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Gadgets >> Mobiles & Accessories >> Expert Review
Sony Xperia Sola
18000 -
20000
Sony revealed three mid-range smartphone at this year’s Mobile World Congress and Xperia Sola is one among those three which got released in India recently. This new smartphone comes under the company’s Xperia range and has a price tag of around Rs.20,000. There are any online shopping site where the phone is available for sub-Rs.20,000.
The Good: Xperia Sola comes with a Floating Touch display which allows you to search web by just hovering your finger above the screen. The phone has good looks, is lightweight and the build quality is pleasing. The speedy processor is an additional add-on.
The Bad: Sadly the Xperia Sola doesn’t come with the advanced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Operating System. There is not front camera to make video calls.
Design and Look: Xperia Sola has a similar look and feel like the other phone we reviewed, the Xperia S and Xperia P. The matte black outfit of the phone makes it less smudged and give a good grip. The device has a boxy look to it which some of you might not like.
The screen is of 3.7-inch which comes with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The size of the display is apt for surfing, for normal games and other daily functions. The pixel density of the display is good, but some time you feel like the white and black colors are dull.
There is a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top, power button on the left side, and a microUSB slot, a camera shutter button and a volume rocker on the right side. The back case has a 5MP camera with a LED flash and there is also a speaker grill. The battery is non-removable and there is a swappable microSD card slot.
Processor and Operating System: Xperia Sola comes powered by a 1GHz Cortex A9 processor (NovaThor U8500 chipset) along with 512 MB of RAM. It has 8GB of internal memory out of which 5GB is user accessible.
Sadly Sola still runs on the old Android Gingerbread 2.3.7 and Sony’s custom Timescape UI on the top which is very much better than UI offered by Samsung and LG.
Features and Performance:
Floating Touch: Xperia Sola is the company’s first smartphone which comes with the innovative Floating Touch technology that allows you to browse the web without actually touching the screen. The technology works well, but we didn’t see much usage of it at the moment, may be after its release of API to developer we might see some interesting things.
Camera: The 5MP camera of Xperia Sola performs quite well and the dedicated camera button lets you click photos without even unlocking the phone. If the lighting is proper the outdoor and indoor photos looks good, but LED flash is of no good as the images are appearing blur with the usage of flash when the lighting is less. The camera can also take 720p video and the quality is passable.
Connectivity and Battery Life The device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and DLNA. The presence of NFC makes it a future ready smartphone. The usage of NFC is minimal right now, but after the company rolls out the ICS update for the phone the presence of NFC pretty useful.
Xperia Sola has a non-removable 1,320mAh battery which gives passable back-up, but it’s true that it will make you want for more. If the usage is moderate the juice will stay for a day, but for heavy users carrying the charger is advisable.
Conclusion: Sony is continuously impressing us with mid-range smartphone with gives value for money. The company has been successful in this market from the last year and this year also the same trend is followed.
Xperia Sola is good phone to have even though the lack of ICS and front camera may hinder you. If ICS and front camera come in your priority list first there is an HTC option available for you in the name of HTC One V, but here you have to sacrifice the dual-core processor.
The Good: Xperia Sola comes with a Floating Touch display which allows you to search web by just hovering your finger above the screen. The phone has good looks, is lightweight and the build quality is pleasing. The speedy processor is an additional add-on.
The Bad: Sadly the Xperia Sola doesn’t come with the advanced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Operating System. There is not front camera to make video calls.
Design and Look: Xperia Sola has a similar look and feel like the other phone we reviewed, the Xperia S and Xperia P. The matte black outfit of the phone makes it less smudged and give a good grip. The device has a boxy look to it which some of you might not like.
The screen is of 3.7-inch which comes with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The size of the display is apt for surfing, for normal games and other daily functions. The pixel density of the display is good, but some time you feel like the white and black colors are dull.
There is a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top, power button on the left side, and a microUSB slot, a camera shutter button and a volume rocker on the right side. The back case has a 5MP camera with a LED flash and there is also a speaker grill. The battery is non-removable and there is a swappable microSD card slot.
Processor and Operating System: Xperia Sola comes powered by a 1GHz Cortex A9 processor (NovaThor U8500 chipset) along with 512 MB of RAM. It has 8GB of internal memory out of which 5GB is user accessible.
Sadly Sola still runs on the old Android Gingerbread 2.3.7 and Sony’s custom Timescape UI on the top which is very much better than UI offered by Samsung and LG.
Features and Performance:
Floating Touch: Xperia Sola is the company’s first smartphone which comes with the innovative Floating Touch technology that allows you to browse the web without actually touching the screen. The technology works well, but we didn’t see much usage of it at the moment, may be after its release of API to developer we might see some interesting things.
Camera: The 5MP camera of Xperia Sola performs quite well and the dedicated camera button lets you click photos without even unlocking the phone. If the lighting is proper the outdoor and indoor photos looks good, but LED flash is of no good as the images are appearing blur with the usage of flash when the lighting is less. The camera can also take 720p video and the quality is passable.
Connectivity and Battery Life The device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and DLNA. The presence of NFC makes it a future ready smartphone. The usage of NFC is minimal right now, but after the company rolls out the ICS update for the phone the presence of NFC pretty useful.
Xperia Sola has a non-removable 1,320mAh battery which gives passable back-up, but it’s true that it will make you want for more. If the usage is moderate the juice will stay for a day, but for heavy users carrying the charger is advisable.
Conclusion: Sony is continuously impressing us with mid-range smartphone with gives value for money. The company has been successful in this market from the last year and this year also the same trend is followed.
Xperia Sola is good phone to have even though the lack of ICS and front camera may hinder you. If ICS and front camera come in your priority list first there is an HTC option available for you in the name of HTC One V, but here you have to sacrifice the dual-core processor.
18,949
