Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Hands-on

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Hands-on

The one and only Sony PlayStation smartphone: Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY

Hands-on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY

We were able to spend some time with the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY during a birthday celebration/baptism reception yesterday (unit owned by Mr. Chewy Chua of Tribal DDB). It was a surprisingly fun and great experience! This phone has been around for quite a while since it was announced way back in February 2011. However I was hooked after just a few minutes of playing a couple of games. There’s something nostalgic and addictive with playing classic titles like Crash Bandicot and Twin Bee, haha!

Build and Hardware

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is obviously not a thin phone. It measures 119 x 62 x 16 mm
and weighs in at 175g. The bulk is there because you can push up the phone to slide out a PlayStation controller. Everything’s there including the analog controls as well as the shoulder buttons! This is the closest you can get to a PlayStation experience on a smartphone!

For the actual display and screen you get a 4″ LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen with 480×854 pixels (~245 ppi pixel density). It’s honestly not that bad of a display.

The back

The back has a glossy finish to it which is a magnet for smudges and fingerprints. By the way, the PLAY has a decent 5MP camera at the back just in case you need to take emergency photos.

Additional tidbits

Had a discussion with Chewy on how he uses the phone. He basically loads it up with different kinds of games across different platforms using emulators. He can play titles from PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Super Family Computer, and a bunch of other platforms. Another cool thing to is that several Android Market games, specifically ones from Game Loft, are best played with the controller.

Initially when the Xperia PLAY launched it was priced at around Php24,000. It’s much more affordable now with an official SRP of around Php16,000. Some online sellers sell it for less.

Over-all I’m impressed with the phone especially since it’s been in the market for almost a year. Looking forward to seeing what Sony will do if ever they release a Sony Xperia PLAY 2.

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