Sony refreshes Xperia brand with four new smartphones

by Steven Williamson on 11 January 2012, 15:36

Tags: Sony (NYSE:SNE), Sony Ericsson

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaba2n

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Xperia S specifications

Xperia S specifications

All services mentioned in this leaflet may not be available in every market.
Colour

  • Black
  • White

Facts

  • Size: 128 x 64 x 10.6 mm
  • Weight: 144 grams
  • Operating system: Google Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread), upgradeable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
  • Processor: 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 Dual Core

Camera

  • 3D sweep panorama
  • 12 megapixel camera
  • 16x digital zoom
  • Aperture f/2.4
  • Auto focus
  • Face detection
  • Face recognition
  • Flash/LED
  • Front-facing camera (1.3 MP 720p)
  • Geo tagging
  • HD video recording (1080p)
  • Image stabiliser
  • Red-eye reduction
  • Scene recognition
  • Self-timer
  • Send to web
  • Sony Exmor R™ for mobile image sensor
  • Sweep panorama
  • Touch focus
  • Video light
  • Video recording

Music

  • 3D surround sound
  • Album art
  • Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
  • Clear audio
  • Clear bass
  • Music tones (MP3/AAC)
  • PlayNow™ service
  • Music Player
  • TrackID™ music recognition
  • xLoud™ Experience

Internet

  • Android Market™
  • Bookmarks
  • Google™ search
  • Google Voice™ Search
  • Pan & zoom
  • Web browser (WebKit)

Communication

  • Call list
  • Facebook™ application
  • Google Talk™
  • Noise suppression
  • Polyphonic ringtones
  • Sony Ericsson Timescape™
  • Speakerphone
  • Twitter™ (Timescape™ integration)
  • Vibrating alert

Messaging

  • Conversations
  • Email
  • Gmail™
  • Instant messaging
  • Multimedia messaging (MMS)
  • Predictive text input
  • Sound recorder
  • Text messaging (SMS)

Design

  • 720p HD display
  • Auto rotation
  • Gesture input
  • Keyboard (on-screen, QWERTY)
  • Picture wallpaper
  • Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
  • Screenshot capturing
  • Touch screen
  • Wallpaper

Entertainment

  • 3D games
  • Accelerated Adobe Flash Video
  • Google Media Uploader
  • Media browser
  • Motion gaming
  • PlayStation® Certified
  • Radio (FM radio with RDS)
  • Sony Entertainment Network
  • TV launcher
  • Video streaming
  • YouTube™

Organiser

  • Alarm clock
  • Calculator
  • Calendar
  • Contacts
  • Document readers
  • eCompass™
  • Airplane mode
  • Infinite button
  • Notes
  • Setup guide
  • Stopwatch
  • Tasks
  • Timer

Connectivity

  • 3.5 mm audio jack (CTIA)
  • aGPS
  • Bluetooth™ technology
  • DLNA Certified®
  • GLONASS
  • HDMI support
  • Media Transfer Protocol support
  • Micro USB support
  • Native USB tethering
  • NFC
  • USB High speed 2.0 support
  • Wi-Fi®
  • Wi-Fi® Hotspot functionality

Display

  • 4.3” 720p HD display
  • Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
  • 1280 x 720 pixels (342 ppi)
  • 16,777,216 colour TFT
  • Shatter proof sheet on scratch-resistant glass

Memory

  • Flash memory: 32GB eMMC

Networks

  • UMTS HSPA 850 (Band V), 900 (Band VIII), 1900 (Band II), 2100 (Band I)
  • GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900

Battery life

  • Talk time GSM: Up to 7 hrs 30 min*
  • Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 450 hrs*
  • Talk time UMTS: Up to 8 hrs 30 min*
  • Standby time UMTS: Up to 420 hrs*
  • Music listening time: Up to 25 hrs*
  • Video playback time: Up to 6 hrs 30 min*
  • Embedded battery: 1750 mAh typical, 1700 mAh minimum
  • *Values are according to GSM Association Battery Life Measurement Technique. Battery performance may vary depending on network conditions and configurations, and phone usage.

In the kit

  • Xperia™ S
  • Built-in battery
  • Stereo portable handsfree
  • Charger
  • Micro USB cable for charging
  • Synchronisation and file transfer
  • User documentation


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HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Posted by crossy - Wed 11 Jan 2012 16:26
No uSD support and a fixed battery = failure in my book. I'm also less than impressed with the iPhone4-similar visuals. If I want to buy a slabphone then I'll go and be patronised in the Apple Store (again). That said, I do like the LED band, and supposedly the screen is very high resolution. Oh, and according to their blog, Three have already announced that they'll be stocking it!

The “SmartWatch” is nice - and then you remember that SE already did that - although in that case it was called “Live View”. I've got one, and it's okay if a bit limited. NFC tags could be useful…

Current rumour mill has the Samsung Galaxy S3 having a 3D screen, which might push me back in the direction of Sony.
Posted by keithwalton - Wed 11 Jan 2012 19:14
eMMC ? Who on earth uses that.
From there site it doesn't have much internal storage and the 32gb eMMC is an expansion type and that is the max it supports. Yet I cant find any …

Would of been tempted otherwise, then again the delay to ics would put me off as well
Posted by cheesemp - Wed 11 Jan 2012 21:23
Hmm. Interesting. After a poor start my X10 has been great since it got 2.3. However if it does have fixed storage and battery then that is a big turn off. Upgrading the SD card and replacing the battery gave my x10 the extra life it needs to get to the end of my contract…
Posted by crossy - Thu 12 Jan 2012 08:51
keithwalton
eMMC ? Who on earth uses that.
From there site it doesn't have much internal storage and the 32gb eMMC is an expansion type and that is the max it supports. Yet I cant find any … Would of been tempted otherwise, then again the delay to ics would put me off as well
Sony's reasoning for delaying ICS rollout is supposedly the usual one - that they want to ensure that all their “added value” (e.g. Timescape - which imho adds bulk and reduces value but I'm a grumpy old geezer) is stable and properly integrated. In which case I'm not going to object too loudly.

eMMC question - like me you obviously assumed that it was some new form of memory card. Short answer is that it isn't, instead it's a way of packaging memory plus controller. You could look up the Wikipedia entry for it, but personally I found the page at http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/fusionmemory/Products_MoviNAND.html gave more information than I'm ever likely to need (or even understand!).

Short answer is that if you see someone (in this case Sony) quoting “eMMC” as the memory type on a phone, then that means “non-expandable” unless an expansion slot is explicitly mentioned also. It's pretty well used (apparently) for internal memory for a range of phones (e.g. Nexus One, iPhone, etc) and tablets (e.g. Transformer Prime spec quotes “32GB / 64GB (2) EMMC” and I've seen similar for the iPad).

HTH
Posted by keithwalton - Thu 12 Jan 2012 14:09
The sony website does amuse me when it quotes a feature of the phone as

“Powered by Android

Make sure you always have the latest Android version installed.”

When it's shipping with a version 1 major and 2 minor editions old (2.3.5 when there is .6 and .7)

Also when they list the following

“Memory Internal phone storage: 1 to 1.5 GB
Memory card slot: 32 GB eMMC
RAM: 1 GB”

You would think eMMC was a new smaller version of MMC's (the rival to SD that lost)

If it's setup similar to my galaxy s 8GB which has 2GB mounted for the os and 6GB mounted as an ‘internal sd’ i'd be happy if it was 2GB for os and 30GB for internal eMMC

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