July 2011, Singapore – In March, we published the first look of the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY. In this article, we will look at he gaming aspect, as this is a PlayStation Certified phone.
Product Specifications:
- Size: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
- Weight: 175 grams
- Phone memory: 400 MB
- Memory card support: microSD, up to 32 GB
- Memory card included: 8GB microSD
- Operating system: Google Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- Processor: 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7
- Graphics: Adreno GPU
- Display: 4″ multi touchscreen
- Camera: Front-facing VGA and Back 5.1 megapixel with flash
- Battery Life: up to 8 hours talktime
The display screen is bright but not too glaring even at maximum brightness, so I guess your eyes will not hurt even after long hours of gameplay. The screen ratio is 16:9 format, so some games may look slightly wider if its not customized for this display.
The Xperia PLAY game menu can be accessed by sliding open the game pad and the menu pops up. From this menu you can also access the Android Market to purchase games that are Xepria PLAY optimized. But if you purchased games made by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), you will not be able to access those games from this menu. Instead, go to the main apps menu from the phone and find the PlayStation Pocket App to launch the PlayStation games menu made for SCE games only. Alternatively, you can still search for individual games on the main apps menu.
Most Xperia PLAY optimized games are not exclusive games for the Xperia PLAY. What we are trying to say is that they are normal mobile games made to be playable via the touch screen controls with the option to play it using the game pad. Taking Dungeon Defender as example, when the game pad is closed the screen is packed with game controls and buttons. But when you slide open the game pad, the screen is less cluttered and now your fingers will not be blocking your view on the screen.
PlayStation games by SCE are directly imported from PlayStation One and the display uses the old school 4:3 format. When played on the Xperia PLAY’s 16:9 screen, expect some distortion. But not to worry, Sony Ericsson has not overlooked this. You have the option to change the game display format (Full Screen, Normal and Zoom) from the game settings.
Overall I think the Sony Ericsson PLAY works well as a mobile phone and a mobile gaming console. It is definitely recommended for people like me who have big thumbs that are bound to block most parts of the screen when gaming on a smartphone.
We could not help it but side track to the photo quality. Check out what we have taken below. (Click on the photos for a full sized image.).
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