Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play preview: First look

Introduction

Mobile gaming is at an all-time high thanks to big-screen touch smartphones. But it was when the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY was announced that gamers hearts went aflutter. The PlayStation phone has been rumored ever since Sony joined Ericsson and now it’s finally as real as it gets - and it’s in our hands at last.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY official photos

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY is half phone, half portable game console – Android all the way.

What sets the PLAY apart from other phones on the market are the dedicated game controls – they are pretty much the same controls you’ll find on a PSP Go or a PlayStation DualShock controller. And there’s the 4” touchscreen of course.

How can it get better than that? A catalog of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games for one (though we’ll have to wait a while for the PS2 games). When the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY launches, there should be about 50 optimized games in its Playstation Pocket game store. Not a bad startup catalog.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA and HSUPA support
• Form factor: Touchscreen side-slider with dedicated gaming controls
• Dimensions: 119 x 62 x 16 mm, 175 g
• Display: 4.0" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels), multi-touch input
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon platform; 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU
• OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Memory: 400MB storage, 512MB RAM, microSD card slot, 8GB card included in the retail box
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, face detection and touch focus; WVGA video recording at 30fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: Sony Ericsson Timescape UI, active noise cancelation with dedicated mic, built-in accelerometer, proximity sensor, digital compass, secondary video-call camera

The PlayStation Pocket game store will be filled with content from Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Namco and others and will be your go-to place for getting new games. The PLAY comes with six games pre-installed to get you started.

Gaming is central to the XPERIA PLAY but it doesn’t eclipse the Android smartphone. A 4” FWVGA (480x854) touchscreen, a 1GHz CPU and Android 2.3 Gingerbread allow the PLAY to handle day-to-day smartphone tasks with ease.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY live shots

To skip the intro and start the hardware exploration on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA PLAY, hit the next page.