For those of you, who know me, I still love Windows Phone and the killer hardware combination Nokia's Lumia range of devices has provided to it, but my love for Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 could not make me buy one. Instead I bought an Android powered smartphone, Sony Xperia Sola. This is my first Non-Nokia handset in the past 5 years. (Buckle Up Nokia, you lost another Customer :p) .
Jokes apart, as the name suggests, these are the first impressions of 'actually' owning an Android powered device (for a week now).
Jokes apart, as the name suggests, these are the first impressions of 'actually' owning an Android powered device (for a week now).
To start with, most of my friends questioned me about not buying Lumia 800/Lumia 900 as I love WindowsPhone+Nokia combination. The short answer is, Windows Phone 7.5 is not mature enough, atleast not yet. I'm sure Windows Phone 8 will be, but 7.5 is not there. And as I've been using Symbian devices, like Nokia N8, Nokia 5800 etc. I needed a smartphone with a dedicated File Manager, Bluetooth File Transfer and the ability to sideload apps without rooting my phone and currently only Android provides it (as Symbian is a dead end), so I bought one.
Hardware
Xperia Sola is powered by a 1Ghz Dual Core ARMv7 processor, Cortex-A9 on The NovaThor U8500 chipset with a Mali-400 GPU. It also has a strong built and a good design. Similarly priced phones are HTC One V (has a Single Core CPU with an 8Mp Camera and ICS out of the Box) and Galaxy S Advance (Cheap, Ugly phone with a 768Mb of Ram as opposed to 512Mb of Xperia Sola). So Xperia Sola is a pretty decent bargain for its price range . It is one of the few phones to have a Dual Core CPU, a good GPU and that too under 20K.
TimeScape UI
The TimeScape UI (Sony's Custom Skin) is ages better than TouchWiz 4 (Samsung's Android Skin). Even though it runs Android v2.3.7 a.k.a Gingerbread underneath, the UI looks and feel modern and mature. And Not to mention a planned upgrade to ICS is in the works for Q3. TimeScape may have lost a functionality or two like not being able to add or delete Home Screens, still it is a lot better than that kiddish looking ugly UI, which Samsung calls TouchWiz. TimeScape UI is smooth, possibly the smoothest out of all OEM's custom skins except HTC's Sense 4.0 which is almost as smooth except for scrolling in lists menus.
Multimedia (Camera & Music Player)
Sony did not disappoint me here again. Xperia Sola has 5 Mega-pixel camera which is a huge downgrade from my N8.(The 12Mp Monster) but the photo quality makes up for the lost pixels. Photos are very-very good for a 5 Mp shooter with a single LED flash , resolved detail is superb and Auto-focus works well most of the times. Its just Sony's Image Processing Algorithms, that are still not perfect and tend to suppress noise , specially in low light conditions. Just for the info, it put a 8Mp shooter of a friend to shame two days back. :P
Music Player is good, Cover Flow is buttery smooth and it has an inbuilt option to edit tags, which I missed on my N8. Music player can also find you the YouTube video, lyrics or artist info for the song ,which comes in pretty handy. It can also find the album cover for you. Furthermore its UI is the Best I've seen on a smartphone.
Apps-Google Play Store
Google's Play Store is the 2nd largest app store (behind only apple's). And soon it'll overtake Apple's app store as well. But my experience with Play Store was a mixed bag. Most of the apps worked fine except one Game which refused to download saying "It is not Compatible with my Phone" .
The problem here is Fragmentation, probably the biggest problem with the Android platform from a developer point of view. Android devices are powered by different chipsets like NovaThor, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Texas Instruments and that too with a resolution support of 320x480 to 1920x1200. So application developed for a particular chipset/resolution may not work with your device.
Other than that, Play Store is good and even allows wireless installation of applications from Play Store's website to your device which I found quite handy.
Battery
This is something Android devices has been criticised since day one, poor battery optimization. Xperia Sola has a Standard Lithium-Ion 1320 mAh battery which lasts for a day , at most (on Normal usage).
My N8 had a 1200 mAh Lithium-Ion battery , and that would last for about 2 days or more with similar usage. This is not Sony's fault completely, but Android has some major battery draining issues. To maximize battery life I have to disable Data Connectivity/Wifi when not in use, keep the brightness low and even disable Mobile Bravia Engine (which I'd love to keep on) and even then it last for a maximum of 18-20 hours. Still, thanks to the provided charger (5V-850mAh), the battery gets fully charged in just about an hour.
On the whole, except for the battery, the transition from Nokia N8 (Symbian Belle) to Xperia Sola has been quite smooth till date. And for anyone looking for a Good Looking Android Device under 20K, this smartphone is worth a look.
Feel free to shoot any comments.
Hardware
Xperia Sola is powered by a 1Ghz Dual Core ARMv7 processor, Cortex-A9 on The NovaThor U8500 chipset with a Mali-400 GPU. It also has a strong built and a good design. Similarly priced phones are HTC One V (has a Single Core CPU with an 8Mp Camera and ICS out of the Box) and Galaxy S Advance (Cheap, Ugly phone with a 768Mb of Ram as opposed to 512Mb of Xperia Sola). So Xperia Sola is a pretty decent bargain for its price range . It is one of the few phones to have a Dual Core CPU, a good GPU and that too under 20K.
TimeScape UI
The TimeScape UI (Sony's Custom Skin) is ages better than TouchWiz 4 (Samsung's Android Skin). Even though it runs Android v2.3.7 a.k.a Gingerbread underneath, the UI looks and feel modern and mature. And Not to mention a planned upgrade to ICS is in the works for Q3. TimeScape may have lost a functionality or two like not being able to add or delete Home Screens, still it is a lot better than that kiddish looking ugly UI, which Samsung calls TouchWiz. TimeScape UI is smooth, possibly the smoothest out of all OEM's custom skins except HTC's Sense 4.0 which is almost as smooth except for scrolling in lists menus.
Multimedia (Camera & Music Player)
Sony did not disappoint me here again. Xperia Sola has 5 Mega-pixel camera which is a huge downgrade from my N8.(The 12Mp Monster) but the photo quality makes up for the lost pixels. Photos are very-very good for a 5 Mp shooter with a single LED flash , resolved detail is superb and Auto-focus works well most of the times. Its just Sony's Image Processing Algorithms, that are still not perfect and tend to suppress noise , specially in low light conditions. Just for the info, it put a 8Mp shooter of a friend to shame two days back. :P
Music Player is good, Cover Flow is buttery smooth and it has an inbuilt option to edit tags, which I missed on my N8. Music player can also find you the YouTube video, lyrics or artist info for the song ,which comes in pretty handy. It can also find the album cover for you. Furthermore its UI is the Best I've seen on a smartphone.
Apps-Google Play Store
Google's Play Store is the 2nd largest app store (behind only apple's). And soon it'll overtake Apple's app store as well. But my experience with Play Store was a mixed bag. Most of the apps worked fine except one Game which refused to download saying "It is not Compatible with my Phone" .
The problem here is Fragmentation, probably the biggest problem with the Android platform from a developer point of view. Android devices are powered by different chipsets like NovaThor, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Texas Instruments and that too with a resolution support of 320x480 to 1920x1200. So application developed for a particular chipset/resolution may not work with your device.
Other than that, Play Store is good and even allows wireless installation of applications from Play Store's website to your device which I found quite handy.
Battery
This is something Android devices has been criticised since day one, poor battery optimization. Xperia Sola has a Standard Lithium-Ion 1320 mAh battery which lasts for a day , at most (on Normal usage).
My N8 had a 1200 mAh Lithium-Ion battery , and that would last for about 2 days or more with similar usage. This is not Sony's fault completely, but Android has some major battery draining issues. To maximize battery life I have to disable Data Connectivity/Wifi when not in use, keep the brightness low and even disable Mobile Bravia Engine (which I'd love to keep on) and even then it last for a maximum of 18-20 hours. Still, thanks to the provided charger (5V-850mAh), the battery gets fully charged in just about an hour.
On the whole, except for the battery, the transition from Nokia N8 (Symbian Belle) to Xperia Sola has been quite smooth till date. And for anyone looking for a Good Looking Android Device under 20K, this smartphone is worth a look.
Feel free to shoot any comments.
gr8 bhaji ...but Wat abt the floating touch ..is it better...??
ReplyDelete@shahbaz - Its awesome as far as the usability is concerned . But not many applications use it.Hopefully ICS will change it.
DeleteGreat post. I have also bought the Sola which is now my 4th Android. Its really awesome. About the Battery part. I get abt 18 Hrs, but i have my data connection on for 24 hrs. Also make sure all ur syncs are off (even the google contacts) U can just keep the gmail sync on. As for the contacts, on a monthly basis u can just sync it for a minute and turn it back off. Dont worry battery will be optimized when we will get the ICS update. I had Neo V and it had ICS.. Battery was quite good (abt 24 hrs)
ReplyDeleteNice review....
ReplyDeletemy playstoreis not working plz help
ReplyDelete