The Ion is closely tied to the , allowing you to sign in to your Music and Video Unlimited accounts for access your playlists and movies on the go. In case you don't subscribe to either of those services, or you prefer to save content locally, the Ion comes with 16GB of built-in storage that you can use to your heart's desire. The phone's MicroSD card slot lets you attach an additional 32GB of storage, in case you want to watch the entire new season of Breaking Bad on your phone.

If you want to watch TV shows on a larger screen, the Ion allows you to share your content with other DLNA-compatible devices wirelessly. Alternatively, you can use a MicroHDMI cable to connect the Ion to an HDTV, giving you access to a custom launcher where you can play back movies and music, display videos, or open certain applications. When I tried to use DLNA to share a song between the Ion and a PlayStation 3, the two devices took a while to find each other. Plugging the phone directly into the TV via the MicroHDMI cable was much faster and more convenient.

Being a Sony phone, the Ion is PlayStation-certified, meaning that you'll be able to download classic PlayStation titles like Crash Bandicoot from the Play Store, and play them on your phone. So far, the library of available PlayStation titles is pretty slim, though Sony seems to be adding new games randomly throughout the year.

The Ion has two cameras: A 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a 12-megapixel camera with flash. The front-facing camera can record in 720p, but the image quality looked comparable to that of the front-facing camera on both the iPad and the iPhone 4S. You probably won't want to use it for anything more than the occasional Google hangout or Facebook self-portrait.