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Thinking of buying an xperia play

Delsus

Android Enthusiast
May 14, 2011
329
60
Hey guys, i'm a regular on the LG GT540 forums.

I am thinking of upgrading my phone and because I am an avid gamer, I was thinking the xperia play would be an ideal choice.

I was just wondering what the phone is like to use in every day life, of paticular interest are:

How responsive is the screen?

What is battery life like using costant 3g?

What are the game controls like?

Whats the RAM usage like?

Whats the general perfomance like?

I ask these paticular ones because my current phone (LG GT540 running Swiftdroid custom ROM) the screen is aweful, constant miss types, the batterylife is really bad, only lasts 1 day, less if I am using it all the time, and about 3hrs using a wireless teather, obviously it has no game controls, and things like emulators are impossible to play because of the resistive touchscreen (single touch). The RAM is tiny and apps are constantly restarting to free up RAM for other things (I cant use skype IMs and listen to music) and it is really really slow at times.

Thanks in advance for any help, I just wanna know this before I commit to a contract, also if there are any downsides to the phone please post them, my "thanks" clicking finger is getting ready.
 
I just recently got this phone, so I can't give you an opinion from a long term use view, but I'll try to answer some of your questions.
The touchscreen is very responsive, imo. I sometimes accidently tap things while trying the use the soft keys...
The battery life on my particular version (At&t play 4g) is pretty abysmal :(. It lasts about a day with moderate use. However, I've read good reports about battery life elsewhere, so maybe this is carrier specific.
The game controls are very good, similar to pspgo imo (a little smaller). Very responsive. I haven't tried emulators yet, but have read good reports of the controls working well for those.
By RAM usage I assume you mean memory allocated to running apps and such. So far I have not had any problems with RAM being used up, sometimes a brief slowdown during a game, but it goes away quick. However, I tend to carefully monitor my memory usage and always close memory hogging apps after I finish using them. Multi tasking is great, but I try to keep it at a minimum.
General performance for me is quite snappy. It's a very polished product, hardware and software wise (except for some small home screen/menu landscape mode issues which hopefully will be addressed soon).
Personally, I think it's a great phone. I could have afforded a better spec'd one (dual core, more ram, etc) but I'm perfectly satisfied with my XP4G.
Hope that helps at least a little.
 
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I just recently got this phone, so I can't give you an opinion from a long term use view, but I'll try to answer some of your questions.
The touchscreen is very responsive, imo. I sometimes accidently tap things while trying the use the soft keys...
The battery life on my particular version (At&t play 4g) is pretty abysmal :(. It lasts about a day with moderate use. However, I've read good reports about battery life elsewhere, so maybe this is carrier specific.
The game controls are very good, similar to pspgo imo (a little smaller). Very responsive. I haven't tried emulators yet, but have read good reports of the controls working well for those.
By RAM usage I assume you mean memory allocated to running apps and such. So far I have not had any problems with RAM being used up, sometimes a brief slowdown during a game, but it goes away quick. However, I tend to carefully monitor my memory usage and always close memory hogging apps after I finish using them. Multi tasking is great, but I try to keep it at a minimum.
General performance for me is quite snappy. It's a very polished product, hardware and software wise (except for some small home screen/menu landscape mode issues which hopefully will be addressed soon).
Personally, I think it's a great phone. I could have afforded a better spec'd one (dual core, more ram, etc) but I'm perfectly satisfied with my XP4G.
Hope that helps at least a little.

I could imagine 4g would use more battery life than 3g, we cant get 4g in UK because the auction for the spectrum is going at a snails pace, which is quite anoying, damn beuocracy. but there was some good info in there.

Thanks.
 
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I could imagine 4g would use more battery life than 3g,

Actually, it's just the phone's name. Its a faux 4g, basically a 3G+. I believe the battery issue is related to the 3.3.3 firmware mine runs on. Apparently, the 3.3.2 had much better battery life. Check and see what your carriers version will run on (some are already at 3.3.4, maybe the battery issue was fixed).
 
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