Bar and strip?

When the NXT range was announced, many people wondered about the plastic strip that sits just above the capacitive buttons. In reading the original gumpf for the range, this strip contained some bits and bobs for the antenna and was referred to as the 'notification bar'. Of course, people took this at face value and assumed it really was a notification strip for SMS and the like. So far, so good, as the placement of the notification light on the Arc in particular was dumb.

Sad then, that my Xperia S didn't offer anything in the way of notifications through the strip, except for when I plugged the phone in to charge. SMS notifications etc still came through an LED, though this was positioned in a much better place on the handset.

Disappointed the notification bar didn't actually notify me of anything important - and didn't change colour like on the U - I was pleasantly surprised to read on Xperiablog about a third-party app from Rundgong that made the most of the bar.

The cunningly titled 'Illumination Bar Notification' app was released on June 11 2012, and allows you to light up the bar for SMS messages and missed calls. It's a fairly basic app on the XS, though it's a touch more elaborate on the U as you've got the various LED colour schemes to mess with. It does exactly what it says on the tin, it's a great little app and once again it takes hobby developers to really push the envelope for a Sony users.

The mind boggles as to why Sony never implemented this in the first place - yet another missed opportunity. I've a sneaking suspicion Rundgong way well get an email or twenty from developers on XDA and maybe even from Sony themselves, wanting permission to use his app. Here's hoping krabappel will incorporate this great app into his next ROM for the Xperia S, KA08!

Less is Miro?

Another week, another Sony handset announced. Following the Fast Forward socially interactive event, Sony have announced the Miro handset. It's interesting they've managed to keep something like this under the radar for so long, as handset details prior to this - especially under Sony Ericsson's tenure - have all managed to leak waaaaaaaaaaay before an official announcement.

Looking at the features on the handset...:

Range of colours
3.5" display
ICS 4.0
5MP camera
Front facing camera
DLNA
Large battery

…it bears an uncanny resemblance to the U - in fact I'd say the only real difference between the two is cosmetic and that it's launching on ICS. The only difference between the Miro and the Go is that the Go is waterproof and doesn't have the front-facing camera. The only difference between….you get the picture.

If this handset launches without microSD support it would be a mistake and would lump it squarely with the U in the 'pointless' bracket.

Last year, 2011, Sony Ericsson released 10 handsets. This year Sony have announced and/or released 8 handsets and it's still only June - and that's not including the other SIX handsets currently feeding the rumour mill. More is still more, apparently!

Go Go GO!

Sony's recent annoucement about the forthcoming Xperia Go certainly generated some excitement in the Test Lab camp, and not just because handsets have been ordered for everyone!

Coming equipped with a dual-core processor, 8GB of onboard storage (4GB available to user) and 5MP camera, it's got very similar specs to the U…though the Go does have more going for it. Not sure how the 3.5inch screen will compare to the same screen on U, but if it's similar quality to the Ray, it's gonna be no slouch in the visuals department.

First off it features MicroSD support (hurrah!), which is always useful in a phone with such a limited amount of user-available storage. More importantly, it's the succesor to the Xperia Active and comes waterproofed to 1 metre for at least 30 minutes immersion. It's also dustproof and apparently shockproof, as the team at Sony Mobile have reportedly been bouncing theirs against the wall!

Added to that it's got the highest specification possible in terms of near-indestructibility. Anyone who's seen videos on YouTube and revelled in images of Active owners running their phone over with a jeep and attacking it with a compass will no doubt be thrilled the gauntlet has been thrown down to more daring attempts at handset demolition.

It's a little disappointing the Xperia Acro HD isn't coming to UK shores, as that handset features specs similar to the Xperia S AND has the protection offered by the Go but heck, who needs a phone that big in your pocket when you're pitting the handset against the most imaginitive scenarios the mind can conjure.

Personally, I'm planning to my phone in the dishwasher for a couple minutes, then possibly indulge in a game of Pooh Sticks in the nearest available stream. It'll be a one-horse race, but it'll still be fun! Another member of Test Lab managed to attach his Active to a remote control helicopter so that could be a very interesting experiment indeed - the sky's the limit!

Max Payne

Boosting the bank balance for the final development push for Grand Theft Auto 5, the long-delayed, highly anticipated threequel to the hard-boiled Max Payne franchise has finally arrived.

The years have not been kind to Max Payne. Still mourning the loss of his wife and child following the Valkyr situation from the first game, Max is still a pill-popping drunk, only now he's a pill-popping drunk working as a private bodyguard for a wealthy family in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It doesn't take long for trouble in paradise to brew and explode into a story of intrigue, deception, action and despair that makes this game far more involving than your standard run and gun entry.

It's interesting to play a game with this sort of depth that's not a sandbox release. MXP3 is definitely a game on rails, like Call of Duty etc. but you're so firmly entrenched in the story and action it's easy to forget you're being guided how Rockstar want you to play the game.

It's obvious Rockstar are learning from every release; L.A. Noire introduced highly complex facial graphics for emotive purposes. Here they've been boiled down slightly, but still retain a certain air of realism and they certainly haven't been utilised to a point where it affects the actual game environment, as everything looks highly detailed. More on this later.

MXP3 features the same control system as GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption so it should be familiar to anyone who's played these games and it is very similar to the controls from the previous Max Payne games. Though if you've not played these (and why not -where've you been for the last decade?!) The game benefits from the cover system used in GTA4 and RDR and you can make excellent use of the blind-fire system too, something which was lacking from the previous games. The control system is fairly simple; point, shoot, etc., though it's not without the occasional glitch when moving to/from cover.

Speaking of glitches, be wary when the game autosaves. The game autosaves as you progress through a level, though it's somewhat disappointing there is no facility to save your progress yourself. However, make sure the circular save icon has completely vanished before quitting to XMB; my save file for Chapter 5 corrupted itself ever so slightly - I've no idea how as I waited for the icon to disappear - and would only load into Chapter 5 (the docks) thinking Max Payne had died.

Three times I got the death screen and three times the console CRASHED. Fourth time was the charm, though it's something to be aware of and again, it's somewhat disappointing you don't get the option to save your progress yourself as you go as autosave obviously cannot be trusted! Whether this has been patched in the two patches that have been released I'm not sure as Rockstar haven't yet released a changelog for the 1.02 patch.

Rockstar claim there are no loading screens, though they have cannily worked around this by providing extensive and sometimes over-long cut scenes which, surprise, surprise, can't be skipped (at times) as surprise, surprise, the level the cut scene leads into is "still loading". Six of one, half a dozen of another. It's a sly trick that is irritating at times, dull at others and, at all times, gets in the way of the raucous fun that is to be found at the heart of this shooter.

Which is really what this game is about; shooting. And fun. And shooting! Though the Max Payne franchise is over a decade old, Bullet Time has still lost none of its awesome charms. MXP3 takes Bullet Time and runs with it - in the final killcam you can continue to riddle your foe with bullets long after the kill shot. It's wanton violence, it's lingering on injury, it's disgustingly good fun, never gets dull and it's exactly why MXP3 has got a proper BBFC '18' certificate as it's stuffed with bloody mayhem.

You get the option to carry a two-handed weapon such as a shotgun or assault rifle, but there's so much more fun to be had dual-wielding a 9mm pistol and 9mm micro sub-machine gun, for example, that I rarely use anything else. The dual-wield was introduced in the original game and of course its seed lies with fabulous Hong Kong action cinema,which was then brought to a wider audience in films like Face/Off and The Matrix - but over a decade on, it's still effing cool. Seriously cool - PS3 has been waiting for a third-person shooter like this since launch!

Walking into an open plan office filled with filing cabinets, desks, computer screens, wooden cubicles, glass, paper and bad guys, when the proverbial hits the fan, things go off in style. Choose your cover carefully as the environments are now destructible too, but stuff the cover and watch as the room erupts into a spectacular orgy of shredded paper, shattered glass, splintered wood and blood...coupled with a stunning aural cacophony of gunfire, spent casings tinkling on the ground, screams, paper shredding, glass shattering and wood splintering...Nowhere is safe.

Oh yes, Max Payne 3 brings out the vicious killer in us all make no mistake. It's stirring stuff, gleefully violent even, and there's nothing more satisfying than the kill-cam at the end of a shootout where you can, as mentioned above, riddle your final foe with as many rounds as the clip in your weapon(s) will carry.

I've not even finished the game yet and there are memorable sequences a-go-go; surfing a collapsing water tower, hanging upside down from a helicopter shooting rockets from the sky, a Live and Let Die-inspired speedboat chase. It's all inspired mayhem and makes for tremendous fun, which offers an interesting juxtaposition with Max Payne's miserable, cynical character.

He's a wordier, grumpier, lazier John McClane - always in the wrong place at the wrong time and with a glib answer or pithy retort for everything. He really can't be arsed with anything (or anyone) so would much rather be slumped at a bar, stoked to the gills on painkillers and booze.

The game also has an excellent multiplayer, which adds tremendous replay value. It also brings over the original New York Minute arcade-style feature and a new Score Attack feature which is a lot of fun.

Looking to the future and GTA5, if that game offers the immersion and action of MXP3 alongside the sandbox features if the illustrious GTA4 I suspect I'll be barricading myself in my games room for a considerable amount of time.

A return to form for Rockstar after the dull dud that was L.A. Noire, the lack of a save facility and overlong cutscenes aside, MXP3 comes out guns blazing (pun intended) and delivers thrills, spills, a decent story and plenty of longevity for your £39.99 investment.

Tablet S and ICS

The evening of Thursday 26th April 2012 brought forth a flurry of activity in the Sony Tablet community and on the XDA forums too, as Sony's fabled update to Android 4.0.3 - Ice Cream Sandwich - finally, after a couple delays and false starts, saw the light of day.

Naturally this wasn't a global rollout, targeted instead at American and Japanese markets. Thank goodness then for the XDA forums' Tablet saviour that is Condi. This wunderkind provided us with a copy of the U.S. software and the means by which to install it to ALL machines, regardless of region.

His guide, though relatively straightforward, is not for the faint of heart but the results yield a far greater return compared to the time invested - it's a largely automated process. If you don't want to wait for Sony to release the update in the U.K., where I'm based, point your browser HERE for Condi's awesome All-in-One tool for Sony Tablets plus a handy dandy guide to installing ICS on your machine.

There was a slight glitch with his installation tool, but dig deep enough in the posts and you'll be able to find hints and tips for a cleaner (i.e. working) install from yours truly. Look for TheHurf and ye shall be rewarded! Hopefully Condi will have updated the AiO tool to fix the glitch, as this was bricking some machines. Errors aside if you take the plunge, but you're a bit of a noob, make sure you read everything thoroughly before beginning anything. A poor workman blames his tools - unless it's someone else's fault! - so read up, read it again, then in case of problems, read it some more!

The upgrade itself takes very little time and is very nice looking. Very nice looking - which isn't to say Honeycomb is hideous, as that was very good looking too, but ICS has got a much better feel to it; it's cleaner, it's smoother, it's faster. It looks better - the grey and blue finish I've currently got running looks the biz on the HD screen of the tablet.

Live wallpapers are much better - Bubbles is great fun. The App draw has been improved upon and now has proper pages, as opposed to an endless scroll, and the animation for jumping between pages has improved as well. Very pleasing!

ICS brings a whole host of optimising features as well - from native external SD card reading to a useable task manager that actually lets you close apps you're not using - this is an OS that's looked at the last 18 months of Android development through the last stages of FroYo 2.2 in 2010, Gingerbread 2.3 in 2011, Honeycomb 3.0 AND 3rd party development throughout the Market and amateur developers, incorporating many of these advances into a cohesive whole.

For example, the Tablet comes with an external SD card slot, but Honeycomb didn't have the ability to read the card 'live'. In order to use this feature, you had to root the tablet then install and run init.d support and a custom script. Not too difficult but very annoying! ICS supports external SD features out the box and resolves the issue.

I believe WiFi connection has been improved - repairing the notoriously finnicky 'never disconnect' feature from Honeycomb and GPS location has been improved as well.

It still doesn't come with a file manager, which is a little strange when the 2012 Xperias come bundled with Astro, but that's something which has long been a personal bugaboo of mine. Reading up about it though, Jelly Bean 5.0 is rumoured to come with a proper, native file manager. Only taken 4 years!

It's difficult to say whether battery life has improved as I've basically ragged the tablet all weekend, but it does appear to be lasting longer, despite endless fiddling! Watch this space!

EDIT: Condi's All in One Tool has been updated to fix the ICS error and AiO 2.9 can be found on XDA.

Funny 5 minutes

My Liveview had a funny 5 minutes this morning. After misplacing it for almost two weeks, I was pleased to have it back on my wrist. Fired it up, connected to the Xperia S phone without any problems. Received the first of my usual half-hourly bulletins, checked the device and the Liveview was convinced the date was 9th December 1976!

I'm fairly sure the Liveview has compatibility problems with Ice Cream Sandwich as I had the occasional problem when using the device with the Arc S and the 4.0 beta back in February. It's always worked well for me on the 2011 Xperias and Gingerbread 2.3.x.

I guess with the 2012 handsets being on 2.3.7 and the Liveview Manager from the Market not being updated since August 2011, it was inevitable something had to go wrong somewhere. Plus now Sony have wheeled out the SmartWatch the Liveview is sooooooooo last years gadget and won't receive any more updates to the software on the phone or on the Liveview itself.

A pity in my view as though my colleagues in Test Lab have had a series of problems with their Liveviews, bought ridiculously cheap from play.com in March, this is the first glitch I've had. And in the Liveview's defence, a quick reboot restored it to full working order within 20 seconds and gave me the correct time, year, day and date!

That Yellow Bastard

It is with some disappointment I write this post, but in the spirit of reporting the rough with the smooth, I shall continue.

Unfortunately it seems even the mighty Xperia S is not beyond the touch of the dreaded 'Sony Launch Curse' that afflicted the launch of the Arc last year, in the shape of an audio sync glitch when recording HD video.

Starting about two weeks after launch, stories appeared on the XDA forum and the Sony Mobile forums, telling tales of piss-yellow patches appearing in the middle of the lower portion of the screen. Inspection of my handset showed I too had been struck down by the curse. Woe is me.

Further woe was added when reading these forums again; it seems the company response to this issue had initially been inconsistent, with replies ranging from:

* Return the handset for a free replacement
* Return the handset for repair
* Return the handset for a fee of £/$300 to replace!
* It's a software issue - (Erm, yeah, ok... And monkey's will fly out my butt! Although....)

Fair enough, it could be a software issue as it's affecting a number of handsets and that's one thing they have in common. The other common factor is they're all made from the same components; could this be an issue?

The simple answer is yes, it's a hardware issue. Any time the phone is heated above 30C i.e. when it's in your pocket(!) the glue used to manufacture the screen starts to heat up and causes discolouration in the display. Doing something that is quite intensive like playing a game, watching a film, browsing the t'interweb or running StabilityTest to really push the phone, the sides of the screen heats the phone further. Checking my own handset once I'd gotten to 37C, after running StabilityTest, the yellow bastard had spread up the sides of the screen.

Cooling the phone down to below 30C the colouration does indeed dissipate, however this doesn't negate from the fact it will happen again and laughs in the face of the beauty of this otherwise impressive screen. Even 'repaired' handsets have had similar problems so it's not simply limited to a specific batch of phones. I'm starting to wonder if perhaps running StabilityTest for an extended period of time may well cook off the imperfections in the glue - but this may well warrant further investigation before giving the dual-core processor the hammering StabilityTest delivers.

EDIT: Further reading has revealed a user who fired up StabilityTest then wrapped the XS in a blanket to really fuel the furnace and heat the handset to over 40C, effectively curing the problem - and the glue, boom boom!

The most astounding thing is how this slipped past QC - are these phones only tested in an hermetically sealed, temperature controlled vault? Surely the handset would've been road-tested 'in the wild' i.e. travelling around in someone's pocket getting warm and sweaty? Obviously not in this case, but this is another excellent example for getting handsets out and about a month or two early for real-world testing BEFORE they launch with another embarrassing problem!

It's not really doing any damage to sales figures as it's proving a very popular phone, and it is an amazing phone, but it's such a shame for early adopters to be tarnished with a slightly dodgy display!

Proving its worth - Google Music

Google Music just proved why the 5 day+ upload of my music library was worth it:


Loading the music library on my XS when I first got it, I'd dragged and dropped files from my media folder on the network to the windows explorer view. It was only after shifting about half a dozen albums I'd realised my mistake. 


Alas, I then forgot my error, so when reloading the music library on my XS tonight, I found I was missing a couple album. Rather than fart about loading 7 CD's into iTunes to burn them all again, logged into Google Music and downloaded everything back!


SCORE!

Three weeks inXS

March 2012 is the dawn of a new era, the NXT era from Sony. First up is the Xperia S, followed by the P and U handsets in May.

Looking suspiciously like the obelisk from 2001, the XS is a phone to behold. Massive screen, see-through notification bar and non-slip, non-shiny finish. The 'Monolith' design is supposed to make the product blend in with other toys from the Sony range and in fairness it does tie in neatly with my Sony home theatre. Very nice.

Anyway, onto the good stuff!

Audibles

The Sony-skinned Music player now offers in-app editing of tracks, which is pretty cool if some of your library is mis-labelled. Mine isn't, as I'm just that fussy, but it's still great nonetheless. The redesigned player is much more intuitive and the EQ settings provided are excellent, though I prefer the XDA manufactured DSP Manager as it has greater control over shaping your overall sound.

The headphones supplied with the headset might not be the most expensive, personally I was a little disappointed to not find a set of SmartSound earphones in the box, but they certainly sound the business - even over and above the now-obsolete LiveSound earphones. (Read HERE for musings about that little hiccup).

These earphones deliver the same bassy punch as the LiveSounds but the quality of the sound, at least to my ears, appears to be much higher. It's a crisper, cleaner soundfield than before; the LiveSounds have punch and plenty of low-end rumble but they were missing something that's very present here - detail. Lots and lots of detail!

Accessibles – Plugging the phone in

There has been some talk among users of the S that MTP mode can be a little temperamental. Those of you expecting to change between MTP and MSC will be disappointed to learn MSC has disappeared because of the lack of MicroSD support. Some users have complained about connection issues, personally I never had any, but you can find a fix HERE from a colleague in Test Lab.

Loading music onto the phone can take a while, those of us used to 8GB or 16GB cards will still find it hard to use 25GB+ of memory, mainly as it takes a very long time to transfer a massive amount of music. And by long time, I'm talking overnight. Still, that's the price to pay for carrying around over 3,500 tracks and once you've done it, you only need to mess around with adding or deleting the occasional album if you're picky, again, like me!

USB on the go is presented here but it can be a little temperamental. Anyone still rocking the Sony Ericsson USB M2 memory stick/SD micro adaptors, with the green lights? Yeah, they won't work on this handset as the stick draws too much power. Highly annoying as I've got THREE of these sticks knocking about.

Cue some grinding of teeth and grumbling before wandering to the shops and picking up a standard memory stick - no operating light! - to suit my needs. And suit those needs it does. Working within the supplied file manager, Astro, the phone recognised the stick - a 32GB SanDiskUSB Cruzer, if you're interested - and I could browse at will, copy files etc.

Where I was really impressed with USB OTG was the ability to access media from the device. I plugged in my stick, opened the media file on the stick and was watching a 720p copy of The Matrix in scant seconds.

Visuals

Which brings me neatly to the 720p HD screen. I shan't ramble on too much, suffice to say it's absolutely amazing; a plateau-like 4.3” high definition screen that offers fabulous colours and clarity. Watching films like The Matrix, Super 8 and Toy Story from 720p sources, the onscreen action was rendered perfectly, even with a lot of motion.

The BRAVIA technology enhances the colours without slowing anything down picture-wise and renders everything absolutely stunning - and even more amazing considering it's 'just' a phone screen! The PS Vita should've had this onboard as standard, opportunity missed there I think!

Snap Happy – The camera

Following on from a stunning screen is the equally awesome camera. The 12MP camera was introduced with the Satio back in 2009. The camera itself was great, though it was saddled with an almighty turd of a phone and was thus something of a disappointment.

So much so, it's taken nearly 3 years for the 12MP function to reappear on a handset. But, it's back - and how. Sample pictures taken with the new lens show off fabulous colour and detail. It's unfortunate then that the highest quality setting is presented in 4:3 framing. If you want to take 16:9 photos you're going to need to drop a step to 9MP. You win some, you lose some.

This is still a progression though as on the 2011 Xperia handsets the highest setting - 8MP - was limited to 4:3, though you could take 16:9 photos on the 6MP setting. There are other ways to circumvent this limitation and take full frame 16:9 photos at 12MP, namely with Vignette, but I haven't had chance to test this out properly yet.

Sony have also thrown in a lightning-fast quick capture system, which they claim can capture shots in as little as 1.5 - 2 seconds from a standing start; i.e. locked screen. They weren't lying! Quick capture goes like the clappers! It's brilliant!

Video recording has improved again, this time making the jump from 720p to 1080p capture. Remembering last years' launch issue with sound and vision sync on the Arc, I had everything crossed when I shot some video. I wasn't disappointed. Video capture works flawlessly and looks amazing on big screens. Definitely a feature I will be making use of, especially with a little Hurfling on the way.

Getting to the Core:

The Xperia S is the first Xperia phone to wield dual-cores. Clocking it at 1.5GHz, the processor is no slouch and handles pretty much everything I throw at it; including 1080p video recording (which is enabled by having dual-core in the first place) not to mention the aforementioned 720p video playing capabilities, streaming tracks from Google Music etc. This is what makes the XS a great phone, it looks great AND it handles great.

Summaries

Reading all the above, I'm sure by now you've figured out the Xperia S is a pretty awesome phone, and I've not even mentioned the new lockscreen controls for the music player, text messages and other notifications.

If I were going to grumble it would be about the camera placement; it should be more central on the phone, especially for a handset of this size where you're going to need both hands to shoot steady video – but you don't necessarily need to see digits in frame while doing so!


Edit: I forgot to mention the Xperia S's Near Field Communication capabilities, namely because Sony forgot to include any NFC tags with the S when it was shipped to me. Shouldn't really look a gift horse in the mouth, but exactly the same thing happened last year with the launch of the Arc: the HDMI-out was touted as something really special on the handset, but the inital release handsets failed to include that particular cable! And it wasn't just an isolated incident!

Basic rule of thumb; if you advertise a product as being able to do something - give us the means to actually use it straight out the box without having to scurry to Amazon to buy a simple cable!

Come on Sony, it's not too difficult a concept to grasp, is it? I mean, it's like buying an electric whisk, only to find it doesn't come with any whisks!

Sony Tablet S

I love my Tablet. There. I said it. After months of saying I don't need one, I bought one. And I love it.

The Tablet S is Sony's first foray into the tablet market, and for the naysayers and poo-pooers who derided it from the start, it's actually a great piece of kit:

It features a gorgeous 9.4inch, 1200x800 720p HD screen, incorporating Sony's excellent BRAVIA technology, along with TruBlack and some other bits and bobs. I've watched some full-HD youtube clips on it, and they look great. It should be noted Sony beat Apple to the market with an HD screen by a good 7 months...

...just as they did with a 5MP camera on the rear of the unit, capable of shooting 720p HD video as well...

...and it has Adobe Flash support too...

My tablet came already updated to Android Honeycomb 3.2.1 and very nice it is too. I've played with some Honeycomb features that have been available for Gingerbread mobile ROM's, but to have the whole thing is pretty good. It's a clean, fast and easy to use OS that will only get better when ICS hits in April 2012.

Music

One of the problems I found with the stock Google music player in Android is that it doesn't have the ability to refresh its databse, which meant until I discovered SD refresh apps, the phone had to rebooted. Not really so much of a chore but if you like to change your music a lot, like I do, you end up rebooting your phone. A lot.

Thank goodness then for the Honeycomb stock music app. Not only is it rather fetching, with a smooth and decent cover flow, it also updates itself with whatever music happens to be on your device. Hurrah! It does come with a very simple EQ as well but I much prefer the indepth DSP Manager, which you can download from HERE.

Built in to the Google player is the new Google Play Music service from Google. I've written a warts-n-all post about that HERE, but suffice to say despite a few teething problems it's actually a very good service, even on 3G.

The stereo speakers provide a decent sound, not too tinny but of course not very rich either, but perfectly funtional for your audio requirements. The headphone socket is of the CTIA variety so you may have a couple compatibility issues. For me, I found there was a problem with the Sony Ericsson LiveSound, but other headphones - Sony Fontopia, iPod standards and a Sony wireless pair of cans worked very well indeed.

Streaming music to the tablet from either Google Music or through my home network - powered by the awesome Serviio - and wandering into every room in the house without a drop in sound from either the music server(s) or the headphones is pretty cool and never gets boring!

Video

As mentioned above, the Tablet S comes equipped with a fabulous 720p BRAVIA screen. It's lush. Really lush. When I first started writing this review I'd only tested some YouTube videos, but after a couple weeks with the tab I've managed to load up some 720p mp4 files and the results are outstanding.

It's worth bearing in mind the tab won't quite be able to match the performance of a decent Blu-ray player and HD TV, but as inferred by the italics in the early part of the sentence, the results aren't too shabby at all.

Watching a 720p mp4 (3.5GB!) of the 2007 Transformers movie on the tablet proved something of a relevation, especially after watching it on an iPod touch for years. The colours were rich, details were fine, there was some slight blocking and the occasional pixellation but, again, this isn't a Full HD home rig; it's a tablet, but it's a plucky tablet with an awesome screen!

Memory

Sony have been a bit tricksy again with memory (as mentioned in a previous post HERE here on blogger and over at Xperiablog) and have utilised the built-in 16GB for everything:

• 20% lost for standard memory filing etc (13.9GB remaining)
• 4GB utilised for the system ROM (actually useful as you can stuff the tab to the gills with apps from the Market and still have plenty of room for even more apps!)
• 8.9GB left for actual 'stuff' like media etc. 

Really, I think it's a bit naughty to advertise something as having 16GB of onboard storage, only to find you can only use/edit just over half of it. Tut tut.

SD support is present, though it's not (officially) meant to be used as expandable memory, as that's one of the limitations of this current interation of Android. There are, however, a couple little script tricks you can do to get around this, thanks once again to the masterminds on the XDA forums....

To make the above scripts work, you need to root the device first. Rooting the Tablet S and its Honeycomb 3.2.1 is a little more tricky, but I think this was mainly because I was using a different package for rooting, compared to what I was using before. I fully encourage rooting any Android device, simply because it unlocks the potential of the device. In this case, I rooted the Tablet S principally to be able to run scripts. The 15 minutes it takes to run the rooting process and install init.d support, required for scripting, is time well spent.

If you're unsure about rooting, read all available literature BEFORE you take the plunge. You get out of this process what you put in, and if you take your time you will be well rewarded. Rush your way through it and, well, a poor workman blames his tools! Read the steps. Then read them again. Then read some more. Then double check. Then go for it! Click the link HERE to use the amazing AiO root kit from Condi over at XDA.

Once you've done that, click HERE and follow the steps to add scripts to your new init.d folder. The tips provided bind the content of the external SD card (shown as SDcard2 in Root Explorer) to the internal memory (shown as SDcard). Depending on whether you've got the 16 or 32GB Tablet, or the Tablet P with its measly 4GB onboard, if you get yourself a 32GB card and follow the steps on the XDA link, you could end up with 25-50GB of storage. Not too shabby at all for the price of a little warranty-voiding tinkering!

One thing to bear in mind when creating the script file, don't save it with a extension suffix like .txt or .sh - Android won't recognise it otherwise. I've used the script with a 16GB card and confirm it works very well. The script is picked up during the boot process, all you need to do once the machine powers up is to recscan the SD card to refresh the database. You can get a good SD refresh app HERE. I'm able to store my most essential music on the tablet and adjust the contents of the external SD card as and when I please - though you will need to refresh the card when you put it back in.

And don't forget, the Tablet also supports USB OTG, so you can take a USB flash drive or portable external HDD with you on your travels and have untold gigabytes of data at your fingertips. Get the required cable HERE.

Conclusion

The only other niggle I thought of with the Tablet is the proprietary power connector - there's no USB charging as it's a 5000mAh battery and USB can only deliver something like 500mAh, so it would take ages to charge! Though quite why Sony didn't use something more readily available, one can only guess, but we'll assume they've made that decision for the same reason they developed proprietary memory cards for the PS Vita. 'Nuff said, moving on!

For me, two bad points isn't bad at all. They're minor points at best, particularly if you're willing to make some relatively simple adjustments to the operating system. And let's be honest, anyone who buys an Android tablet is probably in it for the development and freedom offered by the OS, as well as the flashier (pun intended) features on offer.

With good sound reproduction, excellent visuals and a price tag of just under £300 for the 16GB version of the Tablet S, there's never been a better time to jump into the tablet market.

Google Music

In Summer 2011 Google introduced their own version of iTunes Match. In fact, I think they beat Apple to it with their version of cloud storage for music. Anyway, I was immediately intrigued by the possibilities of having a massive amount of my own music at my fingertips, depending on the quality of my connection of course.

Subsequent investigations showed Google Beta was only open to U.S. customers, which was a little annoying. Fast foward a couple months and I stumbled across some VPN software (link at bottom of post) which allowed me to bambooze the Google servers into thinking I was based in the U.S., which then allowed me to sign up and download the Music Manager upload program for Google Music. Score!

The upload program itself is very simple. You choose whether Music searches through your iTunes folder and playlists, or you can setup a folder of your own for holding music. I opted for the latter approach, as having 140GB+ of music I felt was pushing my luck, particularly when the limit for uploading songs in 20,000 tracks and I've got considerably more.

There are some glitches with refreshing folders and such but on the whole the Music Management works quite well, though perhaps not as well as iTunes Match. This payable service matches the items in your collection with tracks on their own database by analysing the meta-data contained in the music stored on your computer and only uploading tracks where it can't find a match in the database. But, you only pay for the service if you've got stuff that isn't on the database, so those of you with obscure music collections might have to stump up £20 a year to store your copy of Des O'Connor's Greatest Hits. Such is life. Anyway, I digress, back to the main story...

Where Google Music falls down is you have to upload the music yourself, all of it...And let me tell you, it takes ages!

I did a test upload of around 15 tracks, which took something like 5 minutes, even with the Music Manager on its fastest upload setting of 1MBps. Going for broke, I dumped...ahem...11,000 tracks @ 192kbps into the upload folder - 66GB worth - and let Google work its magic.....

....10 days later - not continuously, mind you - Google finally finished uploading my music. I think I clocked the upload at around 1000 songs in any 12-hour period, so that would be something like 5.5 days continuously uploading! Thank goodness for unlimited broadband, that's all I can say!

Naturally the service doesn't like DRM-protected files and doesn't appear to like

anything encoded under 128kbps, either, which was very annoying when I tried to

upload the Harry Potter audiobooks which have been encoded at 32kbps using iTunes'

own recommended setting for speech! Ah well.

Once the music is up, you're presented with a fairly basic web-based library. It's functional enough but lacks the precision sheen of iTunes. Hopefully this will be improved on at a later date but for now it does the job. You can edit the details of the track, change artwork etc, so it's not totally useless.

Where things improved considerably is with the interaction with the stock Google

music app on Gingerbread and Honeycomb platforms. I'll stick with the Honeycomb

variant as that's where I use the online service the most:

First things first, you need the updated version of the Google Play Music app - the latest version is 4.1.513. Once you've got that, links at the bottom of this post, sign yourself in and marvel at how pretty the app is.

The recent additions Cover flow is excellent, as is the coaster-type stacking of album covers in the artist folder - if they've got more than one album in your library, that is. And onto the online content!

I don't know how Google do it, but the music syncs to the tablet to quickly, it's almost like the music is on the tablet itself. It just works! It's fast, let down only by the loading time for the music stream, but than depends on your distance from the router and plus, when you're streaming music from the cloud as opposed to LAN, then some delay is to be expected anyway. So there.

It even works very well on 3G so top marks for that. DSP settings are carried over to the streamed music so everything sounds great, you can also tell the app to play your music and the maximum bitrate it was originally uploaded, which is also awesome. In short it's a great utility. If your entire music collection is less than 20,000 tracks and if you're very patient, you can have your whole library with you practically everywhere you go.

I'm very pleased to have finally got it working and am hoping the service will be rolled out globally soon - the sky's the limit with this and the possibilities are endless. A few GUI tweaks here and there wouldn't go amiss but for now, it might not be pretty (online GUI), but it does the job!

The most up-to-date version of the new Google Play Music app is 4.1.513 and can be

found HERE.

The VPN service I used was Tunnelbear, which can be found here: http://www.tunnelbear.com/

What's NXT?

2012 has already seen the acqusition of the Ericsson portion in the Sony Ericsson cake by Sony themselves. To herald their entry into the mobile market, Sony have developed some cracking new handsets known as the NXT range - Next GeneraTion - the S, P and U handsets.

I recently had the opportunity to play with these phones, namely the XS (as it shall henceforth be known) and I must say I was impressed. 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 12MP camera, 4.3 inch 720p(!) screen, NFC. The list goes on and on. In order to cram this fabulous tech into a handset, Sony have had to dispense with the super skinny chassis the Arc came with and instead have crafted a handset that's both brawny and sleek at the same time. With a matt finish and simple curves, the XS has got some weight in the hand - I prefer a phone with some heft so this is right up my street and bulking up the weight was a worthy sacrifice to take advantage of the latest in mobile technology.

That's not to say its not without foibles though:

• The power button is on the top of the handset. For a phone with a lot of acreage, anyone with a small hand is going to find it a stretch to press this button - it is, after all, the only way to unlock the screen now that capacitive buttons are present.

• The advertised memory, 32GB, isn't exactly 32GB - but you'd be a bit naive to expect that. Inspection of the handset shows available memory as just under 26GB. I'm perfectly aware flash drives and the like usually reserve around 10% of the total capacity of the drive for file management and things like that but when I raised the question, the Sony rep explained as I was holding an older handset (it was branded Sony Ericsson) it could've been a development handset.
  However, reading another posting online about the XS, from an entirely different handset, I hasten to add, they have discovered the same 'problem'. What appears to have happened is Sony have chopped up the available memory and allocated portions of it to 'system' storage and internal memory.
  Maybe I'm being a little unreasonable, but people expect 28-30GB of space remaining from 32GB and not the phone to be using almost 25% of the advertised capacity for its own ends. The positive that can be drawn from this is the phone sports a colossal 1.9GB RAM but even so, it's a bit underhand.

Grumbles aside, it's a very impressive handset, accompanied by two equally impressive handsets in their own right: the Xperia P and the Xperia U.

The Xperia P immediately captured my attention with its brushed aluminium finish. This handset is a pinch smaller than the S, more akin to the size of the Neo, yet features 16GB of internal memory, which I suspect has succumbed to the same fate as the internal memory on the XS. That aside, it's a great handset, with a 8MP camera, 1080p video shooting, a 1GHz dual-core processor and loads of other awesome stuff.

The Xperia U lies at the budget end of the scale, and it's noticeably more plasticky in its construction. Again, don't let that detract from the features of the phone. Slightly smaller than the P, this handset has a similar size to the Ray, though that handset almost outstrips this phone in terms of features. A 1GHz dual-core processor beats in the heart of this phone, along with a 5MP camera and a very nifty colour schema in the notification bar.

It should be noted all three handsets follow a very similar design pattern, with the notification strip the prominent design feature; the XU is a smaller version of the XP, which in turn is a smaller version of the XS. The only thing that disappoints me about these phones is the lack of expandable memory with MicroSD. That would've been the icing on an admittedly impressive cake.

Sony have burst onto the mobile scene with guns blazing. If this is what they can do in a debut attempt, I can't wait to see what emerges from development over the course of 2012. Quad-core, anyone........?

SmartHeadset..?

Apparently not, at least in terms of hardware choice.

It seems Sony Ericsson and thus Sony have moved away from the OMTP standard it was using for mobile phones, opting for the CTIA standard instead.

One of the issues users of Xperia phones faced was incompatibility with certain headsets/headphones. If you tried to plug a CTIA headset into an Xperia phone it may have had reduced functionality or it may not even have worked at all. This is as the 3.5mm plug is wired differently in both standards.

The new 2012 Xperia models will have a 3.5mm jack that uses the CTIA standard and not the OMTP standard which was used earlier. The CTIA standard is more common and is the one adopted by Apple iOS devices. So, you can connect almost all the foreign headsets to your 2012 smartphone and enjoy your favourite music or movie.

However, the flip side to this 'progression', is older headsets that can currently be used with 2010/2011 Xperia devices will not be compatible with 2012 Xperia phones...

...Older headsets like...the LiveSound headphones. Released just last autumn by Sony Ericsson, with a retail price of up to £69.99. To be honest, I think this completely sucks for all those that bought those earphones, especially as they're still knocking about on Amazon for close to £45!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Ericsson-MH1-WO-LiveSound-Headset/dp/B005GDVB6S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1330727397&sr=8-2

It's disappointing, especially given the development time of handsets. Someone, somewhere should've realised they'd be defunct in six months...flashback to the X10 conundrum, anyone? Sony offer the EC250 adaptor to change CTIA signal to OMTP, meaning you can use the 2012 SmartHeadset with 2011 Xperia phones, but there doesn't appear to be anything to reverse the flow to use OMTP headphones with CTIA.

In short, if you really like your 2011 LiveSound earphones, best to stick with a 2011 phone until an adaptor can be sourced. Or cough up £60-£70 for the SmartHeadset.

Vita or Vito?

Ah, another year, another Sony toy to talk about. This time it's the PS Vita, successor to the PSP and the PSP Go. Both of which are great handsets, though the PSP courted some controversy on its release. More on that later, though the Vita is no stranger to controversy either, with some interesting choices in terms of hardware and some more...caustic words for accessory options.=

The Screen

Sporting a 5" OLED screen, Sony claim this offers a superior picture yada yada yada. Personally, I see this fancy screen as a wasted opportunity to really make a big gaming statement: the Sony Xperia S (XS) launches in March 2012 and comes with a 4.6 inch HD screen. Yep, a 720p picture, on a mobile phone. A quick download of MoboViewer and a run of a Blu-Ray through ClownBD and we can be watching our favourite movies in HD on the go.

Vita or XS? Tough choice? Not really!

The Data

The PlayStation Network is free to access from the PS3 and the PSP using broadband connections. It's also free from the Vita using WiFi. The data package for the 3G version, however, is hideously expensive at £40 a MONTH for just 2GB of data. Considering the Vita offers cross platform multiplayer gaming, I would assume most users will chew through this in a few days. But not to worry, as you can pay as you go for any excess data providing, that is, you're happy to hand over life-savings, a spare limb or even your first-born to cover this charge.

The whole thing is monopolised by Vodaphone to boot, so you HAVE to pay their charges to go 3G. Boo!

Add-ons and games:

In order to set yourself up to be able to use the device for more than just playing games, i.e. to take videos and music with you, you will need a memory card. On the PSP you could use Memory Sticks and M2 Micros, which I have in abundance as they came bundled with pre-Android Sony Ericsson phones of old.

Effortlessly stepping on the toes of those who've bought bigger M2 cards for their PSP/PSP Go, much like they did with the No-UMD scandal surrounding the PSP Go, Sony have developed a proprietary memory card for the Vita, meaning you can't use any MicroSD or M2 cards you happen to have lying around. To make matters worse, Sony themselves have an exclusivity on these cards until the summer, so 3rd parties like SanDisc can't yet manufacture their own cheaper versions. Boo hiss boo!

Fair enough developing these cards for the games themselves, so your progress saves to the game, rather than the unit, but applying this to the storage options on board is a bit mean. For someone to set themselves up with a WiFi-only Vita, a decent game (Uncharted: Golden Abyss FTW!) and a reasonable sized memory card for extra media and downloading a game or two - 8GB is a good size - you're looking at an outlay of £275 at suggested retail price. £300+ if you buy the 32GB card.

Considering you can buy a PS3 with at least 160GB of storage, if not 250GB, and probably get a couple premium games thrown into the bundle as well for around the £250-£275 mark, the price banding for the Vita is as laughable as it was for the PSP Go.

Attempts to innovate with Vita may well have alienated a large portion of their fanbase, simply because it's completely unfair, unreasonable and unrealistic to expect people to fork out again - and for such core components as memory - to stay up to date. The PSP Go managed 16GB of onboard storage - was it really too much, with all its OLED bells and dual-analogue whistles, to expect something similar on the Vita? I don't think so, and when Sony are charging £40 RRP for a comparable level of expandable memory (16GB) on their hallowed proprietary memory cards, something is rotten in the state of make.believe.

Initial launch figures for the Vita were good in Japan but here in the UK things are starting to wane already, just two weeks after launch. Struggling media chain HMV is offering a free premium game with every purchase of a Vita. Beleagured gaming chain GAME spent most of the post-Christmas, pre-Vita launch mercilessly stalking their customers in-store and online with a £25 pre-order deal, before reducing the fee down to £10 due to lack of interest...and they're now selling off their remaining stock.

The Final Problem

Sadly I feel the Vita is going to be something of a damp squib. Launching 2 months AFTER Christmas, you know, the peak trading season of the year, it's already out-specced by its parent companies' first foray into mobile phones. Not to mention over-priced games, over-priced data and monopolised accessories for at least the next six months, I feel the Vita will go the same way as the Move - a good idea, but only the most devout of Sony followers will pick it up.

Bootloader + TrackID

One of the many issues surrounding unlocking the bootloader on 2011 Xperia phones was the loss of DRM features that were required by a couple of apps, namely TrackID and the 'Music Like' facility linked to the god-awful Facebook Inside Xperia (FiX) application.

This wasn't really a problem for me as I couldn't stand FiX and rarely used TrackID anyway. Opening the bootloader of the phone(s) wasn't really a problem if you did want to find the name of a song, as replacement music indentification apps like Shazam did the job perfectly well.

However it appears Sony Mobile Communications are still listening to their consumers and in yet another great move from Sony Mobile Communications, careful inspection of the Sony Ericsson tab within the Android Market shows an entry for TrackID, featuring a completely new logo. Installation of this app to the phone shows as a separate app, so to clear up your app drawer you'd need to remove the old app through Titanium Backup. Or not, your choice, of course!

Anyhoo, back to the task at hand; according a colleague in Test Lab, installation of this new app to a rooted and booted handset effectively bypasses the issue with DRM (or installs new DRM, who knows) and lets users with an open bootloader use TrackID again. Score!

Sadly this new app doesn't appear to repair the Music Like functionality, though it was worth a thought as FiX and TrackID did talk to each other. Never mind, TrackID is still working independently though, so that's a big plus!

...And back to the Neo, just for a change!

After playing almost exclusively with the Ray and Arc S for well over 6 weeks, I thought it was about time the Neo had some more time in the spotlight.

 

A favourite handset of mine from last year, it was my primary handset from release in July until I managed to bag a Ray in early December, the longest I've managed to go with one particular handset since before I was invited into Test Lab! Kudos indeed, and not just because I was 'stuck' with it - I did have the Arc to play with as well!

 

Packing all the features of the Ray, plus an HDMI-out and a slightly bigger screen (though not as big as the Arc) the Neo has lost none of its charm. In fact in was a real pleasure to slip in the 16GB MicroSD card, update a couple apps/accounts and continue about my life with a change of handset. (Another beauty of Android and cloud services; if you keep your phone(s)/apps and contacts synced up to date, you grab a handset and go!)

 

I think it was a shame the Neo was effectively 'downgraded' from an 8 MP camera to a 5MP after the parts shortage following the crisis, as it really is a good little handset. Like I said before, I enjoy the solid feel of this phone; it's got some heft in the hand!

 

One of the minor foibles I had with this handset back in the beginning was with the small amount of RAM provided, a miserly 380MB compared to the (still stingy) 512MB of the Ray and Arc. A problem which has been corrected with the 1GB on the Xperia S.

 

Still, fixing this problem is a simple matter of rooting and clearing out non-essential bloatware - of which there is plenty. In addition to this you can 'supercharge' the handset by following my Test Lab colleague's guide to rooting AND supercharging HERE - the V6 script maximises the memory management offered by the Android OS and can really make a difference, especially when you're got a puny amount of RAM to play with.

Get(ting) Smart(er)

The announcement of Xperia S is supported by the launch of three new Smart Extras(TM) accessories to enhance the experience on Android and to bring content to consumers’ smartphones in an entirely new way. The new 'Smart' range from Xperia really shows Sony and Sony Ericsson have really stepped up to the plate in terms of offering higher quality accessories. Links to the YouTube video promos are embedded in the titles - just click and go!

SmartWatch
Some of you may remember SE's first forays into Bluetooth watches from back in 2007/2008. They were nice devices, but hideously expensive and they didn't really do much. Apart from being expensive.
Moving a little closer to the present, the LiveView was released November 2010 and while anticipation for the device was good the finished product was not. The first release was buggy as hell; indeed, reading through reviews on the Amazon website, the LiveView gets a bit of a kicking. A subsequent software update corrected many of these faults and one of my Test Lab colleagues gets on very well with his.
I myself purchased a LiveView from eBay back in Summer 2011 and found it to be a neat little device...for the 24 hours I used it. Reaching into my pocket to retrieve my phone, after LiveView had buzzed on my wrist to tell me I had a call, the device was knocked from it's wrist mount and bounced on the floor - permanently disabling the right shoulder button and rendering the device useless!
Fingers crossed then the SmartWatch will be able to withstand a 3-foot drop. Sporting a slim-line body and an glossy aluminium finish, the SmartWatch certainly looks the part. The screen has been updated to an even better OLED screen than on previous versions and I can quite happily say I want one - provided, that is, if the foibles and problems from before have been ironed out. The watch is rumoured to be packaged with unbranded handsets as well, so there's plenty to hope for with this item! Official Sony gumpf here.


Smart Wireless Pro
Moving onto the next new device, the Smart Wireless Pro, I've got a feeling this is designed to replace the MW600 and it's associated range. I actually won and still own (in working order, no less) one of these and it's a nifty little device that again, should've done more than was offered. There's no reason why the MW600, with its pretty LED screen, shouldn't have at least offered the ability to read texts. After all, it can receive radio signals and interpret them as music, so why not text?
This years offering then does just this...and a whole lot more. It's again a Bluetooth wireless headset that will indeed allow users to listen to music, read text messages, view incoming calls and access calendar alerts. When not connected to the phone it also functions as a radio player AND an independent MP3 player, coming complete with MicroSD support and shipping with a 2GB card - 2 gadgets for the price of 1? Aces! I want! I want!
With a veritable slew of spare MicroSD cards at home, including a 16GB card that won't be required if/when I get the Xperia S (XS) I can see the Wireless Pro fast becoming the ideal spare music player should my phone or iPod pack up. Particularly as it won't be bogged down with an overly complicated OS, I should get at least 14.5 GB of music on there. Aces - even more so!
Once can only hope this excellent little device has support for three-ring 3.5mm earphone jacks, otherwise a lot of LiveSound users - myself included - will be more than a little peeved. Looking at the literature provided though, the earphones pictured to appear to be LiveSounds...but I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see. Official Sony gumpf here.


SmartTags
These little keyrings, similar to the pound-coin-shaped keyrings for supermarkets, interact with the NFC capability of the NXT Xperia's via GPS-based apps.
For example:
*You keep a SmartTag in your car. Get in the car; touch the phone to the SmartTag and the phone will launch a preconfigured profile in the phone –perhaps to open Navigation and the Music Player.
*Or you could have one attached to your desk at work. You wander into the office; your phone isn't on silent. Sure, you could turn the volume down yourself...OR...you can setup a silent profile on the phone, tap the phone on the Tag and NFC takes care of it for you, quieting the phone...and maybe switching to auto-sync so you can keep up to date with Facebook/Twitter/email, you know, to help the working day go faster!
That's a pretty nifty use of a comparatively new technology, at least for Xperia phones. If only I could setup a profile to get my phone to make tea (or at least activate a tea-making mechanism) I'd be quids in! NFC tagging - it's the future! Official Sony gumpf here.


It's shaping up to be a fantastic year for Sony Mobile Communications!

CES 2012 & Xperia S(exy)!

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a major technology-related trade show held each January in Las Vegas. Not open to the public, the show typically hosts previews of products and new product announcements.
This year Sony have a 30,000sq ft 'booth' in which to show off their wares for this year, and, with the acqusition of the remaning 50% of Sony Ericsson, they are showing off their very latest developments in mobiles. And how!
Coming out guns blazing, Sony have unleashed the dazzling beast known as the Xperia S. Strange naming aside - I thought it would've been called the HD, personally - it's a fantastic piece of kit that lives up to the rumours and hype I've been dishing out on here for the last couple months.
In terms of mouth-watering specifications, the S sports:
* 1.5 GHz dual-core processor
* 32GB of flash memory
* 1 to 1.5GB of internal memory
* 1GB of RAM - finally!
* 4.3 inch HD Reality display
* 12MP rear camera with...
* ...1080p HD video recording
* 1.3MP front camera with...
* ...720p HD video
* 1750mAh battery
* HDMI out
* NFC
* PlayStation certified

Promo video for the XS can be found here.


Based on these specs, it seems Sony has answered a call to arms from it's fanbase and is a direct shot across the bows to the iPhone and its proponents. Sure, there are a few niggles; no MicroSD support and a sealed battery, but this really is no different to the iPhone. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say, now the details are confirmed, this will quite neatly piss over the competiton this year AND it's not the only handset of this calibre that's being released!
The end of Q1 and the next Test Lab meet can't get here fast enough - using and reviewing this handset is going to be an absolute treat! And it's going to get even better when Ice Cream Sandwich arrives in Q2!

Arc S

Happy 2012, dear readers!

The LT15 Arc certainly turned heads upon release in April 2011; sleek - and dare I say it, sexy - the phone won rave reviews and awards by the dozen. Following on as it did from 2010, a less than illustrious year with Android for SE, this was praise indeed and a remarkable turnaround for Sony Ericsson.

Building upon this success then, the Arc S was announced in August and released in

October, effectively retiring the original Arc which has been discontinued after just 6

months...

Continuing with the same curvy, glossy frame, the Arc S sports only a couple

noticeable modifications. One is cosmetic: the tiny power button has been replaced

by one that is a teeny little bit bigger and little more accessible. The other lies in the guts of the device and SE replacing the 1GHz processor for a 1.4GHz processor. According to the SE press release for the Arc S, this upgrade apparently enables a 25% faster camera start up and media conversion, along with 20% faster web page rendering compared to the Arc, based on internal SE testing.

For me, the performance increase is only really noticeable when opening more

memory-intense features like the music player, which now updates itself quite quickly

after installing/deleting tracks. That's not to say it only works on the memory intensive things; my original Arc was always pretty nippy, but I'm sure the extra (up to) 25% performance boost is opening things a couple nanoseconds faster than before.

It's also noticeable with the camera. The extra speed in this model brings up the

camera extremely quickly. The camera button on this model remains as clumsy and

stiff as on its predecessor, so I keep the camera icon on my homescreen so I don't

ever have to touch that silly button. And thank goodness for touch capture, that's all I

can say!

I'm at a bit of a loss though as to why this phone didn't come with 1080p video - the

processor is powerful enough to handle it, although perhaps dual-core is really the key

to true HD video recording, as it can more efficiently handle the large of amount data

required/generated by this process. Still, 1080p isn't far off now; the 2012 range of

Xperia phones are rumoured to have full HD video capture capabilities and I believe at least one of these mooted handsets has at least a 720p screen. Wowzers indeed.

Anyway, before I digress too far, back to the Arc S.

As the original Arc has been discontinued, the Arc S is obviously now SE's preferred

variation of the handset. As far as upgrades to existing handsets go, this is definitely

an improvement; the modifications do make a difference and 6 months of

development have slashed around £130 from the price of this phone compared to the

old Arc.

As if that weren't enough, SE has yet again surprised their consumer base with the

release of an alpha ROM for Ice Cream Sandwich. Of course, this update isn't without

problems as it's an alpha release; the original release of this ROM by SE didn't have

any comms features, which was disappointing but not surprising. Cue some stellar

work by Bin4ry and DoomLord over on the XDA forums to 'activate' this ROM for

communications and you've got yourself a working ICS ROM about 3-4 months before the official version from SE will be out. Not too shabby at all, but you will need to open the bootloader and thus void your warranty to take advantage of this. No stranger to this sort of tinkering, I've indulged in the ICS ROM from XDA and will be posting about it as soon as I've finished running some live battery tests!

If you were thinking of getting one of these phones, a price difference of £130 RRP

between the old Arc and the newer Arc S is a considerable bonus when you think of

how much phone you're getting for £319.99. Factor in an early update to Ice Cream

Sandwich (if you're game) and it's got some even greater potential under the hood. It's definitely worth considering - either to purchase or as an upgrade - you won't be

disappointed.