Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play review: Bring your 'A' game

20 April 2011
With video gaming a sport in its own right, smartphones have no other choice but raise their game too. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play has strong ties to Sony’s gaming rigs, both portable and not, and Sony’s a big name...

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  • m
  • me
  • 3C9
  • 18 May 2011

the games on the xperia play is the same one the psp or the psp is much better

    • S
    • Satinder
    • vby
    • 06 May 2011

    even though xperia play doesn't have a HDMI port but the service menu says a different. I managed to get into service menu of play and saw HDMI in service test like. Though in the list they are many feature which are not part of the list but when i try to test them it actually says the "feature is not supported" but not in the case of HDMI the hdmi test does happens but there is no actual port to test it.

      • o
      • o00scorpion00o
      • smW
      • 06 May 2011

      I got rid of this phone because the battery life is crap, screen to dark in bright light, the new touch thumb controls are rubbish and completely useless for shooters. Very disappointed, the controls are what makes or breaks this mobile and it's very much broken!

        • F
        • Fongy
        • HKy
        • 05 May 2011

        I was so close to getting this...so close...
        But even an 18 month contract would see you with a phone severely lacking in specs...
        I have a Galaxy S now and it can still be laggy and had a tendency to stall / crash... This has worse specs... it would literally be like having a downgrade... Andthe lack of a radio was the last nail in the coffin...

          • S
          • Steve 'o'
          • IVK
          • 02 May 2011

          playing the KOF series properly and showing off perfect combos anywhere takes the cake man. I'm getting it.

            • M
            • Mikro
            • m@v
            • 01 May 2011

            You that who complains about single core cpu is not enough. Have you ever played games on PS2, Wii & Xbox 1? These systems sure had enough firepower to run some really cool games.

              • D
              • AnonD-252
              • Sna
              • 01 May 2011

              golden, 30 Apr 2011So how exactly do you kick or stab someone in a game by til... moreTilting is combined with some onscreen keys!
              Play cost almost as much as Galaxy S2, and that is to much when Play already have outdated cpu and gpu and will not even be able to play the newest games released later this year. Having this bad cpu and gpu in a dedicated gaming phone is not good enough, especially not when it is this very expensive! And the internal 400 mb memory is not enough, it is even less than the 512 mb RAM!

                • L
                • LowestBird
                • kUw
                • 30 Apr 2011

                the device is pretty sweet, but for the love of god Sony give us an 8-way d-pad.

                  • g
                  • golden
                  • MkX
                  • 30 Apr 2011

                  AnonD-252, 23 Apr 2011A physical game-pad is not needed for gaming because motion... moreSo how exactly do you kick or stab someone in a game by tilting the phone

                    • D
                    • AnonD-40
                    • IDk
                    • 29 Apr 2011

                    AnonD-3877, 28 Apr 2011Single core CPU??? SE must be kidding us!?!?Single core is good enough for mobile gaming. There is still not a single game out there that requires two cores.

                      • D
                      • AnonD-3877
                      • 0xm
                      • 28 Apr 2011

                      Single core CPU??? SE must be kidding us!?!?

                        • n
                        • nick
                        • nxw
                        • 24 Apr 2011

                        AnonD-252, 23 Apr 2011A physical game-pad is not needed for gaming because motion... moreyeah that's why the playstation's sixaxis controllers really took off.

                        ...oh wait.

                          • Y
                          • Yohan SL
                          • tev
                          • 24 Apr 2011

                          AnonD-252, 23 Apr 2011A physical game-pad is not needed for gaming because motion... moreDude Seriously?

                            • S
                            • Seabass978
                            • Rbq
                            • 23 Apr 2011

                            AnonD-252, 23 Apr 2011A physical game-pad is not needed for gaming because motion... moreTry doing "hadoken" or more than one directional like forward forward then. Gyroscope can't replace physical buttons.

                              • D
                              • AnonD-252
                              • 0Tq
                              • 23 Apr 2011

                              A physical game-pad is not needed for gaming because motion-gyro-sensors replace directional keys in games.

                                • a
                                • arp
                                • mcj
                                • 23 Apr 2011

                                Some copy-paste done from the arc review. understandable though :P

                                  • D
                                  • AnonD-252
                                  • 0Tq
                                  • 23 Apr 2011

                                  Anonymous, 21 Apr 2011I'm pretty sure games install on memory card since you have... moreApps2sd on 2.2 is useless because even every app that "install" on the sd-card still install a rather large part on the internal memory, and many apps do not install on the sd-card at all even with apps2sd. 400 mb is not enough and the user will very soon run out of memory to install apps and games!
                                  It is 2011 and for a "gaming phone" today, 2011 not 2010, dual-core is a minimum becauase many new games this year will not be playable on anything less than dual-cores with a graphics-card as good as the latest from NVidia, and only 400 mb on a this expensive phone is definetly not enough.

                                    • b
                                    • bewrong
                                    • 2Am
                                    • 22 Apr 2011

                                    been thinkering with the phone for more than a week now and proud to be the first owner of it in my country :) been waiting for this review and gsmarena gives it justice.

                                      • r
                                      • ravs
                                      • A90
                                      • 22 Apr 2011

                                      its an awesome fone and very well written that it can replace any other fone in the market but none can take its place, not even come close to it.
                                      its a damn piece of beauty.
                                      been using this fone for 20 days now and it has been a pleasure to own this.
                                      awesome games, full joy to play games.
                                      camera is good.
                                      ui is slick and ticking.
                                      music is awesome.
                                      and the stereo speakers have no competition at all in the amrket and its million folds better than slate type touchscreens being flooded everyday in the android market.
                                      sony is just so original and bold.
                                      though it came late but- its better late than never.

                                        • g
                                        • gnodeb
                                        • mcU
                                        • 22 Apr 2011

                                        This is not a phone. You can not wonder what phone you can buy for this money. You can wonder what portable gaming device you can buy for this money. Having full capable android on board is just big plus for this gaming device... While it can replace any phone, no other phone can replace it. Thy only question is: do you need portable gaming device...