Available on Google Play, free for a week than 2.99 Euros for lifetime use.

You can download the beta version here.

Find the thread on XDA here.

Free on Google Play

Free on Google Play

Some interesting results I think…

Would it be able to live up to it’s potential?

Now that Sony has bought out Ericsson will they be able to produce a better, top end device?

Read on to hear my thoughts on these questions.

….

Design / Hardware…

“…it feels quite sturdy, no creaking or cracking as I apply pressure around the body.”

The Xperia S is a beautiful looking device, but it has to be said, my first impression was it fealt a little cheap.  Granted, I’m a Samsung fan which could also be described as ‘plasticy’, but this device didn’t feel as solid to me as the SGSII or Galaxy Nexus.

It also has rather pronounced edges, giving it an odd feel in the hand at first, too square having used a Nexus for the last 3 or 4 months.

Having said that, both of these feelings have diminished the long I’ve used the device, so I guess it just needs a little getting used to.  As I hold it now, it feels quite sturdy, no creaking or cracking as I apply pressure around the body.

Unfortunately, as Sony have released this device based on Gingerbread, it still has ‘physical’ buttons.  They are still touch buttons, but rather than being built in to the display, they sit between the screen and the glowing notification bar along the base of the device.  I have to say, I found them to be the most annoying part of the phone.  Many times as I try to press with a finger they wouldn’t work, then I use a big fat thumb and they would work fine.  Hopefully this will be improved in firmware updates.

The headphone socket is located on the top of the phone, next to the power button, which I found quite annoying when turning the phone on or off whilst listening to music.

The Xperia S has a rather unique notification bar running across the bottom part of the phone, but I have to be honest, I’m not totally sure what it’s for.  It doesn’t seem to flash when I have an e-mail, the notification LED does that.  It lights up when the device is on, and has icons for the buttons, but it’s not actually used as part of the buttons, you have to press the little dots above them.  I guess it’s just there to look cool, which I have been reliably informed, it does.

The final negative point I will make is the cutouts in the body for the speakers.  Both the earpiece and rear speaker have a cut section that is often covered with a grill on other phones.  On the Xperia S this gap is just an empty space, with a slightly sharp edge, again, for me giving it a slightly cheap feel.

The Micro USB socket is found at the top left of the device, covered by a rubber stopper, as is the HDMI port on the opposite side.  This does give for a clean, neat look around the edges.

At the bottom right edge you will find a designated camera button.  I’ve not really owned a phone with one of the before and I have to say I found it very useful.  Coupled with the fact that holding this down will start the phone in camera application made it very handy for a recent weekend away.  More about the camera later though.

Under the hood is some very impressive hardware.  The dual core 1.5ghz CPU is one of the fastest you’ll find on the market today.  The 12 mega pixel camera is also leading the way for others to try and match.

The HDMI port, allowing you to plug straight into any TV and the built in NFC chip means this devices is pretty well future proofed.  The Sony Xperia S comes with the necessary HDMI cable and four NFC tags to allow you to make the most of these right out of the box.

Here’s the HDMI connection in action -

Here’s how the NFC tags work -

I notice I’ve listed quite a few negatives here, but all in all the Xperia S is a well designed, sturdy, attractive looking device.

Screen…

“…the Mobile Bravia powered screen looks amazing when viewing photos or video.”

The screen is touted by many as one of the selling points of the Sony Xperia S and I have to say I would struggle to argue against them.  Although it doesn’t have the vivid colours of a SAMOLED+ screen, the Mobile Bravia powered screen looks amazing when viewing photos or video.

Also, at 1280 by 720 pixels spread across it’s 4.3 inch screen, it has a pixel density of 342 pixels per inch, which I believe is the highest available right now, compared to theHTC One X with 312, the Galaxy Nexus with 316 and the iPhone 4S at 330.

With that pixel density you can fit more onto the screen, even compared to the 4.65” Galaxy Nexus.

On the left you see Google Play on the Galaxy Nexus, compared to the Xperia S on the right, fitting a whole extra row of apps in.

Camera…

 ”I particularly like how you can pull your phone out, hold down the camera button and it will turn the phone on…”

For me, this is what separates the Xperia S from all the other Android devices out there.  The pictures this camera has taken are simply stunning.

As mentioned before it can go up to 4,000 by 3,000 pixles (12MP) although most of the shots I’ve taken have been at 9MP (4,000 by 2250) so as to get the 16:9 aspect ratio to match the phone screen.

I particularly like how you can pull your phone out, hold down the camera button and it will turn the phone on, load the camera app and take a picture.  This would take maybe a second or two in total, but I found it to be tricky as you would either not have the shot framed well (as you have no preview) or on occasion it might be slightly out of focus in it’s rush to take the picture.  The images on the left shows the result from instantly taking the picture, on the right is once I’ve had a chance to focus and frame it.

Luckily you can change the setting to simple turn the phone on and open the camera.  You can then press once more to take the picture once your subject is framed and in focus.

This is still pretty quick and meant I would do it all with just one hand, which came in handy sometimes (no jokes please!).

Here are a bunch of photo’s I’ve taken using the Sony Xperia S -

To see more photo’s, take a look here.  The only problem I really found was the camera is so close to the edge, quite often my finger would creep in to the left edge of a shot.  You have to get used to holding the device by just the edge and using the designated camera button.

I was a little disappointed in the Full HD, 1080p results though.  Whilst the picture looks pretty sharp and the colours look good, all video seemed to be rather shaky and wobbly, even though I felt I was rather steady.

Software…

“Usually I don’t appreciate the ‘bloatware’ you get on 3rd party modifications of the stock Android launcher…” 

Although the Xperia S is currently using Gingerbread (2.3.7 to be precise), Sony have a fairly unobtrusive skin that even brings a few features that are now in ICS, such as dropping icons on each other to make a folder.  This can be done in the bar along the bottom or on a homescreen.

Usually I don’t appreciate the ‘bloatware’ you get on 3rd party modifications of the stock Android launcher, but Sony have some reasonable additions.

With ‘Connected Devices’ I can go straight into my network media player and watch things on my phone, although it could do with more codecs as many of my TV shows wouldn’t play.

There’s a reasonably useful power save function that lets you have the phone change settings on a variety of parameters, be it a time of day (or night) or when reaching a certain battery level.

Sony have also provided some kind of game store, which does have games not available in the Google Play store as far as I could see, but they were all £3.99 and I have no desire to waste that much on a game.

Most of the other extra’s found in the app drawer seemed load websites, such as the one trying to sell you Sony music.

The stock keyboard seemed a little plain for my liking.  Someone else has said it has a Swype style input option, but I couldn’t find this.  I quickly installed a preferred custom keyboard (in my case, TouchPal)

All the stock apps like the messenger, dialer and contacts seem to have stayed reasonably close to stock Android.

I did like how simple it was to change the colour theme of the device.

Benchmarking…

 “…it certainly holds its own, although not quite as high as the Galaxy Note…”

As we’ve said a few times, you shouldn’t worry too much about benchmarks.  As the Nexus has shown us, it’s more about how smooth the device feels, not the score it can clock up.  All the same, here’s how the Sony Xperia S matches up.

Linpack

• Galaxy Note – 93 (Multi Thread)
• Xperia S – 89 (Multi Thread)
• Galaxy SII – 82 (Multi-Thread)
• HTC Sensation – 69 (Multi-Thread)
• Galaxy Nexus – 38 (Multi Thread)

Quadrant

• Galaxy Note – 3,132
• Xperia S – 2,650
• HTC Sensation – 2176
• Galaxy Nexus – 1810

So it certainly holds its own, although not quite as high as the Galaxy Note, there is no doubt in how smooth the interface of the device is.

Hackability…

“ …it’s early days right now and it’s disappointing the Xperia S has come out on Gingerbread…”

Here’s something I wasn’t expecting, but Sony are trying to help us get custom ROM’s and such onto the Xperia S.  On their blog they give advice on how to unlock the bootloader and even how to install a beta of ICS.  To my annoyance, I’d bought one that wouldn’t unlock, but I think that’s an O2 UK restriction rather than anything to do with Sony.  Sony actually have someone on the XDA forums, talking with the end users, great stuff.

Of course it’s early days right now and it’s disappointing the Xperia S has come out on Gingerbread, but  the above are encouraging signs of how Sony is thinking.

Battery…

“The Xperia S lasted well past the 10 hour mark, under pretty tough conditions…”

In the early days of the Xperia S, this had been one of the big complaints, but a recent firmware update has reportedly improved battery life a great deal.  As I always say, it’s unfair to judge a device on it’s battery life within it’s first 10 days, but I’ll do my best to judge it for you.

I can tell you, in my first weekend with the Sony Xperia S I went on a camping holiday in which I had a weak signal and was taking quite a lot of photo’s.  The Xperia S lasted well past the 10 hour mark, under pretty tough conditions so I would suggest most people will find it plenty good enough once conditioned and in normal circumstances.

Conclusion…

“ …until we have the HTC One X review done, the Xperia S has certainly made the throne a rather hot seat for now.”

I realise in the hardware section I was quite critical of the Sony Xperia S, but after a few days I really began to like the device. The little plastic cover for the Micro USB is still a little annoying to remove and replace when I need to charge, but it gives a better look to the device when not being charged, so maybe I can live with it.  All in all the Xperia S is a well made, stylish looking device that is smooth to operate.

The camera button and the quality of the pictures it takes is a massive selling point to someone like me that likes to take lots of photo’s of random things at odd times.  I feel the quality would match an average compact camera, at a time when I’d started using my Ixus again and it has just broken, this is pushing me to keep this phone.

Then there’s the simplicity of it’s HDMI connection.  The chances I carry one extra cable around with me are much greater than carrying three, meaning it has much more chance of being plugged into someone’s TV for me to show them some video footage or photo’s I’d taken.  Add this to how simple Sony have made setting up the NFC tags and it’s a gadget lovers dream.

Whilst the screen looks a little washed out next to my Nexus, when you play a HD video, the screen looks absolutely amazing.  Photo’s the same, possibly due to the Bravia enhancements that kick in for media viewing.

Having now used this device for a few days, I really struggle to find many faults with it.  The not so sensitive buttons would probably be the main one and Android 2.3.7 would be the other.  I’ve even got to the point that I’m looking to sell the O2 locked version so I can get an unlocked one to unlock the bootloader and get ICS on it.  If I can do this, there’s a very good chance the Sony Xperia S will replace my beloved Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which I honestly didn’t think would happen any time before the Galaxy SIII release.

So has the Android crown passed?  As far as hardware is concerned, it may well have.  If this had ICS on it now, I would pass it over for sure.  As it stands, until we have the HTC One X review done, the Xperia S has certainly made the throne a rather hot seat for now.

On Google Play

On Google Play