Gadgetory

hello everyone this is Hyman from Pocket now and after a full week of testing the Sony Xperia S as my daily driver we know you're all curious to see how the device performs houses software how's the user experience so let's talk about it you know even though I was a big fan of the sony ericsson xperia x1 back in the windows mobile day it's kind of disappointment with their Android implementation I felt that it needed more it wasn't as refined as the Windows Mobile operating system was even though it was Windows Mobile but still I feel that Sony has changed things with the Xperia S there's their new flagship device for their NXT series after this you get the P in the you end that the Vice really really has changed the experience I feel that Sony has refined a lot of things and my experience so far has been quite pleasing one of the things that I like the most about this device is the display I'll film a separate video just to show you how it compares between the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and other flagship smartphones that also have great resolution screens so far the Bravia Engine has really impressed me it does a really good job with colors but you know Sony has refined their UI in order for it to take advantage of all the pixels on the display text the smaller and even though it is smaller it's readable it's really really good so watch the separate video to see the difference because honestly it's probably one of the biggest selling points for this device going through the software experience I'll be honest with you in the past I was only a fan of HTC Sense because I felt that that was the company that thought out their UI the most in comparison to others but sony has changed the ball this time they've really worked and thought out there you want for this implementation of their NXT line and I really do recommend that it's very refined it's very responsive it's quite elegant you can select from various themes and a lot of animated wallpapers for each of these themes which are really good I'm just not a really big fan of Timescape which has been with the Xperia line forever I'm not really a fan of how it works because it's kind of cumbersome the tiles are too small you can't really read the text you have to go into every tile every time it's not really something that I feel is good other than that well they bring some really good widgets to the table bring ample weather it's a really cool animation widget out there available friends is good and you already saw our video on the smart tags feature which is really really cool other than that well if you pinch out from the home screen you see this really cool animated UI that allows you to select any other widgets that you have in your home screen I like the fact that even though you don't have Ice Cream Sandwich on this device Sony has figured out a way to provide folders at least in the home screen it can't do that within the application tray but it's there it's at least available you'll notice that the keyboard is also kind of looking like iOS but forget about iOS here what's really cool is they bring swipe functionality to the keyboard it was probably available before but I like the implementation of it on this NXT line and the Xperia S there's a really good job at predicting text now even though the device is playstation certified sadly out of the box it's not going to work apparently the store will be available until the end of March or early April sony also includes a healthy suite of applications that you won't find on competitor devices not the typical stock Android for example you get wise pilot navigation services which kind of competes with Google Maps the difference here is that you get it you know for free initially and then if you want to buy maps to navigate offline it's also available kind of cool if you're roaming out of the United States and you don't have data roaming wherever you go really cool feature included aside from that well you also get Sony's video service and Sony's music service in case you want to buy music or videos and continuing on with their suite of music they have track ID in case you want to discover music and then buy it from their store compete with Shazam and SoundHound and it's kind of cool you also get this really neat world quoc which stands it apart from everybody else it's a very nice implementation very elegant it actually even gives you differences and daylight and nighttime and everything you also get this meal reader for QR codes etc just to give you an idea sony goes and raise the bar and includes other applications that you won't find on other competitor devices your business user well sony also includes a service called marked your pro in case your business wants a more secure way for you to connect to exchange servers even though android already supports it it also includes the office suite pro in case you want to add the documents and everything another option for business users and it's available there for free another cool thing about the Sony Xperia line in general is the fact that box Totten that gives you 50 free gigabytes of storage for life doesn't matter if you create a new box that in that account or you have an existing one all you have to do is log in to box.net from the application on your Xperia and somehow it detects that you're on Xperia and it'll give you the free service trust me I already got the goods now one of my biggest gripes with the Android operating system is their excessive use of blacks because obviously if you're reading text you want a white background with white text line just like you do in a book but somehow sony has included this grainy UI that doesn't look that bad at all it looks quite elegant during email obviously you do get a white background in black text but still you can rotate your email client and you'll notice that you get a preview of whatever email you're selecting and well you also get the grainy UI within messaging and just about everywhere the only place where I really like Sony's UI in general for personal information management is in the calendar application it's kind of intuitive very good I really like it so far even though it has black now let's go through the camera I mean the front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and the sony xperia s-- is not the best camera in the world but you saw our video test yesterday and you notice that it wasn't that bad now the 12 megapixel camera at the back is probably not the best for a 1080p video recording because of the software you are implementation but the camera for taking images is awesome to be honest with you it's probably one of the best cameras that I've seen on Android so far you can hold the camera and one of the cool features is that the device could be on standby right now and all you have to do is select the button leave it press for a second and it'll take the image immediately and even though it's not as fast as the Sony Xperia ion that we saw at CES it still does a really good job at taking one picture after another it's cool features included in Sony I feel that they take a really good advantage of the Exmor R processor whenever you're taking pictures sadly not the case yet with video recording sony also talks about their inclusion of their ex loud enhancement engine for Sam within the phone and well speakerphone wise the phone is quite good it sounds very good on speakerphone but my advice to you is once you pull these headphones out of the box throw them away I've always been a big fan of Sony headphones but sadly these are the trashiest implementation I've ever seen now what and probably a really good tip for everybody is for some reason it seems that not every headset works on this phone I tried the iPhone headphones they don't work some HCC headphones work for some reason I don't know why Sony's proprietary headset jack only accepts there's probably it could be that I just need to find better quality headphones out there that's my case but for some reason these are the only ones that work so far so look out for that as I mentioned in the unboxing Sony also includes HDMI out and even though it also includes DLNA support one of the really cool features about HDMI out is the fact that you can mirror your device to any TV screen there's a really good job not only in mirroring the device at full resolution but also in scaling within the TV and even though scaling is great you can even control your device with the remote control from the TV no matter if it's a Sony device or not kind of a really cool feature not a gimmick for me because you could actually leave the phone on the table and control it from the TV and not having to get up and get down whenever you want to change something from your phone you can even catch Netflix like this probably one of my biggest disappointment with the Xperia S is the battery life because even though it has a 1750 milliamp power battery it barely reaches 9 to 10 hours of typical usage and I'm talking about typical phone calls typical usage as a daily driver little email I wouldn't complain if the battery was removed but sadly it is intent well I think Sony probably could fix that with their Ice Cream Sandwich update and speaking of Ice Cream Sandwich my other disappointment with this phone is the fact that it doesn't include Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box sadly I feel that these are not times for Gingerbread anymore and even though their implementation and Gingerbread is good it's about time we got Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box so hopefully Sony will work on this apparently we will get the update by the end of March but that's not the right now and for all of those that were complaining about my lack of enthusiasm over screen protectors the reason why I don't like them is first of all because they're dust magnets and also because they get scratched easily and this is a glass screen you don't really need a screen protector now and interesting note here is the fact that even though there's a screen protector in the box the phone also brings a screen protector from factory already placed on the phone so you're a fan of screen protectors they at least they do the favor not a big fan of this but the only reason why I haven't taken it off is because I'm the Xperia Play it was the same case it included a screen protector that was on it got all scratched up but the problem was when I removed it this the proximity sensor wasn't working as well anymore so sadly that's the feature that you'll probably have to be stuck with screen protectors and proudly with good quality so far if it wasn't for the limited battery life on the Xperia S and the fact that it doesn't include Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box I'd probably recommend this as one of the best Android smartphones in the market it's very refined it's very good not a big fan of the matte black because for some reason it catches these dirt smudges I'd recommend you go for the black model instead of the white but so far my experience with the Xperia S has been very very positive you know if I have to compare them with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus I tell you if you know it's it's kind of a tough call Samsung Galaxy Nexus is really good but this device is honestly great sony has done a really good job with their new NXT line hopefully the Panda you will be just as good so stay tuned for a full review of the Sony Xperia S so far very satisfied that's it for our review walkthrough of the software and user experience within the Sony Xperia S if you like this video please give us a thumbs up and thanks for watching you