My Xperia Play arrived from Verizon this morning! So far, having not even played with a demo unit, I am impressed! The screen looks slightly smaller than on my Fascinate, but I know they are both 4" so it could just be perspective. I was expecting some big fat thing, but it is surprisingly svelte. It has less area around the screen than my Fascinate, so it is actually shorter and less wide. It is, of course, thicker than my Fascinate - unless I put the slim case on it (which is how I usually had it) - then it is not so different. It is noticeably heavier, but again - not as bad as I had expected. One annoyance - putting the Play flat on my desk, and then pressing one of the four bottom buttons causes it to rock, since the back is curved. Oh, well - I have a dock for it when at work so that won't be a big issue. It seems quite fast - about the same as my Fascinate when just generally moving around. I've only tried the Bruce Lee game for a couple of minutes, but I very much like the controls (even though they are tiny for my fingers). The graphics look very good, from what little I have seen. As for storage space, I quickly loaded the top 20-30 of the apps that I use the most, went into the settings and moved over the bigger ones - and I still have 196mb free. Sorry, Rushmore, but you don't get my vote in railing Sony on this point. Would I like to have more space and not have to move things to SD - sure - who wouldn't? But I absolutely think the space is reasonable and not going to be a problem for the average-to-above average consumer. Rushmore, I might not agree that you NEED as many apps as you have installed, but that is your choice and you have to accept that doing so puts you into a very small percentage of users - and in this case it will likely prevent you from using what is otherwise a great device. I'll post some more thoughts on my Play as they occur, but I really am supposed to be working so I should at least make an attempt to do so...
This observation might be subjective, so please don't take my word for it - go to a Verizon store and take a look at the demo unit... So, I held up my Fascinate and my Play both on the same picture with max brightness, and yes - the Fascinate was brighter and more colorful. I expected that, though - Samsung is known for having amazing screens. Now that being said, I wouldn't call the Play dim - I would estimate it is about 75% as bright as the Fascinate. It seems perfectly reasonable and comparable to other non-Samsung phones that I have used.
so jealous dewalist and i am glad to hear that about the memory! I figured as much that some people were blowing it out of proportion
I was glad too! I haven't finished installing all of the 50+ apps I had on my Fascinate, but I don't expect to dip below 125mb free - if even that much. It is worth keeping an eye on, though... An additional note of minor disappointment. The notifcation LED is on the power button, which is on the top of the device and pretty much pointing backwards. So I can't see it if the phone is lying down in a normal position, and I can't see it when it is in the dock either. I suppose it is still an improvement over my Fascinate, which didn't have any LED at all, but...
Thanks for the update Dewalist! I'm also relieved to hear about the memory issue, I have no problem running apps from the SD but was nervous when some people said not all apps could do that. I'd still be tempted to try and remove some Verizon apps without rooting if possible. I'd rather have my updates come through official channels then risk not having the latest version running properly. I will admit this will be my first Android device though so I'm new to all of this. You should have just called in sick today
Thanks for posting about it. It's a matter of time before Rushmore comes in here to counter the storage argument. I even saw him commenting several times about it on Phandroids/Chris Chavez's review . It's still more than my Droid has and I haven't had any storage issues with it since 2.2+ has been out (when app SD installation was officially introduced). I plan on rooting it ASAP anyways when I get it to remove any bloatware that's on it, so that's even more available to me. I should prolly go ahead and order it myself, but I want to go to an actual store to get it just go verify I'll like the hardware and form factor. With the Droid X2, Revolution and Trophy coming out this Thursday, it'll be fun to try out all the new phones at the store too and maybe one will sway my decision at the last second, but I doubt it. If the Samsung Function (Galaxy S 2) was due out in the next couple weeks, I would wait for it, but I can't stand my Droid any longer. Running 2.3+ ROMs on it is just too much for it as far as RAM is concerned. It doesn't allow anything to be running in the background for long before its measly 256 MB wall is hit.
My screen is great. I went from the iPhone to the play and I'm loving it more and more every day. I keep learning new things.
"I figured as much that some people were blowing it out of proportion" How so? The memory sucks ass on this phone. I have hundreds of apps on my iPhone and there is no way I hell I could get close to that on this thing. You have to go in and move some apps to the sd card and not every app will let you. And even if it does it leaves a part on the phone. I have maybe 20 games/apps on now and have 103MB free and 277MB used. I'm very disappointed considering this phone is meant for games.
Also most of the games I have are small shitty free trials or small casual games. I plan to buy bigger games as they come out. I have 6 big games from game loft because the bastards ripped me off.
Good stuff dewalist. This is my first Droid phone, after having LG phones followed by a BB Tour I can't wait to give this thing a go! I'm so tired of not having as many apps on the BB and no flash was a bummer. I'm also psyched as a PSP owner. I feel lucky this came to Verizon. I hope you're enjoying it, I'll get mine tomorrow hopefully someone is here to sign for it
Just an opinion that i have. I felt it was blown out of proportion is all. As long as apps2sd is there and the apps i currently use are able to use that feature, then i'm cool with the limited space. i'd love more...but it what it is
"I'm also psyched as a PSP owner" Sorry to be the barrier of bad news. This is not a PSP. At least to yet. It will be cool if they release PSP games for it but as of now it is not. It plays PS ones games Though.
"i'd love more...but it what it is" Not trying to argue i just think it's stupid and if I had of known I probably would have passed and I have almost all consoles.
140 apps installed here, (74 android games, 9 emulators with 180 roms for emulation, 56 android apps), and 89 meg free, no memory problems, nuff said.
I'll probably end up getting one, but I really don't understand why they didn't work in some sort of PSN integration.
I promised DeadlyD I would shut up about storage space, so am powerless to retort. I am retortless now, but Chris agreed completely and even updated his review. As far as the display, it looks okay on its own, but looks dim and washed out compared to other devices. It looked real rough compared to the Charge and DX2, when side by side. Added: Seems so unSony to be dim like that, but your eyes do adjust to it. I'm now shutting up about the display, too. Oh yeah, carmendiva, your icon destracts me....... there, happened again!
I just paid for apps to sd pro or something and so far it only filters the movable apps which was worth the price to me. Other than that you can move these apps without it. I install a bunch of games at a time then have to check all apps again to see which ones I can move. This saves me time but not space. It will build up.
Be careful, since you may get to a point where swapping cards makes the device unstable. If you will never remove the card, no problem. Some apps are not stable when moved.
Does this count the six Gameloft games you have that are big? I'm just wondering because I have over 30 apps/games and I'm at 157mb used with a fair amount of them moved over. Of the remaining ones, I only have three that are over 5mb and none over 10mb. Granted, I haven't USED them much, so maybe I'm not seeing a cache issue... Also, Ncaissie, I agree that this is no PSP. When it was first announced I had hoped it would be powerful enough to run PSP-quality games, but if Madden is any indication, that is not the case. The installed version of Madden does not come close to the PSP version in terms of graphics, depth, or gameplay. However, I think the Play is "good enough" for my mobile gaming itch, because it is fun enough to outweigh the hassle of carrying a second device. Touchscreen games rarely met that benchmark, and usually not for very long. Having the Play will allow me to officially hand my PSP down to my son, and will carry me through until the beast that is the NGP/PSP2 arrives at the end of the year... I agree - they should have made their Play-specific games part of some PSN/Market crossover. Even better would be to let some Android games be released as PS3/PSP Minis (or the reverse). It seems like a missed cross-branding opportunity to me... Well, that hardly seems like you, rushmore - what's wrong? I don't think anyone disagrees with you that it is a relatively small amount of space. You just seemed to be calling it a massive failure and barely enough to hold a flashlight app. With some care, it can be a perfectly reasonable amount for the majority of users. As with all things, this isn't for everyone, and for what it's worth I'm sorry if the way you choose to operate your device makes the Play a bad choice for you - it sounds like you really would have enjoyed it as an all-in-one phone/gaming/emulator device. "I know, right??" (PS3 commercial reference intentional). "I'm a married spud, I'm a married spud!" (a movie reference this time). Well, if I'm quoting kids movies, that must mean it is time for bed...
LOL i will change it soon I actually don't even pay much attention to it haha and i love that movie(it was Toy story 1 or 2 i think?
