Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus review

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus renunţă la un display mai generos pentru a-ţi oferi un plus de portabilitate. Este un compromis acceptabil?

În peisajul tot mai aglomerat al tabletelor devine din ce în ce mai greu să faci o alegere potrivită. Fiecare producător oferă un model cu câte ceva special, însă foarte puţine tablete îţi oferă “pachetul complet”. Ce înseamnă acest pachet? Un produs bine construit cu dimensiuni relativ compacte, portabil, un ecran bun, un sistem de operare cu cât mai puţine probleme şi conexiuni multiple, de preferat şi 3G.

Samsung a experimentat de ceva vreme pentru a obţine această reţetă perfectă cu mai mult sau mai puţin succes, noul Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus fiind un nou exemplar de pe această scară a evoluţiei.

Ultraportabil

Tabletele sunt gadget-uri portabile prin definiţie, însă unele sunt mai compacte decât altele. Galaxy Tab 7.0 are o carcasă de doar 345 de grame, nu cu mult mai grea decât un smartphone şi un şasiu de 193.65x 122.37 x 9.96 mm. O poţi păstra lejer în buzunarul hainei sau a sacoului, iar dacă insişti, chiar şi în cel al blugilor.

Construcţia este calitativă, iar îmbinările sunt atente, chiar dacă avem de-a face cu o carcasă din plastic. Designul este şi el destul de elegant, spatele alb lucios fiind tot mai des întâlnit în ultima perioadă la smartphone-uri şi tablete.

Pe lângă camera cu bliţ care iese în evidenţă pe partea dorsală, modelul 3G dispune şi de un difuzor şi un microfon plasat pe muchia de jos, elemente care suportă funcţia de telefonie. Interesant este şi emiţătorul infra roşu, folosit de aplicaţia Peel, care transformă tableta într-o telecomandă universală pentru televizor. Aplicaţia este utilă, însă în România funcţionalitatea este restrânsă, utilizatorii de peste ocean având la dispoziţie o muţime de alte funcţii adaptate la televiziunile prin cablu şi satelit. Cu ajutorul ei poţi accesa funcţiile de bază ale televizorului sau seta taste dedicate pentru selectarea sursei spre exemplu.

Ecran de 7 inchi

Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus integrează un display PLS cu diagonala de 7 inchi, ecran care nu se remarcă prin nimic special, însă se comportă mai mult decât mulţumitor. Rezoluţia este mediocră, de 1024 x 600 pixeli. Cel mai important aspect este faptul că ecranul are un unghi de vizualizare larg, culori bune şi este destul de luminos. Ne-am fi bucurat de un display cu rezoluţie mai mare, mai ales acum că asistăm la o nouă eră a tabletelor HD, însă acest lucru ar fi afectat cu siguranţă preţul.

Tableta oferă şi două camere, una principală de 3 MP cu autofocus şi bliţ LED, precum şi o cameră frontală de 2 MP pentru apeluri video. Camerele sunt peste medie, bliţul este mai mult decât binevenit, iar înregistrarea video la 720p oferă clipuri de calitate, cu frame rate ridicat. Cu toate acestea, nu te aştepta la capodopere precum cele realizate cu un SLR.

Performanţe

Tableta de 7 inchi a celor de la Samsung are la bază un procesor dual core la 1.2 GHz şi 1 GB memorie RAM. Mai mult decât suficient pentru ca sistemul de operare Android 3.2 Honeycomb, chiar şi cu interfaţa TouchWiz UX, să ruleze perfect.

Pentru cei care nu sunt familiarizaţi cu TouchWiz UX, interfaţa oferă funcţii precum Live Panel – un home screen uşor de modificat de unde poţi accesa rapid emailul, site-urile sau galeriile de imagini sau Mini Apps – la apăsarea unui buton virtual eşti întâmpinat de icoane ale celor mai utilizate aplicaţii, cum ar fi Task Manager, Pen memo, Voice Call sau Message.

În aplicaţia de benchmark Vellamo tableta Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus a obţinut un punctaj meritoriu de 1188 de puncte. Un punctaj peste Acer Iconia Tab sau Asus Transformer.

Unul dintre rolurile esenţiale ale unei tablete este cel de browser web. Tableta oferă o experienţă web completă, graţie suportului Flash, iar conexiunea poate fi realizată prin Wi-Fi sau 3G, dacă optezi pentru modelul de top.

Paginile pot fi citite în marea majoritate a timpului direct, fără a fi nevoit să apelezi constant la zoom, ca şi în cazul unui smartphone.

Dacă am putea să îi reproşăm ceva tabletei este faptul că pentru a urmări un film un ecran de 10 inchi pare mult mai potrivit. Cu toate acestea tableta se descurcă bine la redarea de conţinut multimedia, chiar şi Full HD, clipurile şi muzica putând fi stocate pe cei 16/32 GB memorie internă sau pe carduri microSD. Formatele video suportate includ MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV şi DivX.

Tabletă telefon

Tableta soseşte cu funcţii de telefonie extinse, fiind posibilă realizarea şi preluarea de apeluri chiar şi fără un headset Bluetooth. Dacă ţi-ai uitat telefonul acasă poţi să primeşti apeluri sau să îţi suni prietenii direct de pe tabletă, chiar dacă rişti să atragi câteva priviri mai ciudate din partea celor din jur.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus GT-P6200 foloseşte o baterie de 4000 mAh, care oferă o autonomie excelentă de peste 8 ore în playback video.

Fiind vorba despre o tabletă cu Android nu lipsesc nici aplicaţiile specifice Google, cum ar fi Maps sau Navigation. Galaxy Tab dispune şi de GPS şi AGPS, ceea ce înseamnă că o vei putea folosi pentru a te descurca pe străzile unui oraş străin.

Tableta are un preţ de circa 1950 lei.

connect îi oferă nota 8.5.

sursa: www.connect.ro

Samsung Galaxy Note review

La Samsung Galaxy Note nu se mai distinge graniţa între tabletă şi smartphone. Oare reuşeşte acest mega-telefon să ţină capul sus în laboratorul de teste?
Redactat de: Daniel Chira
Împins până la limită
Trebuie să recunoasc că văzând noul top model de la Samsung, Samsung – Galaxy Note, nu m-am îndrăgostit la prima vedere de el. Prima întâlnire din Londra a decurs cam rece. Mi s-a părut destul de mare și de greu de mânuit şi probabil mâncător de curent, cu alte cuvinte cu puţine şanse de a rezista în piaţa dură a smartphone-urilor. Dar iată că a venit modelul de serie al Galaxy Note în laboratorul nostru de teste şi scepticismul iniţial a fost infirmat.
Apariţie mare, dar nobilă
Prelucrarea noului model este fără dar şi poate perfectă, chiar dacă este folosit un material plastic pentru carcasă. Un aspect deosebit îi conferă capacul cutat al acumulatorului. Linia suplă nu este întreruptă de o umflătură pe spatele telefonului, aşa cum este cazul la modelele Galaxy S I9000 şi Galaxy S II. Când vine vorba despre manevrabilitate părerile diferă: Galaxyi Note este mare dar nu voluminos. Ţinut într-o mână mare el poate fi manevrat cu degetul mare al mâinii respective. Ba intră şi fără probleme în buzunarul din faţă al pantalonilor.
Cel mai bun display
Motivul principal pentru supradimensionarea sa este interfaţa dintre om şi telefon, un display imens de 5,3 inchi, touchscreen capacitiv cu tehnologie HD super AMOLED. Rezoluţia de 800 x 1280 pixeli este cea mai mare rezoluţie actuală în gama smartphone-urilor. La apariţia ecranului de start utilizatorul rămâne deja cu gura căscată: luminozitate, adâncime a imaginii şi plasticitate nemaivăzute până acum. Suprapunerea culorilor cunoscută de la ecranele AMOLED este istorie, redarea fascinează şi poate fi adaptată cu trei moduri de ecran. Luminozitatea de 321 lucşi este foarte bună pentru un display AMOLED. Pentru a putea viziona filme şi în aer liber, există o opţiune la video player care oferă o mai bună vizibilitate în aer liber.
S-Pen
Având un display gigant vechiul Stylus, numit aici S(mart) Pen, este din nou onorat. Folosirea smart pen-ului, plasat pe spatele carcasei, se face cu o precizie şi cu o viteză care permit utilizarea sa în mod curent, acesta devenind după scurt timp de nelipsit. Este îndrăgit şi datorită funcţiei sale speciale: dacă trebuie notate repede nişte informaţii, este suficient să apeşi pe butonul mic al smart pen-ului şi un dublu click pe display pentru a deschide S Memo Lite, versiunea simplificată a programului integrat de scriere şi desenare.

Cireaşa de pe tort este icoana S Choice de pe ecranul de start, în spatele căreia se regăseşte o selecţie a celor mai specifice aplicaţii din Android Market, compatibile cu S Pen. Actualmente aici se găsesc opt programe, printre care şi îndrăgitul Evernote.
Cei care utilizează S Pen-ul vor constata că tasta înapoi de sub display, care este realizată ca o suprafaţă cu senzori, nu reacţionează la atingerea cu S Pen-ul. Folosind însă un truc se obţine rezultatul dorit: se apasă butonul mic de pe S Pen şi se deplasează acesta din dreapta spre stânga pe display; astfel ne întoarcem în oricare aplicaţie un pas înapoi.
Pe faţa aparatului avem o cameră de 2 megapixeli, pe spate una de 8 megapixeli. Calitatea imaginilor este bună, înregistrările video se fac în full HD.
Ecranul de start oferă şapte niveluri, pe care se pot plasa widget-urile dorite.
Detalii reuşite la colţuri
Avantajul ecranului mare este vizibil la prezentarea calendarului. Uşor şi rapid pot fi vizualizate fişierele, având la îndemână multiple opţiuni: de la vizualizare pe ani până la vizualizare pe zile. Şi la meniul de email mărimea ecranului este un avantaj, putându-se prezenta, aşa cum suntem obişnuiţi de la Outlook, concomitent subiectul şi conţinutul mesajului. Galaxy Note excelează şi în alte domenii cu soluţii elegante: comandă vocală, management al energiei configurabil în detaliu, diverse comenzi prin mişcări. În afară de Social Hub, Samsung deţine un Music Hub şi un Readers Hub. Cel din urmă oferă cărţi, reviste şi ziare, pe când Music Hub asigură accesul la magazinul de muzică de la 7digital.
Hardware-ul este de cea mai bună calitate: un procesor dual-core de 1,4 GHz, care asigură o manevrare cursivă şi fără întârziere, memorie de 11 GB, care poate fi mărită cu un card microSD, HSPA+, n-WLAN, WLAN Direct şi o cameră de 8 megapixeli, cu care se pot face şi înregistrări full-HD.
Recorduri în laborator
Oare va face faţă un smartphone cu un ecran atât de mare şi testelor de laborator? Am fost rezervaţi iniţial, dar finalul ne-a surprins în mod plăcut. Cu bateria sa de 2500 mAh, mega-smartphone-ul a înregistrat noi recorduri de anduranță. Autonomie în standby – 43 zile, în utilizare tipică – 9:38 ore. Autonomia în standby este la fel de impresionantă – 20 ore în reţeaua pe 1800 MHz şi 27 ore în reţeaua pe 900 MHz; în funcţionare UMTS autonomia este de 9 ore. Astfel de rezultate fac să lucească ochii redactorilor care efectuează testele dar şi ochii fanilor smartphone.
Dar acesta nu este singurul domeniu în care Galaxy Note stabileşte noi recorduri. Recepţia este alt domeniu în care excelează.

În reţeaua UMTS au fost înregistrate cele mai bune valori actuale de emisie-recepţie.
Acustica în timpul convorbirilor este excelentă, chiar dacă nu oricine este pregătit să ţină un astfel de XXL-smartphone la ureche. Astfel de situaţii pot fi rezolvate folosind un headset cu sau fără fir.
Cu aceste rezultate, Galaxy Note ne-a convins în toate domeniile, lăsând în urmă concurenţa. Rămâne de văzut dacă utilizatorii vor accepta acest format mare. Cert este că titlul de cel mai bun smartphone fulltouch şi l-a asigurat şi primește din partea noastră o recomandare călduroasă.

sursa: http://www.connect.ro/teste_connect/samsung-galaxy-note-review-note-despre-un-gigant/

Super High Aperture: it's why the new iPad's Retina display is so dense

Super High Aperture. Heard of it? Probably not, but thanks to Apple, you'll probably long for days when you didn't in just a few months. According to an in-depth look from the folks at DisplaySearch, the aforesaid technique is the primary reason that Apple was able to shove 2,048 x 1,536 pixels into the 9.7-inch panel on the new iPad. Not surprisingly, it wasn't Apple that conjured up the magic; instead, it was crafted by engineers at Sharp and JSR (a display materials maker from Japan), but it'll be the iPad that makes an otherwise geeky achievement something that the mainstream covets. According to the science behind it, SHA is "a method of increasing aperture ratio by applying approximately a 3 [micrometer] thick photo-definable acrylic resin layer to planarize the device and increase the vertical gap between the [indium tin oxide] pixel electrodes and signal lines." Reportedly, there are also "at least twice as many" LEDs in the panel compared to that on the iPad 2, further suggesting that there's way more battery within the new guy than the last. Technophiles need only dig into the links below to find plenty more where this came from.

Sony Xperia S review

Has spring 2012 brought a rebirth to the Xperia range, or just a rebranding? On the face of it, that's an easy one. The Sony Xperia S (codenamed "Nozomi") is the first handset we've reviewed in the post-Ericsson era and you only have to glance at its spec sheet to see that more has changed than just the logo. The 4.3-inch LCD display outguns older Xperias with a bright and contrasty 1280 x 720 resolution. This feature alone helps the device to sit more snugly on the Sony family sofa, where it can share popcorn with the tablets, PCs and TVs that Kaz & Co. want to merge into a seamless media-munching ecosystem. The Xperia S' camera pushes in that same direction, shooting 12-megapixel stills and 1080p video and then streaming its creations to other displays over HDMI and DLNA. Rounding it off, you get quirky features like NFC and a distinctive, Bravia-like physical design. But not everything here is so fresh and spring-like: other aspects of the device are still tinged with winter, as you'll discover if you read on.

Sony Xperia S review

Hardware

Like any good tour, this one begins at the bar -- the distinctive, LED-lit plastic bar that appears to segment the Xperia S into two parts. Having seen the phone handed around a room of bloggers before we picked up our review sample, it was one of the first things people noticed, and it was either championed or chided depending on each person's taste. Bearing in mind that Engadget has a thing for Tron furnitureand fur coats, we actually kinda like it. The three Android navigation buttons are etched into the bar and look nice when it lights up.

So yes, we enjoy it, but there are equally as many reasons not to. For a start, it makes the device feel longer than it needs to be, and considering it's already a lot thicker than previous Xperias (e.g., theXperia Arc, pictured below), that's a big sacrifice. What's more, it doesn't do Philips Ambilight-style tricks like the Xperia U, and it doesn't necessarily have the same technical justification as the aluminum unibody Xperia P.

A more serious problem with the Xperia S' hardware isn't the way it looks, but the way it's built. There are seams everywhere, where plastic meets plastic around the translucent bar, around the port covers, around the scratch resistant screen and around the rear cover. (Note: the video review says "Gorilla Glass", but scratch resistant is right.) These gaps attract dust, make the device feel unfairly cheap considering the high quality materials, and occasionally cause the port covers to pop open if they catch on your finger or pocket. Considering that the 1,750mAh battery isn't removable and the 16 to 32GB of onboard storage isn't expandable via microSD, the rear cover seems unnecessary -- we would rather have had a Micro SIM drawer, better flaps over the ports and a Lumia 800-style unibody instead. Sony's designers may be based in Lund, Sweden, but with the Xperia S they haven't been Nordic enough.

There's an issue with the navigation buttons too. The touch-sensitive spots for Back, Home and Options are nowhere near their corresponding icons in the translucent bar, and they're unmarked, save for three barely visible silver dots. Not knowing where precisely to aim your finger initially results in a lot of mis-hits, and the buttons themselves aren't particularly responsive, but you do get used to them after three or four days. Virtual buttons might be preferable, but there's no way they could come with the promised upgrade to Android 4.0 -- that would make the design of the lower part of the phone completely redundant. Speaking of ICS, we initially heard it might be here already, but now the word is Q2.

Display

Just when the Xperia S' build quality makes us feel low, the wonderful display picks us up again. Every single time. It may be plain old TFT LCD rather than AMOLED, but at least there's no PenTile pixel arrangement here and the 342ppi pixel density renders everything with perfect stability and smoothness. We'd much rather watch a movie on the Xperia S than on the AMOLED-equippedPlayStation Vita, for example. Although the Vita has a bigger screen and better stereo speakers, the Xperia S delivers sharper, more colorful images -- plus the sound from its speaker is louder and more engaging.

The display's strength is also readily apparent when you compare it side-by-side with an older, LCD-packing Xperia like the Arc. You won't see it on a photo unless you look closely enough to notice the matrix of pixels on the Arc, but load up the Kindle app and things become more obvious: text looks blocky at 854 x 480 resolution but immaculate at 1280 x 720. The Arc also has worse viewing angles.

The screen performs admirably outdoors and proves just what LCD is capable when it's implemented properly. While some other LCD displays can be quickly obscured by excessive reflections outdoors, the Xperia S' panel retains its contrast much better. There's a consistent yellow tinge to all white areas, especially compared to the more neutral Retina Display on the iPhone 4, but the Mobile BRAVIA Engine seems to make up for that when watching movies and stills. Overall, it's clear that Sony has invested a lot of time and money in getting this new panel just right.

Calling and reception

As you'd hope, there's little to report here. We used the phone solidly for a week and found that it flicked sensibly between bands, gave us consistent reception, and handled data averagely well at regular HSPA speeds on the UK Vodafone network. The speaker worked fine both ways, as did the bundled headset -- although as ever we only used it once to test it, before switching to some proper headphones (in this instance, an amazing pair of IE 80s lent to us by Sennheiser.) The Xperia S has a smart notification LED that glows different colors to indicate different events, such as blue for a missed call and orange for charging. This is something missing from many rival phones, and anyone who depends on their smartphone for productivity will appreciate it.

Camera

The 12-megapixel shooter on the Xperia S is a world away from last year's Xperias. You get fuller controls, including Exposure Value, ISO, Focus Mode, Metering Mode and White Balance (manual or presets). Even better, you can position up to four controls of your choosing on the main viewfinder screen, which provides quicker access to the settings you adjust most frequently.

Sony Xperia S sample shots

You also get much faster operation, with the ability to hold the dedicated camera button down while the phone is still in standby mode and snap off a shot within 1.4 seconds, by our measure. This way of shooting doesn't produce great results, because it gives you no time to frame or focus accurately, but it does prove what the camera module is capable, and it may come in a handy on the odd occasion. During regular operation, taking shots as normal within the camera app, the Xperia S was extremely responsive.

As for the pictures themselves, they testify to good automatic exposure, white balance and flash control, and they're sumptuous on the phone's display: sharp, bright, colorful and contrasty. The combination of the hi-res sensor and HD display also helps low-light shots, because the camera is able to pump up gain while hiding noise among the abundance of pixels -- i.e., the noise is there, and it's pretty bad, but you have to zoom in further to see it.

The Xperia S' camera is a treat if you primarily view photos on the phone itself. However, if you occasionally want to blow up a picture to frame it, or if you want display your pictures on a bigger screen over the HDMI output or DLNA, then there's an important caveat.

Previous Xperias, such as the Neo, suffered from excessive image compression, and that's still unfortunately an issue with the Xperia S. There's no option to change the JPEG settings to create bigger, prettier files comparable to what you'd get on the Galaxy S II or iPhone 4. The default compression has improved considerably since the Neo, with 12-megapixel stills averaging a file size of 3MB, but that's still not enough.

The Xperia S creates JPEG files that are around 25 percent bigger than those from an iPhone 4, even though they contain 240 percent more pixels. So you can zoom in further on an Xperia S image, but what will you find when you get there? Either Sony is callously wasting the power of Xperia S' higher resolution Exmor R sensor, or they're deliberately maxing out on compression in order to disguise the fact that the sensor is noisy. Either way, the resultant image quality is designed for superficial viewing only, and we'd still rather shoot on an aged iPhone 4 (let alone a 4S).

It was a similar story with 1080p video, which was compressed to around 100MB per minute. The Nokia Lumia 800 also shoots between 80MB and 100MB per minute, but with 720p resolution. Despite the over-zealous compression, however, we were generally pleased with Xperia S' clips: autofocus was slow but dependable, there weren't too many sudden switches in exposure or white balance and audio levels were consistent.

Performance and battery life

The Xperia S arrived too soon to be endowed with any of the new chips revealed at MWC. Instead, it contains one of the better processors from last year: the dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8260. We've already spent a lot of time with this processor, on phones like the HTC Sensation XE, and it's certainly powerful enough to handle the functions the Xperia S is designed for. There are no lags or stutters to note, browsing is fluid, and there's no nasty mismatch between the battery and processor either. We scraped just under two full days with light use, involving a maximum of two hours spent out of standby each day and careful connection settings. Even heavy usage patterns, such as leaving WiFi on (as in the 15-hour day below) and watching movie trailers (an addiction with a screen like this), left the Xperia S with plenty of reserves when we hit the sack. A standard battery test with looped video yielded over five hours, which is around the same as the Sensation XE despite the Xperia's higher resolution screen.

Here's how the processor stacks up against the Xperia Arc S and -- for a bit of fun -- the Galaxy Note, whose Exynos processor was another great SoC from last year. The Xperia S holds its own, especially when it comes to graphics and browsing benchmarks.

	Xperia S	Xperia Arc S	Galaxy Note
Quadrant	2,033	1,158	3,998
Linpack (single-thread)	53.67	34.54	64.3
Linpack (multi-thread)	83.70	38.88	95.66
NenaMark2 (fps)	37.1	13.6	32.8
Neocore	59.7	59.4	51.77
SunSpider 9.1 (ms, lower numbers are better)	2,653	3,369	2,902

Software

If you've never heard of Android 2.3.7, then here's everything you need to know: it's old. The Xperia skin that sits lightly on top of the OS is very familiar too, as are the various pre-loaded apps and social networking integration efforts, such as TimeScape, which we've covered in previous reviews. Some of these additions are good, like the music app which has a good equalizer system. Others are bad, like the repeated McAffee antivirus notifications that are too difficult to exterminate.

Aside from the bloatware, however, Sony has come up with some genuinely exciting stuff. The Xperia S integrates well with the Xperia SmartWatch, for example, sending notifications straight to your wrist over Bluetooth. We only had a chance to play with a prototype SmartWatch, but we had fun with it and no one can deny that Sony is sticking its neck out to do something different.

Sony has found useful employment for NFC, bundling the Xperia S with two NFC SmartTags that you can use to automatically change your phone settings to suit different locations. You simply hold the tag against the handset to initialize it, and then choose various actions that will be triggered the next time the tag comes into contact. These settings aren't flexible enough to make this very useful yet -- there's no airplane mode, you can't disable data without disabling calls, and you can't stack instructions on top of each other to achieve more sophisticated automation. Perhaps these things will come in a software update, but for now Sony gets points more for the idea than the practicality.

Notice a theme developing here? Yup, that'd be the need for patience, as Sony gradually (perhaps too gradually) makes good on the promise of its new ideas. That applies to NFC, but it applies even more to another key area of the Xperia S' software: it's ability to hook up with Sony's gaming, video and music platforms. It's supposed to be great, but the reality hasn't quite caught up.

Take a movie rental as an example. There's a placeholder app for the PlayStation Store on the Xperia S, but it doesn't work. Instead, you can use the pre-loaded Video Unlimited app, which offers exactly the same video content as the PS Store, for the same prices, using the same login and credit card details, but which is totally separate. A purchase you made on the PS Store on another Sony device -- such as the PS Vita -- won't be remembered in Video Unlimited, and vice versa.

Now, this might all be solved in a week's time, when the PS Store placeholder app informs us it will 'wake up' and start doing stuff. If that happens, our complaint will become a spring shower in a tea cup. On the other hand, it's also possible that the two storefronts will operate in parallel for some time. We asked Sony about this, and got the following reply:

"While the Sony Entertainment Network storefront is fully integrated among the various Sony devices compatible with the Video Unlimited service and the PlayStation Network Video Store, our device domain model currently restricts playback of rented or purchased content. While we are exploring a less restrictive model, at this time, users who download content to Xperia (or PS Vita) can only play that content back on that device."

Confusing? Just a little. You also have to bear in mind that Sony rarely gets things done in a hurry. The PlayStation Suite is a case in point. This is yet another storefront that will offer independently-produced titles for the Xperia S and other PlayStation-certified devices, but developers are still testing out the SDK. There's no clear timeline for when their creations might start to appear in the Suite, or when the Suite might appear on the Xperia range. If you imagine that Kaz Hirai only has to click his fingers for things to get done, the Xperia S will likely prove you wrong.

Wrap-up

Could the Xperia S be your first Sony-branded phone? It you're all about media consumption, and if you're prepared to wait while Sony makes its cloud-based platforms more coherent, then the Xperia S is a great device. The display and the speaker are absorbing and addictive. The battery life is excellent, the processor is a good fit and the absence of expandable storage shouldn't weigh too heavily if you get the 32GB option.

On the other hand, if you make more varied demands of your smartphone -- like excellent build quality, pocket-friendly slimness or photos you can enlarge -- then things get more complicated. US pricing has yet to be announced, but the 32GB version of the Xperia S is going for upwards of £430 ($680) SIM-free in the UK, or £370 pay-as-you-go on the Three network. Similar money could fetch you a legendary all-rounder like the Galaxy S II, or stretch to a 16GB Galaxy Nexus with an HD screen and better build quality, or -- very soon -- an HTC One S, which promises a cutting-edge Qualcomm S4 processor and abetter camera. When sized up against a long rubric of criteria, rather than just its entertainment credentials, there's little to make the Xperia S a compelling purchase.
sursa: engadget