Play's device app storage only 400mb?! Even worse- 380mb
A few previews I have seen mention the Euro version has a 1gb "rom", of which 380mb (not 400) is available to the user for apps.
This will be a HUGE weakness for this device, especially since the folks that would buy this are gamers. Apps2sd will only help so much since apps still install some of the app to the internal storage.
Surely Sony did not get stupid and only provide 400mb of device storage.
Mega fail if true and not much better than the Archos tablets who got pure stupid with 230mb of space.
Confirmed- Sony got stupid. Like the TB, it has no internal media space, but at least the TB, in spite of bloatware has 2.4gb of device storage. The Play has a crazy low 400mb and to make matters worse, other reviews are alos mentioning the dispaly is not very bright.
From the Slashgear review:
Under the hood it’s a pretty standard Android phone, with a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, Adreno 205 graphics, 512MB of RAM, 400MB of internal storage and a bundled 8GB microSD card.
Update: This is an error. It has only 380mb for apps storage- Crazy stupid.
Unless Sony is assuming folks will ony install their Playstation games, this is a huge design mistake, since gamers will soon run out of space with 400mb.
Last edited by rushmore; April 2nd, 2011 at 03:15 PM.
I agree with yoyohere - if this device was shipping with 2.2 and didn't have the native apps to SD feature, then it would be a problem. From what little I know of these things, I'm guessing they are using a concept similar to "hard links", so apps won't know or care if they are stored on the internal storage or the SD. There shouldn't be any compatibility issues, and only a negligible speed difference.
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Apps2sd only puts part of an app on sd. An average of 30% stays in device storage and you also need to put psx roms, media and mp3 media in that space. Not to mention hotswapping sd cards is not practical when using apps2sd.
Folks will learn the hard way. 380 megs on any Android device now, yet alone a gaming device is stupid.
Last edited by rushmore; April 2nd, 2011 at 03:05 PM.
Simple answer - don't buy it. Wait for the next PS certified device if need be. But you have gone on about this in numerous threads, as well as starting this one.
Simple answer - don't buy it. Wait for the next PS certified device if need be. But you have gone on about this in numerous threads, as well as starting this one.
Partly due to incredulity how Sony would not change this when they updated to the 8655 chipest. This device was supposed to release over a year ago, but was delayed due to the infamous PSP Go. Back then when the app market was smaller and less apps hogging device an phone data space, 380mb was not that bad.
Having the lowest space of any device in the past year, but having the only gamepad is a very bitter irony.
Got one yesterday and I love it. Pretty much all the apps I've downloaded are on the 16GB SD card that comes with it. Can't really see this being much of an issue tbh.
Haven't seen any one post anything about the the xplay battery..any one know what kind of time you can get off it ? whats the point having a damn psp phone if the battery don't last ...
Haven't seen any one post anything about the the xplay battery..any one know what kind of time you can get off it ? whats the point having a damn psp phone if the battery don't last ...
Battery life is meant to be reasonable. I should finally be getting my hands on it this week and I'll give my opinion on all of it once I've had a couple of days to play with it.
Well I've had mine for a day or so and so far the batterys held up pretty well. After a fully charging it in the day, I took it to work last night the night and probably did an hour or so of gaming (the bigger games it comes with, not standard Android games), lots of internet (FaceBook, Market etc.) texting and a few phone calls.
I didn't put it on charge when I got home and I even though haven't really used it much today, (a few texts and calls and a bit of Crash Bandicoot) the battery was still above 50% before I charged it. I've still yet to really stretch the battery to it's limits but from what I've seen so far I'd say it's at least on the same level as my old HTC Hero, and one charge a day was all that ever needed.
the app storrage he is complaining about is all on the SD. so there is no problem at all. Jester please write a review for us all.
How is having 380mb of app space not a problem? If you plan on being thrifty with app installs, you will be fine. If you plan on using apps2sd, that will buy you some time, but not practical to hot swap SD cards.
App junkies that expect to place current apps accumulated on the Play, will need to decide what they want to install.
Prior to 2.2, you would have needed the third-party apps2sd app to push apps to external storage. However, since Google built that feature into 2.2, that app is now obsolete.
Here are some reasons why 380mb should not be an issue:
1. Rushmore mentions that people are going to store media and MP3's on their internal storage. Why?? All of my photos/videos/music are stored on my 16gb SD card, since I have no reason to keep them in my valuable internal storage area.
2. Hot swapping SD cards is not a typical user practice, otherwise they would still design SD cards that are accessible from outside of the case. In fact, I can think of a few phones which require taking out the battery to get to the SD! Even if it doesn't, I would MUCH rather buy a bigger SD card than go through the hassle of taking off my case and then taking off the back panel every time I wanted to access files on a different SD.
3. My own current phone, for example. I have a Samsung Fascinate which has ~2gb internal storage. After 6 months and many dozens of games and apps, I'm using a grand total of 533mb. I haven't bothered moving apps to my SD since I have plenty of space, but I could easily move enough things off to put me well below that 380mb threshold - moving Need For Speed: Shift would save me 100mb by itself.
4. I don't know where that "30% stays on the internal storage" figure comes from, Rushmore, so let me provide a real-world example. Lets Golf from Gameloft - it takes up less than 5mb on internal storage, but 161mb on my SD card! I'm sure there are bad developers out there who might not be so thrifty with their internal-vs-SD data ratio, but I'm also sure the market would force them to correct that before long...
That being said, would I want a bigger internal storage area? Of course - I would enjoy having 32gb main storage like the iPhone has - but I doubt I would enjoy the higher price tag that would come along with it. Apple can get away with it because they know they will sell millions - no questions asked - so they can get a better price for components. Sony's target market is significantly smaller, so they can't get away with that.
In the end, Rushmore, I understand that because of how you might choose to utilize your phone, 380mb is not enough - and that's fine, but I don't think it is the death knell of this product. I don't see this as being an issue at all for me or - in my opinion - most users, so I'm still eagerly awaiting its arrival (hopefully on the 14th in the US?)...
dewalist, i will be awaiting it's arrival right along with ya
I am just ready for this device. Personally the amount of memory doesn't really bother me. I still use my ipod as my main music device because it is the only device that can hook up to my car and play the music. So the SD card will be perfect for apps and pics.
I dont think it is going to be a huge deal about the memory but having owned a mytouch 4g with 768 MB of ram, i am a bit disappointed but still excited for it nonetheless
1. Referring to actual app spec on the device. It only has 380mb. Even using apps2sd, this is not much space and is 50% of the one year old Inc and seven times less than the TB. This will not be a device for app fans to buy.
2. Was not referring to putting media in internal space. No internal media space is odd for a newer device (TB has none either), but if you are loading up PS1 games, media and app data from Android apps on the card, you will run out quickly with a 16gb.
3. In regards to item "2", the logical option would be swapping cards, but this will be an issue since you are using apps2sd for Android apps (they will not work).
The first thing most folks will do after buying this device will be to get a 32gb card. This is the exact same device that should have released a year ago and all they did was update the chipset. If they simply added an 8gb flash, they could have dedicated the rom to the firmware and then allocated some of the flash rom for app storage (like the Incredible or TB- catch is HTC screwed the TBs space up).
The big issue now will be if Sony cuts the control pad out for any "non optimized" app. I can see them doing this, since Sony wants you buying their stuff and not playing emulators or any apps not "optimized".
added: I can see the later life aftermarket for this device being BIG, since a hacked version of the Play will be a nice device for emulator fans. You KNOW Sony is thinking of the control pad function, just for their supported apps.
Last edited by rushmore; April 4th, 2011 at 09:00 AM.
I don't think there is any risk of Sony cutting out the use of the gamepad for 'non-xperia play' apps.
The reason I think this is that they've already publicly touted the gamepad's secondary function as additional hardware keys that can be used to navigate menus etc. Also, all the emulators worth having allow you to assign hardware keys for game control.
Well, I'm getting mine delivered tomorrow and I can't wait. Snesoid along with Zelda 3 and Super Mario World are going to be the first thing I put on it!
I don't think there is any risk of Sony cutting out the use of the gamepad for 'non-xperia play' apps.
The reason I think this is that they've already publicly touted the gamepad's secondary function as additional hardware keys that can be used to navigate menus etc. Also, all the emulators worth having allow you to assign hardware keys for game control.
Well, I'm getting mine delivered tomorrow and I can't wait. Snesoid along with Zelda 3 and Super Mario World are going to be the first thing I put on it!
I assumed that too, but they are touting the Sony Experience and pushing for optimized apps. Nice if Sony forgets the other apps and does not try to keep other apps out.
I would not be surprised to see a dual core Snap Dragon version of the Play, this Fall that also plays PSP games.
I assumed that too, but they are touting the Sony Experience and pushing for optimized apps. Nice if Sony forgets the other apps and does not try to keep other apps out.
I would not be surprised to see a dual core Snap Dragon version of the Play, this Fall that also plays PSP games.
So far, the pad has worked fine. I've used it in Opera Mini for navigation, no issues.
The only exception is that as far as I can tell, the touchpads can't be assigned to anything in non-play apps (I couldn't assign them in N64oid for example), but I'm guessing there's a techincal reason for that with them not being physical buttons.
Ok, here's the score on this memory issue from a new Play owner.
I'll just give you the fugures. You can do the maths.
Yesterday I came from a rooted GSM Hero, 8gb stick with a 250mb partition (700mb left on the stick). All the apps I wanted and plenty space for more (let's face it, I could've formatted the stick with a bigger partition anytime).
Today, I am typing this on my Play and the status is this:
All of the media transferred over to my new 16gb card that came boxed with the play.
90% of the apps I had on the Hero reinstalled to the play (- some junk !)
Anything internal that could be moved physically, via app storage, has been moved to SD.
6 games installed NOT Play optimized (Angry birds etc).
9 games installed PLAY OPTIMIZED.
1 PSX game.
SD card: 8.6gb used - 6.2gb free.
Internal storage: 256mb used - 124mb free.
Does this device have enough storage for my gaming needs the remainder of my 18month contract ?
It doesn't take a mathematician to say...
HELL NO !
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Ok, here's the score on this memory issue from a new Play owner.
I'll just give you the fugures. You can do the maths.
Yesterday I came from a rooted GSM Hero, 8gb stick with a 250mb partition (700mb left on the stick). All the apps I wanted and plenty space for more (let's face it, I could've formatted the stick with a bigger partition anytime).
Today, I am typing this on my Play and the status is this:
All of the media transferred over to my new 16gb card that came boxed with the play.
90% of the apps I had on the Hero reinstalled to the play (- some junk !)
Anything internal that could be moved physically, via app storage, has been moved to SD.
6 games installed NOT Play optimized (Angry birds etc).
9 games installed PLAY OPTIMIZED.
1 PSX game.
SD card: 8.6gb used - 6.2gb free.
Internal storage: 256mb used - 124mb free.
Does this device have enough storage for my gaming needs the remainder of my 18month contract ?
It doesn't take a mathematician to say...
HELL NO !
My basic point. App fans should probably avoid this device, due to Sony not providing more device storage. This device is almost two years old in the storage design. Major miss by Sony.
Most people that miss the storage
issue and like apps will end up selling the Play or app juggling.
Last edited by rushmore; April 13th, 2011 at 08:48 AM.
What makes you think that the Geohot issue would make anyone pause in rooting the Play? Other people had found ways to hack the PS3 before and Sony didn't pursue with as much aggression - heck, look at how many times and ways the PSP was hacked for homebrew. The problem came when Geohot found a way hack things in a bigger way - like making any app appear to be legit and Sony-approved, or hacking multiplayer games on the PSN and disrupt games there. THAT is when Sony brought the hammer down. I really don't think they will care enough to go after someone for rooting the phone - it isn't on the same scale of offense... Just my $.02...
Most people are not going to root and will not even notice the space issue until after 14 days and then they will be screwed. This device is PSP Go launch era old. All Sony did was update the chipset, since they had no choice, but kept the low space intact. Sony should have added a flash chip of at least 4gb and left the "rom" chip for firmware only. This is what every OEM has been doing a year now. Sony got lazy and will take a big sales hit for it.
Last edited by rushmore; April 13th, 2011 at 11:00 PM.
The Xperia Plays is one of the devices that they will unlock the bootloader on for you, making it a streamlined process to get full root access for. No worries.
Yes. Something does not add up here. Does Sony appreciate what would happen? This device could end up thriving, but for the wrong reasons- kind of like the PSP.
I am sticking with the thought that this device will have a far better afterlife as an old school game system, rather than an Android smartphone. This helps Sony very little, but old school gamers will appreciate it.
Then again, if Sony locks their games to the phone ID, they may have now worries for their titles.
My observation so far, judging by the volume of posts here & over at XDA is that the user base of the Xplay is currently rather low.
Which leads me to believe that people are choosing the device as a gaming device over their day to day smartphone.
Of course, the market consists purely of UK and Europe atm (not sure about Asia), so we'll see if there is any change come the North American release.
My observation so far, judging by the volume of posts here & over at XDA is that the user base of the Xplay is currently rather low.
Which leads me to believe that people are choosing the device as a gaming device over their day to day smartphone.
Of course, the market consists purely of UK and Europe atm (not sure about Asia), so we'll see if there is any change come the North American release.
Your observations are currently correct. Although a nice chunk of Droid 1 owners have just recently got their upgrade available and considering you can unlock the bootloader, many of those hackers will flock to this device. I read DroidForums every day and people complain about the new phones being locked down so many have been pleased with the news about this device.
...Which leads me to believe that people are choosing the device as a gaming device over their day to day smartphone.
I'm not so sure about that. This device really isn't strong enough to carry itself as a separate gaming device. Its strength is that it can be "one device" - phone and gaming in one. Some people don't want to carry a phone plus a separate device that has many of the same capabilities. Ignoring the DS/3DS market for a minute, I just don't see why anyone would pay off-contract prices for the Xperia Play to use it as a separate gaming device - not when the PSP2/NGP was re-confirmed as having a 2011 arrival.
As for the forum activity, I'm hoping it will spike once we pry a damn release date out of Verizon...
I was one of the people that would have bought it as my all in one, but the lack of storage space killed it for me. The main pushback will be folks that use a lot of apps and see the space issue when too late to return it. To everyone else- no harm, no foul.
I am looking for a new all in one phone like you are and I am hoping a friend of mine, or I get a test unit for my job will come through and I will be able to push it to the limit with storage so I can see if it is worth it to use my 32g SD card in it and how many games and apps I can hold. If it happens soon I will be sure to let you know about it and post pictures and review.
16 games installed NOT Play optimized (Angry birds etc).
25 games installed PLAY OPTIMIZED including 6 gameloft games that cant use app2sd (i think my gameloft games take up aout 80 meg of internal memory).
8 PSX games (2 from market and 6 of my own from ripped collection).
8 N64 Games
15 megadrive games
21 Snes Games
20 arcade games
25 none gaming apps downloaded from the market not including preinstalled apps.
SD card: 10.11gb used - 4.99gb free.
to give you an idea on whats used on the sd card:
3.6gb in roms
2.23gb in gameloft data
2 gb in other game data
500mb in music, 100 meg in pics
etc
Internal storage: 330mb used - 50mb free.
obviously the skys the limit for adding roms being a hardcore gamer/retro gamer i could easily add say another 500 snes games and megadrive games if i wanted to without taking up internal storage, way way more when i get my 32gb micro sd.
I really dont see what the fuss is about gaming wise, how many games do you want to carry around on the go!!? i must have weeks of constant gaming with me already, if i wanted to i could have months worth without worrying about space!! Gaming wise You are all flapping for no reason unless you like to play 100 different games from the market everyday and refuse to uninstall any meaning your either very rich/retired and have too much time on your hands or you are one stubborn moaning git!! (no offense to anyone lol)
And whoever said 30% off app2sd stays on internal storage is talking out of their behind! For example Air Attack hd is 41.22MB when installed to internal storage, once app2sd is used the game only takes 132KB of internal storage, do the math!!
To be fair to some above posters if your a heavy app user (not talking about games) and use 50+ non gaming apps a week then yer it could be an issue but dam thats a lot of apps to use but if thats the case there probably arent many phones that will cater for their needs currently.
Last edited by jkr284; April 19th, 2011 at 02:27 AM.
16 games installed NOT Play optimized (Angry birds etc).
25 games installed PLAY OPTIMIZED including 6 gameloft games that cant use app2sd (i think my gameloft games take up aout 80 meg of internal memory).
8 PSX games (2 from market and 6 of my own from ripped collection).
8 N64 Games
15 megadrive games
21 Snes Games
20 arcade games
25 none gaming apps downloaded from the market not including preinstalled apps.
SD card: 10.11gb used - 4.99gb free.
to give you an idea on whats used on the sd card:
3.6gb in roms
2.23gb in gameloft data
2 gb in other game data
500mb in music, 100 meg in pics
etc
Internal storage: 330mb used - 50mb free.
obviously the skys the limit for adding roms being a hardcore gamer/retro gamer i could easily add say another 500 snes games and megadrive games if i wanted to without taking up internal storage, way way more when i get my 32gb micro sd.
I really dont see what the fuss is about gaming wise, how many games do you want to carry around on the go!!? i must have weeks of constant gaming with me already, if i wanted to i could have months worth without worrying about space!! Gaming wise You are all flapping for no reason unless you like to play 100 different games from the market everyday and refuse to uninstall any meaning your either very rich/retired and have too much time on your hands or you are one stubborn moaning git!! (no offense to anyone lol)
And whoever said 30% off app2sd stays on internal storage is talking out of their behind! For example Air Attack hd is 41.22MB when installed to internal storage, once app2sd is used the game only takes 132KB of internal storage, do the math!!
To be fair to some above posters if your a heavy app user (not talking about games) and use 50+ non gaming apps a week then yer it could be an issue but dam thats a lot of apps to use but if thats the case there probably arent many phones that will cater for their needs currently.
Apps & games add up real quick. Especially gamers and a lot of good Android stuff releasing. I am waaaay over 50 apps. For apps2sd, it depends on the app and the resources the app uses for how much stays in the device storage. The average is 30%, but can be higher or lower, depending on the apps.
I have a 32 gb sd card in my Droid X that I will be bringing with me to the Play and I have every single Gameloft HD game, 3 PSX games, all from ISO's, 3 N64 games, 25 snes games, 10 SEGA games, 8 GBA games, 4 NES games, 1 GBC game, 120 pictures taken, all via my camera, all of Kanye Wests albums, and 45 non-gaming apps. I have as much as I can installed on my card rather than the phone and I am only using about 40% of my card. I have room for so much more still.
Apps & games add up real quick. Especially gamers and a lot of good Android stuff releasing. I am waaaay over 50 apps.
I think you're in the minority on this, and so yeah, maybe the Play isn't the device for you. I've been in Android for well over a year, I am more than a casual gamer, and the fancy new market.android.com site shows that I've downloaded ~80 games and apps. I don't have that many still installed - that's just what I've downloaded and tried. Also, I expect that once I have the Play I will download fewer of the simple puzzle games since I will have better games to enjoy.
As for the 30%, rushmore, where are you getting that figure from? I would like to see the source who lists what apps and games make up that average. 30% of a 5mb game is insignificant, but 30% of a 150mb game is more of a concern...
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I think you're in the minority on this, and so yeah, maybe the Play isn't the device for you. I've been in Android for well over a year, I am more than a casual gamer, and the fancy new market.android.com site shows that I've downloaded ~80 games and apps. I don't have that many still installed - that's just what I've downloaded and tried. Also, I expect that once I have the Play I will download fewer of the simple puzzle games since I will have better games to enjoy.
As for the 30%, rushmore, where are you getting that figure from? I would like to see the source who lists what apps and games make up that average. 30% of a 5mb game is insignificant, but 30% of a 150mb game is more of a concern...
An accumulation of forum discussion and app testing since the G1 days (bought one on launch day). I have been rooting and messing with Android since then and only took one side step to the POORLY supported N900 (Nokia can bite me).
As I mentioned, the total can be higher or lower, depending on the apps and what resources they use and the fact that some do not support apps2sd. It is not a linear value to apply.
Seems the best solution for the X Play would have been:
1. 16gb or 32gb internal with 2gb allocation for apps and balance for app data and PSX games
2. Microsd for media
The problem ALL devices without internal storage will see is with Icecream or any other Honeycomb spin-off. They use dynamic storage, so the device must have internal storage and external (microsd) is not an option for this, due to security.
That said, I am happy with 2.2. Flash media and game emulators work sweet Just wish I had a cool d-pad like you guys
Perhaps a X Play 2 this fall?
1. Dual core
2. 32gb internal
3. PSP game support
Probably a pipe dream, since the NGP will be arriving late 2011.
Last edited by rushmore; April 20th, 2011 at 10:12 AM.
I would agree that a Play 2 this fall isn't going to happen. I can't think of any phone that came out with a dramatic improvement successor within 6 months.
What you describe is confusingly overpowered. You don't need dual-core to run PSP games - it is only a 333mhz processor, so I'm fairly sure the current hardware of the Play can support them. Are other current phones coming out with 16-32gb onboard memory? The latest-and-greatest Thunderbolt only has 8gb onboard, with a 32gb card. Remember, with the PSP2/NGP coming out this fall, I'd rather not spend $400 for this device - plus, it is supposed to be a step down, not a direct competitor.
Besides the obvious issue being the cost of onboard flash, I personally think they went with the emphasis on MicroSD mainly because they didn't want to be dinged for "only" having 16gb to store games. If you let people use removable media, they can buy as many cards as they want or buy bigger cards when those become available. Sony is counting on developers who make bigger (10mb or more) games to have the majority of their data on the card and not using the onboard memory. Think about it - a developer would be stupid to make a 100mb game and not support moving to SD because anyone with even moderate space issues is not going to download it.
I would agree that a Play 2 this fall isn't going to happen. I can't think of any phone that came out with a dramatic improvement successor within 6 months.
What you describe is confusingly overpowered. You don't need dual-core to run PSP games - it is only a 333mhz processor, so I'm fairly sure the current hardware of the Play can support them. Are other current phones coming out with 16-32gb onboard memory? The latest-and-greatest Thunderbolt only has 8gb onboard, with a 32gb card. Remember, with the PSP2/NGP coming out this fall, I'd rather not spend $400 for this device - plus, it is supposed to be a step down, not a direct competitor.
Besides the obvious issue being the cost of onboard flash, I personally think they went with the emphasis on MicroSD mainly because they didn't want to be dinged for "only" having 16gb to store games. If you let people use removable media, they can buy as many cards as they want or buy bigger cards when those become available. Sony is counting on developers who make bigger (10mb or more) games to have the majority of their data on the card and not using the onboard memory. Think about it - a developer would be stupid to make a 100mb game and not support moving to SD because anyone with even moderate space issues is not going to download it.
Also - why is SD use a security issue?
I was not equating PSP games with the dual core
The TB is not out of the woods either, since it really does not have 8gb internal (HTC killed 4gb for stability reasons).
All moot anyway for folks that are lighter on apps. No harm no foul.
Enjoy the Play I will troll eBay for a used one, later in the year. This would replace my Dingoo- BIG time
Rushmore has trolled 4 different forums complaining about internal memory space, all while not understanding, even remotely, how absolutely useless it is to have Iphone style internal storages in the current Android world where the status quo for developers is to ignore media on internal storage and focus on the SD. Don't worry about him, he tries to rain on everyone's parade.
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The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is an Android-based device totally focused on gaming featuring a dedicated slideout keypad with a familiar Playstation layout. It's one of the most unique phones yet and is the first Android handset designed specif... Read More
Play's device app storage only 400mb?! Even worse- 380mb
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