5 Megapixel |
| Secondary Camera: | Yes, 0.3 Megapixel |
| Flash: | LED |
| Video Recording: | Yes, 1280 x 720, 30 fps |
| HD Recording: | HD |
| Zoom: | Digital Zoom - 16x |
| Other Camera Features: | Auto Focus, 3D Sweep Panorama, Geo-tagging, Touch Focus, Face and Smile Detection, Image Stabilization, Self Timer, Image Editor |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| Size: | 54 x 112 x 12 mm |
| Weight: | 110 g |
| Battery | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Li-Ion, 1320 mAh |
| Talktime: | 6 hrs (2G), 5 hrs (3G) |
| Standby Time: | 260 hrs (2G), 472 hrs (3G) |
| Memory and Storage | |
|---|---|
| Internal: | 8 GB |
| Memory: | 512 MB RAM |
| Internet & Connectivity | |
|---|---|
| Internet Features: | |
| GPRS: | Yes, 107 kbps |
| Edge: | Yes, 296 kbps |
| 3G: | Yes, 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA |
| Wifi: | Yes, 802.11 b/g/n |
| USB connectivity: | Yes, micro USB, v2 |
| Tethering: | USB, Wi-fi Hotspot |
| GPS Support: | Yes, A-GPS with Google Maps |
| Bluetooth: | Yes, v2.1, Supported Profiles (A2DP 1.2, AVRCP 1.0, HFP 1.5, HSP 1.1, OPP 1.1, PAP 1.0, EDR) |
| Audio Jack: | 3.5 mm |
| DLNA: | Yes |
| Multimedia | |
|---|---|
| Music Player: | Yes, Supports MP3, WAV, eAAC+ |
| Video Player: | Yes, Supports 3GPP, MP4, H.263, H.264, WMV, HD Video Playback |
| FM: | Yes |
| Sound Enhancements: | xLOUD Audio Filter Technology, 3D Surround Sound |
| Ringtone: | MP3 |
| Other Features | |
|---|---|
| Call Memory: | Yes |
| SMS Memory: | Yes |
| Phonebook Memory: | Yes |
| Sensors: | Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Compass, Light Sensor |
| Additional Features: | TrackID Music Recognition, Alarm Clock, Calendar, Screen Lock, Flight Mode, Animated Wallpaper, Equalizer, LCD Backlight, Voice Recognition, Wisepilot, Internal Phone Storage: 8GB (Up to 4GB User-accessible Memory), Calculator, Predictive Text Input, Voice Input |
| Important Apps: | Google Sync, Facebook, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Gallery 3D, Google Voice Search, Google Talk with Video Chat, Twitter, NeoReader, Android Market, Google Lattitude, News and Weather, YouTube, Instant Messaging |
| Warranty | |
|---|---|
| 1 year manufacturer warranty for Phone and 6 months warranty for in the box accessories | |
not good....
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