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Help This phone any good?

Is the SE Xplay a good phone overall?

  • Total voters
    28
T

tLoz

Newbie
Im planning to get this phone after my SE Vivaz failed on impressing me (sigh, 2 years of goodness and then had to break...). I have a few things to ask regarding the SE XPlay.
-The internal memory. 400MB. Approx 290MB is available. Is this enough to store games and apps? I do have a 8gb memory card with me although I have heard that some apps write on the internal memory without your permission.
-Is the gamepad good? Is it comfortable? Will I be able to get used to it?
-I have heard several issues regarding the screen (e.g. resolution, brightness etc). The only smartphone i've had is the SE Vivaz, so if the XPlay's screen is better than the Vivaz then im happy. But what the issue about the brightness? Ive heard that some people cant manage the brightness.
-Overall... can someone list the pros and cons of this. Thanks.

Im a newcomer!
 
The screens fine. Just turn the sensor off. And the screens res is amazing. Its crystal clear. Gameing is good too. The memory. . Ehh just transfer the crap to the s.d. card if it let's you
 
I did eventually fill up the memory but that's when I said screw it and rooted the phone to get rid of junk I didn't need. After that I threw all but a few apps on the sd card using move2sd. I had 100 apps before I started getting low on space though and don't really use that many but just wanted to have them.
As for gaming, it is the best phone for this. The controller is superb. I do suggest getting the trident aegis case as it makes holding the phone 10 times more comfortable during long gaming sessions.
 
I've had this phone for about two weeks now, taking it back in two more and getting the SGS2 Skyrocket. The phone is a great idea, but little things bug me to now end. I'll start off by saying the very first day I got it, a small portion of the screen went dead on me and was receiving no input. Got a second one the next day and this one is okay.

Pros:
- Gamepad with dedicated controls. Besides the obvious emulator support, there are quite a few games on the Market that support the controls which is a very good thing.
- Stereo speakers. They pump music out like a BOSS. So loud and clear, love it.
- Screen resolution. It may not be a Super AMOLED Plus, but everything looks vibrant. The newest firmware has the option to turn off the auto-brightness, so the sensors that keeps it pretty dark doesnt interfer with the fantastic colors.

Cons:
- Phone is a bit slow. Seriously. This thing has choked on LauncherPro, ADW Extended and GoLauncher. Usually after being on stand-by, there's a ton of hiccups to get it going.
- Gamepad. I know this was a Pro, but it's also a Con because of the clicky feeling the D-Pad has. The buttons are a bit small, but still serviceable. If this was a 4.3 inch screen, things might have been bigger.
- The volume rocker is simply atrocious. I hate it. It has a weird shape and slopes in a weird angle, positioned in a weird place. It's one of the worse design elements of the phone.
- The notification light is on the underside (gamepad) position of the phone, and having a curved back, isn't too noticeable on a desk.
- And speaking of that curve, it makes trying to use the four hardware buttphones on the face of the phone pretty hard to use while on a flat surface as the phone dips and isn't stabilized.
-The internal memory really is dumb. You try to throw two Need for Speed games on there - well, what am I saying, you wouldn't be able to do that. lol

Design issues aside, if the phone didn't take so long to do things on a daily basis, I would love it. I don't mind the thickness of it and the Gamepad was a major pull for me, but I found myself not playing games nearly as much as I thought I would and now just want a phone that works flawlessly.

If you're a diehard gamer, I don't think the problems will dissuade you, but I'm a music lover more so now and games can wait till I get home, so this phone doesn't do it for me. I SO wanted to like this phone, but poor designs and slow operations is a no go for me. I do hope enough people buy this to make Sony make another phone with better design aesthetics. But the PS Vita is being released at such a attractive price point, I might be okay with just getting that.
 
so i see that you can get more memory is you root...
Im not sure if I want to root it straight away so I might wait.
Just to clarify, does this method need the phone to be rooted?:
xda-developers - View Single Post - AHH! Modern Combat 2 got an update... now the controls are even more insane.

Another Q
-When the phone is rooted, i know it voids the warranty although can i change the phone back to its 'normal' status? E.g. make the phone seem like it hasn't been rooted before?
-And since the 2011 Xperia range (this includes XPlay) are going to get ICS, Android 4.0, should I wait for the update or should I just root?
-If I rooted the phone, can I still update to the new 4.0?
 
ChampoiKoi said:
I've had this phone for about two weeks now, taking it back in two more and getting the SGS2 Skyrocket. The phone is a great idea, but little things bug me to now end. I'll start off by saying the very first day I got it, a small portion of the screen went dead on me and was receiving no input. Got a second one the next day and this one is okay.

Pros:
- Gamepad with dedicated controls. Besides the obvious emulator support, there are quite a few games on the Market that support the controls which is a very good thing.
- Stereo speakers. They pump music out like a BOSS. So loud and clear, love it.
- Screen resolution. It may not be a Super AMOLED Plus, but everything looks vibrant. The newest firmware has the option to turn off the auto-brightness, so the sensors that keeps it pretty dark doesnt interfer with the fantastic colors.

Cons:
- Phone is a bit slow. Seriously. This thing has choked on LauncherPro, ADW Extended and GoLauncher. Usually after being on stand-by, there's a ton of hiccups to get it going.
- Gamepad. I know this was a Pro, but it's also a Con because of the clicky feeling the D-Pad has. The buttons are a bit small, but still serviceable. If this was a 4.3 inch screen, things might have been bigger.
- The volume rocker is simply atrocious. I hate it. It has a weird shape and slopes in a weird angle, positioned in a weird place. It's one of the worse design elements of the phone.
- The notification light is on the underside (gamepad) position of the phone, and having a curved back, isn't too noticeable on a desk.
- And speaking of that curve, it makes trying to use the four hardware buttphones on the face of the phone pretty hard to use while on a flat surface as the phone dips and isn't stabilized.
-The internal memory really is dumb. You try to throw two Need for Speed games on there - well, what am I saying, you wouldn't be able to do that. lol

Design issues aside, if the phone didn't take so long to do things on a daily basis, I would love it. I don't mind the thickness of it and the Gamepad was a major pull for me, but I found myself not playing games nearly as much as I thought I would and now just want a phone that works flawlessly.

If you're a diehard gamer, I don't think the problems will dissuade you, but I'm a music lover more so now and games can wait till I get home, so this phone doesn't do it for me. I SO wanted to like this phone, but poor designs and slow operations is a no go for me. I do hope enough people buy this to make Sony make another phone with better design aesthetics. But the PS Vita is being released at such a attractive price point, I might be okay with just getting that.
Click to expand...

this phone is awesome man! what i did to solve the speed issue was flash a generic firmware, which removed all the bloatware and carrier crap that slows it down. after i did that, it ran like a charm
 
The Xperia Play freezes a lot which results you in removing the battery and putting it in again to make it work.

Buy it if you wanna keep on doing that.

I've sent it back to Sony Ericsson to fix and still it's the same.

I'm straight up guys. Xperia Play has some serious hardware and software issues and the thing that's peeing me off is that Sony Ericsson are doing jackshit to fix them !

Sorry if you find me offensive but i'm pissed off right now. You pay so much for a phone and to see it not perform properly is just a pisstake.

Even the Playstation Vita is the same check the link out http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/20/sony-acknowledges-technical-problems-with-playstation-vita/

Sony just can't get anything right can they ? Problems after problems
 
well judging from the responses in this thread, IMO it matter where you live. There are probably good Sony Ericsson products in the Europe but crap products in asia.... just my theory
 
tLoz said:
well judging from the responses in this thread, IMO it matter where you live. There are probably good Sony Ericsson products in the Europe but crap products in asia.... just my theory
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe.

I have the r800i is that one of the worst models I can own ?
 
fuhrl said:
my r800x has been a champ. a few minor issues here and there but i'm sure it was me messing something up.
Click to expand...

Same here. My R800x is the best, most stable phone I have ever owned. No freezing issues, easy to root, lots of great apps, plenty of tweaks available to manage performance. I can't even imagine what it will take for a new phone to tempt me away from my Play!
 
eh, its O.K, constant crashes, the Playstation emuluation is good, however unsupported, thanks Sony :rolleyes:. I mean, it was launched in april, where is the official psx games we can download. I spent hours converting psx iso's to the phone, more often than not they wouldn't work anyway. After the novelty of owning this phone wore off, I do regret buying it, the only redeeming factor this phone has is it's control panel game pad.

It is a woefully slow phone, low onboard memory / ram. Texting, writing emails are a pita, the touch screen leaves a lot to be desired. My previous android device (HTC incredible) was not as frustrating to own as this.

I have had this device for no known reason crash on me 3-4 times in a row, by simply trying to go to a website.

Gaming with the game-pad is a joy, but I get bored playing 20 year old games ala snes/genesis, or 10 year old GBA games. The mame emulation is pretty good, but there is some slow down even with these primitive games.

I am sure if sony ever releases a newer version of the xperia play, that all the little quirks will be ironed out, I just don't appreciate being a guinea pig so to speak. Sony's support of this device is shameful.

When the phone works well, its a joy to have, but when it misbehaves, its as frustrating to own as the worst phone I ever owned, BB Storm :mad:
 
I own a r800a and works like charm, bit of slowdown and crashes sometimes like any other smartphone, but still a great phone to grab...
Have mine since june 2011
previous one was Sony's flagship xperia x10a and that one is still running great too
So i'd still buy any of these two anytime
 
I'm not running into the freezing issues, yet. I've only had it for about a week though. I don't see the slow downs either, so here are a few questions..

To those seeing consistant freezing, how is your storage looking? Both internal and SIM.
What do you having running in the background?
What programs are you running?
Rooted?
Custom or Factory ROM?
ROM version?

I've yet to experience any complete freezes. I had one slowdown, and I had everything I use opened in the background. My phone mostly communicating over wifi. Only thrid party I'm running is a battery monitor (tells me percentage.. pretty sure I'm going to dump the widget), llama, pandora, facebook, gmail, maybe a couple of others and some psexperia games (FFVII). Just wondering what conditions you guys are trying to work in. I'm new to the phone, so it could be something that degrades over time.

This is only a 1 ghz phone.. I don't expect it to compete with a 1.5 ghz phone...

I am finding battery life is very good. I can run 2.5-3 hours of FFVII, and still be over 50% battery. I can talk for as long as I'll ever need.
 
I'm using r800i Xperia Play model and I am using JokaWild Rom with Doomlord's Kernel. I have over 300MB free space on my internal memory. My phone does not lag because I use the fastest Gingerbread ROM. My battery does not drain fast even If I overclock my phone to 1.4ghz. I can play Zenonia 4 non-stop for about 3-4hrs with wifi enabled for pvp purposes. This ideal setup will only become yours if you have an unlocked bootloader and you are rooted for starters. Then find a good custom rom and custom kernel. Use Juicedefender for battery saving and Lookout for antivirus. Use System Tuner to overclock/underclock, undervolt, increase your memory read/write speed. Use link2sd app, titanium backup and SD Maid. These are apps that needs your phone to be rooted take note. So, to unleash the full power of your Xplay, you have to be rooted first.;)
 
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