Related
today i had the opportunity to attend the Xperia Play launch event here in London and managed to have a play with err well the Play! so i thought i might aswell put across my first impressions of it to you guys and any potential buyers!
* take note any reference to the PSP will be based on the PSP phat, not PSP Slim or PSP Go.
first thing i noticed when i saw the phone and held it, its actually not that big or bulky at all, in-fact i think it could do with a 4.2" or 4.3" screen. but the 4" screen and the phone dimensions are pretty well balanced, its really not that big a brick at all.
now the screen. we were indoors, in a very dark area, so i cant vouch for in-direct-daylight viewing but at least indoors; the screen was crisp, sharp and clear. the brightness i thought was absolutely fine, no more or less than any other phone tbh (bar AMOLED!). that said it is no AMOLED screen, it does'nt compare, but it is definitely better than your average LCD screen, by how much? i guess that'll change from person to person.
The performance? i'm going to talk about gaming performance first. hmm this was hit and miss tbh and i will partly blame the Qualcomm/Adreno setup. i never really liked Qualcomm or Adreno chips tbh as i think they are behind the game and have been for some time, this thing could have done with something similar to a hummingbird processor or at the very least chuck in a PowerVR GPU. Asphalt 6 for me was NOT running at 60fps, there was lagg, was'nt huge tbh but it was there and if you're picky (like me) you'll notice it. same goes for the Spider Man HD game that was on the phone, no way was it running at 60fps. again it was'nt bad bad lagg, but if you're used to smooth as honey gaming, you will notice it.
on the other hand i tested Bruce Lee Dragon warrior, which i can say did run very very well and can believe the 60fps quote. also tested fifa 10 and this also worked very well.
now i have to stress, this being a demo phone every Tom, **** and Harry had their mitts onto it so i did check running services after i closed the games and there were a hell of a lot of **** running in the background, heck there were two instances of the music player open! how much of this affected the 60fps performance? i do not know, but i sure hope it did and that was the root of the lowered fps count.
the controls themselves? hmm again, for me, it was a hit and miss but i defo need more time to give a honest review on this part. the controls felt quite a fair bit different to any playstation console controller or PSP controls that i had ever used. the D-pad and X,O,Triangle,and Square have this clicky sound when pressed. guess some people will like this others wont. i found them a bit stiff to use tbh, i can see pulling off a hadouken on this d-pad will be harder than you think. it just did'nt feel the way i thought it should. the control's size seems a little smaller aswell, probably as expected to fit in such a device though. i do hope these controls do "break-in" over time and will allow you to become more fluid in their operation.
The shoulder buttons were better imo, they pressed in easy enough and were responsive. however i had some fidgety moments trying to use the face buttons and shoulder buttons together, although shifting my hand position seemed to help a bit. i guess you just need to get used to it.
And lastly the analogue touch pad thingies. to be honest i was pleasantly surprised by these! they actually work very very well IMO! in fact while i was playing FIFA and spider man HD i actually moved to the analogue touch pads out of preference (probably helped on by the stiff'ish d-pad!) and they worked like a treat! the indentations really help and you dont need to look down at all to see where your thumbs are placed. i was quite impressed by them.
well theres my mini review guys, hope it helps some of you out there to make a decision. IMO if you want a nice smartphone; look elsewhere, the galaxy S II, Motorola Atrix, LG Optimus 2X, etc would probably be much better choices. But if you want a gaming smartphone? i think you cant get better than the Xperia Play, because, come on, lets face it, you cant beat physical controls!
As for me, my Xperia Play arrives tomorrow in the post and i cant wait to chuck on some Emulator madness!
UPDATE: i've recieved my xperia play, for the record you get a 16gb class 2 card with it and they also provide you with a screen protector (not fitted).
Thanks for your review my xperia play hoping arrives tomorrow. Just depends on Royal Mail. I'll post my findings on XDA too.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Thanks for the review my xperia play will hopfully come in today if not tommorow by UPS
Will post my findings about it aswell
Although I think it will be positive to play all my childhood games again
yay! i've just received my xperia play! for the record you get a 16gb class 2 card with it and they also provide you with a screen protector (not fitted).
Can someone confirm whether the screen is plasstic?
I really wanted this phone but having a plastic screen and not glass is a deal breaker for me.
its hard to tell, becuase there seems to be a screen protector already fitted on the screen by default (ignore my previous post! had a closer look). so you cant really tell if its plastic or glass :/
so there is already a screen protector installed? no need to buy one more or evne use the one it comes with??
yh as far as i can tell there seems to be one installed, looks very well done. plus you get a spare one in the box. so alls good.
I got the phone today and ran it thought a few tests.
First of all - Beware! If you're getting the phone from the UK but are not currently in the UK, it seems Playstation Pocket is unavailable in many countries still. I am in Ireland and it's not available for me yet. I contacted support and hope it'll be enabled soon.
Let's get to the performance - Quadrant does around 1600, Linpack around 38. All in all, a little disappointing, it's about as high as the Nexus One gets. I'm pretty sure that's because it's still running a rather early build of the software. Let's see how well it'll perform with Android 2.3.3, I'm sure there's still a lot to improve.
The screen feels solid and nice, it's hard to tell if it's plastic or glass, to be honest. Feels a lot like the screen of the Nexus S. It supports a 4-point-multitouch and it works well. The Notification-LED supports all colors from red to white, the Playstation controls work really nice, but I had troubles with the analog sticks - altho I didn't really need them much. The buttons work awesome for emulators and even quite a lot of normal Android-Games, like Radiant and EVAC HD.
The browser is fast and the flash player works great. All in all, it's quite nice and it got quite some potential. Altho I miss the Notification power widget from the Touchwiz/Cyanogenmod roms
Thanks Meister!
I really want to get a Play and sell my DroidX. Problem is, I'm not sure it would be an actual upgrade. I really want dedicated controls, but benchmark scores are lower than my non-overclocked X. *sigh* what to do, what to do.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Tornlogic said:
Thanks Meister!
I really want to get a Play and sell my DroidX. Problem is, I'm not sure it would be an actual upgrade. I really want dedicated controls, but benchmark scores are lower than my non-overclocked X. *sigh* what to do, what to do.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it after the Galaxy S and for me, it really was an upgrade. Not on a hardware side, it's still in that Droid 2/X - Galaxy S/G2/DHD Range, but it's still absolutely worth it for the controls. Being able to play Zelda like that with my phone? So freakin' worth it. Aside from that, it looks really sleek and feels great. True, the screen isn't Super Amoled, but it's very good, and true, the Software still feels a little rushed but... Compared to what the Galaxy S shipped with, it's pretty amazing. And when looking back at what we where able to finally make out of the Galaxy S, I think this thing got a great future. Aside from that, the Dual Core phones still seem to be plagued by a lot of issues like battery drain, performance hickups and the like - this one is very consistent and running Zelda in an GBA Emulator for about 30 Minutes drained 3% Battery. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's pretty good, I'd say
holy **** im so on the fence but comments like yours make me want to get it now. stupid rogers not accepting orders yet.
Zub7 said:
its hard to tell, becuase there seems to be a screen protector already fitted on the screen by default (ignore my previous post! had a closer look). so you cant really tell if its plastic or glass :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like the shatter proof skin that se put on the x10, this would suggest that the screen is glass. The x10 screen felt very plasticky to me initially.
The xplay might still be in the running for my monies.
Tornlogic said:
Thanks Meister!
I really want to get a Play and sell my DroidX. Problem is, I'm not sure it would be an actual upgrade. I really want dedicated controls, but benchmark scores are lower than my non-overclocked X. *sigh* what to do, what to do.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BenchMarks don't tell the whole story, this machine is fast when playing action games. using FPSE I get 55- 60 fps sustained on Tekken 2, Tekken 3 & Gran turismo
The quadrant scores are skewed by the IO tests like the stock Galaxy S.
Techdread said:
BenchMarks don't tell the whole story, this machine is fast when playing action games. using FPSE I get 55- 60 fps sustained on Tekken 2, Tekken 3 & Gran turismo
The quadrant scores are skewed by the IO tests like the stock Galaxy S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gran Turismo!?!? Did you say Gran Turismo?!? Dude if that's running smooth and controls are spot on, I'm so getting this phone.
But you're right, benchies, don't tell the whole story. How is web and flash performance? I feel on my X things are a bit sluggish. Scrolling around, its as if I'm seeing 10-15fps.
Also, is the screen readable outside on a sunny day. It is on an X, but you have to strain.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
The screen is perfectly readable in sunlight and flash content as well as websites load, scroll and play very smooth.
Niiice. Thanks so much
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Okay, after two days with playing around with it, some pro and contras.
Pro:
- Great screen! It's vibrant, bright, perfectly readable. The blacks are not as awesome as on Amoled-Displays, naturally, but it looks a lot better than normal TFTs, I'd say it's closest to the iPhone 4's IPS display.
- Great controls! The controls are awesome. It's amazing what a difference it makes to have actual buttons to press, ESPECIALLY in Emulator games. GBA, NES, SNES, Gameboy, PSOne, they all work perfectly with this thing.
- It feels good in the hand - with the game controls slided out or in, it always feels comfortable to hold. The screen is small enough to be used with one hand, but big enough to enjoy movies and games on it.
Contra:
- The software is still a little wonky. Especially the auto-brightness seems to be working only sometimes. Still, you can set the brightness manually, so it's not so bad until it's fixed. Also, the performance is still a little hit or miss sometimes. For example, while the Galaxy S has pretty consistent FPS in Quadrant, it wildly varies on this device - The DNA only has 15 FPS, while the Planets have 59. On the Galaxy S both had about 30. I'm pretty sure that's a software issue as well, tho.
- The internal Memory is quite tiny, especially with the pre-installed games. You can move most apps and games to the SDCard, which is insanely fast, really. I never noticed a difference in the speed to launch a game from SD or internal memory. However, some games, apparently especially Gameloft games, don't allow you to install them on SD Card. Hopefully, with root access, we can uninstall some of the useless apps and games to free up more space.
- The Notification LED is hard to see. It's nice it has one, but it's hard to see when the phone is on the table.
- No Notification power Widget, no Gingerbread Screenoff-Animation. I'm pretty sure those two will come once the sources and Root are released.
Very odd that a lot of reviews are complaining about the screen brightness. I'm inclined to think it's a sporadic software bug associated with the auto-brightness feature, but that might be wishful thinking!
Barguast said:
Very odd that a lot of reviews are complaining about the screen brightness. I'm inclined to think it's a sporadic software bug associated with the auto-brightness feature, but that might be wishful thinking!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't really agree to those reviews. When you manually set the brightness on max, that thing is bright as all hell and perfectly readable even in direct sunlight. So the screen defiantly is able to be very bright. It's just the auto-brightness software that's wonks.
So simple question really has anyone had any experience using both? (specifically the wifi only tab which I have which is worse than the 3g model)
I use my tab for reading books, reading comics and browsing the net. I have a gs2 so for gaming it is much better than my tab. I wont be doing much else than what I have listed so what do you guys think which is better?
Well overall the device is good enough for what you need it for, gaming (if you ever wish to) shouldn't be a problem on this due to the tegra 2 processor. Honeycomb is being ported and so far so good so that's a plus. Although the viewing angles on the screen are horrible, front on its beautiful but try looking at it from the sides its quite bad.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
M..N said:
Well overall the device is good enough for what you need it for, gaming (if you ever wish to) shouldn't be a problem on this due to the tegra 2 processor. Honeycomb is being ported and so far so good so that's a plus. Although the viewing angles on the screen are horrible, front on its beautiful but try looking at it from the sides its quite bad.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I agree...the screen is horrendous. Little bit chunky...but over all a decent wee tablet. With external hdd support using usb host (fat32 seemed to work best for me)...then onto your big hdtv! Cant do that on a ipad haha!
Ive not used the original galaxy tab...but im guessing sammy has used a nice screen...I would keep it if you already have the sgs2.
badasschris said:
I use my tab for reading books, reading comics and browsing the net.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer is NO, the viewing angle is really small and (at least for me) at an very awkward angle for intensive reading and only works well in landscape mode. For reading I prefer white on black, but the backlight is bleeding like crazy.
Although I believe there have been some attempts, to replace the screen with one that has a better viewing angle.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
badasschris said:
So simple question really has anyone had any experience using both? (specifically the wifi only tab which I have which is worse than the 3g model)
I use my tab for reading books, reading comics and browsing the net. I have a gs2 so for gaming it is much better than my tab. I wont be doing much else than what I have listed so what do you guys think which is better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO
Yes, you get a tablet with a bigger screen, same performance, 3G connection, and HoneyComb (in development).
Thanks guys for your helpful replies.
I think for me the tab probably is better but I just have to get used to the fact it is a rather limited device. I've always thought the Advent vega looked like excellent value for money but as I use my tab pretty much exclusively for reading/comics and web I shouldn't get annoyed that it is not very good at doing much else.
No!
The Tab's screen may be smaller but it really is night and day between it and the Vega's screen as far as viewing angles and sheer quality goes!
If all you want is a bigger screen then yes, the Vega is amazing value for money. I'm typing this on mine right now! However I'm using an allternative ROM, launcher, browser etc because out of the box it's just useless.
It definitely has problems though, I mean it took me quite some time to get the software to make it behave the way I wanted to, the colours are very washed out (Samsung's screens on the other hand are very good with colour) and the 16:9 presentation is quite useless for anything but movies , especially with the huge menu bar the thing comes with if you don't mod it. Finally, the accelerometer has problems with games, I've not yet had an accelerometer-based game work properly on it...
I bought mine to showcase my portfolio without carrying a load of paper around and for that purpose it's pretty good but it really could do with better colours.
Since updating to Gingerbread, I have had a problem with low resolution games.
On Froyo, low resolution games would hug the corner and display the full screen with a sort of black "L" around it. With this, I would be able to control the whole game with no problem except for the black bordering. On Gingerbread, the game centers in on the screen with a black border all around the game screen. This would be excellent except for the fact that it cuts off some of the game screen making that piece unseen and unable to interacted with.
I'm not sure if this can be fixed or if it can only be solved by the developer updating with scaling in mind. Any help would be appreciated.
If anyone is curious, the game I was playing was Crazy Penguin Catapult.
What do you want to play, Pacman?
From the Mighty Atrix 4G
Bagel Bear said:
Since updating to Gingerbread, I have had a problem with low resolution games.
On Froyo, low resolution games would hug the corner and display the full screen with a sort of black "L" around it. With this, I would be able to control the whole game with no problem except for the black bordering. On Gingerbread, the game centers in on the screen with a black border all around the game screen. This would be excellent except for the fact that it cuts off some of the game screen making that piece unseen and unable to interacted with.
I'm not sure if this can be fixed or if it can only be solved by the developer updating with scaling in mind. Any help would be appreciated.
If anyone is curious, the game I was playing was Crazy Penguin Catapult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if it would help, but have you tried turning off Compatibility Mode using Spare Parts?
What it is or what I believe it is from my own experience is that the dev has the min api level set to 3 or less.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Hello to all, Im Xan and this is my first post
Id like to ask those o you who are already 7.7 owners how good the tablet is as an eReader.
how good the reading app included is? (I've watched some promo vids and it seemed a little laggy)
I think it has a "night" mode where the background turns black and the text is in white. Is it pitch black or just dark ? i mean, does that black gives some light?
Im a happy kindle owner but it has obvious limitations..since its not a tablet.
Tablets are good for a lot of things but almost all them use screen technology not suitable for reading
(so far the pixel Qi and mirasol tablets in the market have been a dissapointment)
This is the first tablet with a Samoled screen...thats why im asking how good it is as an ereader,
how it treats your eyes during a 90 min reading session? does the night mode makes things better?
Its a lot of money, so if im buying this tablet i want to kwow i can totally replace my kindle.
Thanks for your time
Dear xangroba,
I do not have the samsung 7.7, and I am a junior adviser, but I know the super amoled technology.
An e-ink reader as the kindle and the sony is the best solution to read since are not backlighted, so your eyes are not stressed after one work day with the PC, nightmode is nice but not the solution in my opinion.
Still I think I ll buy this new device because ezpdfreader and repligo are really cool, and manage annotations in a better way, and are continuosly updated.
I strongly suggest you to take both with you, in the end is less than 500 grams to bring around.
If you do not have a tablet samsung 7.7 is amazing in my opinion. No price to play chess, surf the web, annotate documents on the go, every avid reader could love this, epsecially in these "cloud" times
Reading on the 7.7 is fun. I read a lot and tried many ereaders, and this is finally device that meets all my requirements (light, gorgeous screen, fast, easy to hold with one hand ..yet a big screen)
To reduce eye strain I use an app that allows me to set a custom background. I have set it to a particular shade of gray so that the illumination and color corresponds to the color and illumination of light that is reflected by a book or paper.
The night mode is fantastic for reading in the dark. And of course because of the amoled screen it almost uses no battery power.
(Btw no reader app is laggy on this 1.4 ghz processor )
Thanks for the reply.
Can you tell me the name of the app you are talking? (or other similar apps for that matter...that you may know of).
so...can I induce (...ehem...deduce) that the eye strain problem is negligible to nonexistent?
perhaps youre talking about dimming, dimming its something you can do with other tablets, why the reading experience its better with this one?
xangroba said:
Thanks for the reply.
Can you tell me the name of the app you are talking? (or other similar apps for that matter...that you may know of).
so...can I induce that the eye strain problem is negligible to nonexistent?
perhaps youre talking about dimming, dimming its something you can do with other tablets, why the reading experience its better with this one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I set the brightness to a minimum. But that's not enough. The problem is the illumination of the background. This can be customized by setting a different background color (if you like induction : set the induction base to black
There are a lot of eReader apps that support custom backgrounds, including the stock ereader. I myself use the Aldiko eReader (but I want to work on one myself. I hate it that no ereader allows to define a "dead spot" where you can hold the tablet... but that's a different story)
I think the way the native ebook app on the 7.7 is kind of crappy. But, Aldiko Pro is awesome, and I've had no eyestrain reading several chapters at a time. Granted, it will not be as good as a Kindle or other e-ink reader, but if you tweak the brightness and fonts to your liking then it is very much usable.
im a barnes and nobel customer so i use the nook app, which works just fine. with a black background and the brightness all the way down its a joy.
black on a super amoled screen is ... actually black
I'd like to use one as a reader too, should I worry about the burn in effect?
Has anyone seen any videos of Kindle app running on the 7.7?
Looking at getting this to use for Kindle rather than my Nexus and just want to see they difference it makes on the slightly larger screen
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
StuRoid said:
Has anyone seen any videos of Kindle app running on the 7.7?
Looking at getting this to use for Kindle rather than my Nexus and just want to see they difference it makes on the slightly larger screen
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the kindle app on my 7.7. Works quite well.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
dear, if you have problem minimum light too bright.
download app named 'screen filter'
have a nice day
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
Theory said:
I use the kindle app on my 7.7. Works quite well.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it would be no different from what it's like on any other HC tablets, apart from maybe being smoother due to the exynos.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
StuRoid said:
I guess it would be no different from what it's like on any other HC tablets, apart from maybe being smoother due to the exynos.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. In fact, the Kindle app works fine enough on my old Tab (P1000) already. This doesn't seem to be a particularly system intensive piece of software.
How is reading PDF on ezpdf?
Are the text readable when fit to width of page (portrait view)?
Sent from my GT-P7300 using Tapatalk
I Just got a bad esn R800X on ebay for 45 dollars on Friday. This a pure gaming device, always in airplane mode and even dialer.apk deleted from system!
As soon as I got home I rooted the stock rom, debloated it. Then I got the bootloader unlocked for 20 dollars by alejsanddrissmo (man that sticker is hard to get off!).
After unlocking the bootloader, I installed Doom kernel and superchargered the stock rom. Installed setcpu so I'm overclocked to 1.2ghz when screen is on, and down clocked to 300mhz when screen is off.
I have experienced no lag what so ever these last 72 hours, besides the initial bloated stock rom.
I chose the stock rom because I like the clean gingerbread look as apposed to the other custom roms that mimic JB/ICS. Any opposition to my choice?
Some things I have to say about the complaints against this phone:
The controls (touchpad): after reading reviews about the XP, I thought the touchpads were going to be god awful. What I found was a pleasant surprise that is reminding me of a faux analog stick.
The thickness: I think that phone is actually a little thin for my hands. Slightly uncomfortable to reach the triggers. I plan on getting a extended battery so the phone can become thicker!
Battery: I have no say in the matter because my phone is offline all the time, but I have had about 10 hours of pure emulation on the battery (keep in mind that this is a used phone) with 52 percent left over. I just combined all the tips I've read on this forum so far and these are the results I get.
My complaints:
Triggers: I don't like the way the triggers angle down when pressed. It feels awkward compared to the triggers of a ps2 controller.
The screen: the colors are very nice, but the auto dim is very annoying. Every time I tilt the phone a little bit, the screen darkens.
Camera: I'll admit, I will never use this camera for any reason. But the front camera in low lit is God awful. I thought I had some kind of slow motion, special effect thing installed. Terrible, just terrible.
Speakers: Pleasing at low-med volume, but 16 bit tunes at max volumes literally make the phone vibrate. I don't know if it's the high pitched tones of the machine like music, but, well, bleh
/endcomplaints
Somethings I'm doing:
Using Big launcher. Made for old people and little kids, but I found the huge icons worked excellent on the xperia play, and it can be controlled using the game pad too!
Using a 8gb memory card: I found a us based seller on ebay selling 8gb Microsd cards for 4.50usd. On this card, I have every snes, Genesis, Nintendo, and Gameboy game installed with 4gb left over. I think I will have games to play for the rest of my life. Lol.
Sorry for this long post, but after seeing so many people leaving the xperia play scene, I just wanted to say I'm one of few actually joining. Also, I just wanted to add words to my new SwiftKey keyboard
DAMN MY THUMBS HURT AFTER THAT
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Welcome to the Play! Btw good post. ^_^
Sent from my Xperia Play using xda app-developers app
Welcome to the Play
Welcome, my work horse has been a galaxy note for the last two months and I dragged my play out of the box to compare game performance. That was bad , thus the signature so welcome and yes there are a few rough edges but still these babies are damn cool!
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk 2
At OP:
Auto Dim? You can disable that if your phone is updated to st least 2.3.3 I think.
If not, download this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hatcyl.android.Disable_Auto_Brightness
Sent from my R800x using xda app-developers app
Couldnt you just turn Auto Brightness off in the Display settings..?
I have turned off auto brightness in the settings and tried the xperia 2011 auto brightness app too.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Since u arnt it using as a phone, i extremely reccomend to go to 2.3.4 or dikeJ's 2.3.7 themed rom. and you can convert playstation iso's to apks with psxperia for maximum playstation gaming.
[ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30117612 ]
[ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23254521
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2