computerwoche.de

Archiv

Xperia Play 4G Review

21.09.2011
To the delight of mobile gamers on AT&T, Sony Ericsson has brought the Xperia Play to the carrier's HSPA+ network. When I reviewed the , I praised the phone for including a physical gamepad--a godsend to people like me who hate using touchscreens for gaming--but I criticized the Play for not taking advantage of Verizon's ridiculously fast LTE network. The Xperia Play 4G ($50 with a new 2-year contract on AT&T) addresses some of the issues I had with the original Xperia Play, but some of the same issues still exist.

Well Designed

The Xperia Play 4G is small, though it has some heft to it. The phone looks very well designed and is virtually identical to the Verizon version, save for the fact that the Play 4G has a royal blue back plate as opposed to a piano black one. I honestly preferred the blue coloring over the black, if only because it was less of a fingerprint magnet. The 4-inch 480 by 854 resolution display is not the best I have seen, though it is better in terms of color to the many pentile displays we have seen as of late. Something to point out is that the screen comes with a screen protector pre-installed to keep the display from getting scratched up while in your pocket or your bag. The buttons on this version of the Xperia Play 4G didn't feel as flimsy as they were on the first one, and the sliding mechanism for the gamepad felt much more fluid.

Mobile Gaming Evolved

I prefer playing games on my Nintendo DS or Sony PSP rather than my phone, but I can see the appeal of carrying fewer devices around.

The Xperia Play works well for gaming. There is no real lag between pressing a button and having the action occur on screen, but I wish the face buttons on the gamepad were a bit more raised. I still find the placement of the Start and Select buttons awkward, and wish they were in the center (much like how they are on the Playstation game controllers).