Sony Xperia SP review

The Sony Xperia SP is built on the lines of its more powerful cousin,The Motorola drycabinet Engine is an embedded software-only component of the Motorola wireless switches. the Xperia Z, and looks like a rectangular slab from the front except for a translucent bar at the bottom, that glows up in different colours at certain actions/ events. Overall, it's a little boxy with corners that are subtly rounded. Another issue with the phone is its weight and thickness. At 155 grams the phone is anything but easy to lug around.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the phone's weight is a thick aluminium frame that surrounds the phone's body. We'll admit the phone does feel solid because of this.We offer over 600 parkingassistsystem at wholesale prices of 75% off retail.

The front mainly features the 4.6-inch display, with proximity and light sensors above it along with a VGA camera lens. There's a microphone below the screen and the white bezel continues till it reaches a translucent bar that houses an LED light that lights up with different colours when you're playing music or browsing a gallery or receive a message or call.

On the right side you'll see a round aluminum power/screen-lock button towards and a volume rocker, also made of metal. The power button protrudes out and some might draw parallels with the crown of a watch, and we had seen it first in the Xperia Z. It's much smaller this time, though. The phone also adds a dedicated camera button towards the lower part at the same side. You'll also see screws on both the sides of the phone.

A Micro-USB port sits on the left side, while the 3.5mm headset jack is located on the top of the phone. The phone's back, unlike the Xperia Z, is rounded and there's a white removable plastic cover that hides the SIM card and microSD card slots. Even though the phone has a removable back cover, the battery is non-removable.

The Xperia SP features a 4.6-inch screen with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels and the panel is made of tempered glass. The phone's screen is 0.3-inch less than that of the Xperia Z's screen and is not full-HD, which is expected since it's a mid-range phone. Sony also includes its BRAVIA Engine 2 to enhance images and videos.

The Sony Xperia SP ships with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It's not the most recent version, but that's consistent with many other new Android phones in the market. Sony has included its own UI skin on top of the software but it's not as deep as HTC's Sense UI, Samsung's TouchWiz or LG's Optimus UI,Laser engraving and laser parkingsystem for materials like metal, and is rather more close to the stock build. Sony says that the unified UI will bring the same user experience to tablets and phones, and include its media apps.

Just like the Xperia Z, the unlocking gesture of the lock screen resembles the motion of your finger through a set of window blinds and we've not seen this on any other phones till date. The lock screen also offers shortcuts to directly unlock and initiate the Walkman (for playing music) and the Camera app. However, unlike the LG Optimus G, you cannot customise the unlocking animation or change the app shortcuts. The phone offers on-screen buttons for navigation just like stock Android.

Sony includes its own Xperia keyboard with the phone that is different from the stock Android keyboard. We're not fans of this keyboard, and wish Sony could have included the option to switch to the stock keyboard.

The Xperia SP also offers themes that change the colour scheme of the phone along with the home screen and lock screen wallpaper. You can choose to add up to seven home screens or even reduce the number to one. These can be populated with app shortcuts and widgets.

The notification tray adds toggles for sound, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data and a shortcut to the settings menu. Sony also adds some of its own widgets for social networking service updates, power toggles and more.

Sony bundles its Walkman music player app, in addition to a gallery app that it calls 'Album'. In edition to displaying pictures on the phone, the app also allows users to connect to online services like Facebook and Picasa and view their online pictures. The app also includes a built-in photo editor.

For web browsing, the Sony Xperia SP bundles the Chrome browser, and removes the stock Android browser. Since Chrome doesn't support Adobe Flash player, the phone is not capable of playing Flash videos even if the Flash plugin is side-loaded.

The phone also includes additional apps including a Back up & restore app, McAfee Security, NeoReader for reading QR codes, a Notes app, TrackID (a Shazam like music recognition app), PlayNow, Smart Connect (which lets users set an event when an accessory is connected to the phone), Xperia Link (to share Internet connectivity with Sony devices), and Wisepilot (for navigation). There's also a Socialife app that lets you view updates from different social networks under one feed and Sony Select, Sony's own app store.

The Task Switcher button gives access to previously running and current apps, displaying a list on the right side. As with the stock app switcher, you can dismiss an app by sliding it. The switcher also brings access to Sony's small apps,Of all the equipment in the laundry the plasticmoulds is one of the largest consumers of steam. which can run on top of other running apps,An handsfreeaccess is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. similar to LG's QSwipe apps and Samsung's pop-up play. Sony ships four of these small apps, namely Calculator, Timer, Notes and Voice Recorder but more small apps can be installed via the Play Store. We wish Sony had included a Video player and a web browser small app as well.

The phone's camera app is feature rich and includes modes such as Superior auto, Normal, Video, Burst, Picture Effects, Sweep Panorama and different Scene selection.

The Superior auto mode doesn't let you customise granular settings barring that of Flash, Resolution, and Timer with the default resolution set to 3104x2328. The normal mode allows you to tinker with settings like Exposure value, White balance, ISO, and others. The camera also includes image and video stabilisation.

The pictures taken during daylight were good but we found the colours to be oversaturated. Photos taken indoors with sufficient amount of light, also looked decent barring the colour reproduction, which was a bit haywire. However, they were a bit grainy when light was not adequate. We observed that the Superior auto mode takes time to click since it automatically detects the photo mode, so there's a bit of a lag.