By It was denied time and time again, and countless leaks proved to discount anything Sony ever said about a “PlayStation Phone” not being in the works. They eventually caved, though, and announced the device during Super Bowl weekend. And today, we’ve finally gotten a chance to “play” with it in Barcelona.
The skinny: the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is amazingly fast considering it’s only a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon with an Adreno 205 GPU. And I’m not even talking about gaming performance alone. Sony Ericsson worked with Qualcomm to optimize the chipset for that particular phone – it’s nearly the same offering you’d get in the HTC Thunderbolt or the HTC Inspire 4G.
They added things like extra and enhanced dual-speed memory bus, custom kernels for their skin on top of Android 2.3, and more. All came together to ensure a smooth experience whether you’re browsing the web or playing Fifa 2011.
They did all of this without going the dual-core route, proving you don’t need that much “oomph” if you take the time to make the processor and software mesh well together. The fine gentleman who showed the phone off to me – Christophe – fired up demos of FIFA 2011, a Bruce Lee fighting game, Galaxy on Fire 2, and Asphalt 6.
I had no complaints at all about performance on those games, and the Adreno 205 gives you the ability to smoothly play video games of PSP quality. Everything runs at 60 frames per second at all times outside of games, and even in them, you’ll only get the odd hiccup here and there. (Particularly in Asphalt – I saw no flaws in any of the other titles shown.)
The one exception to that was Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave – it was a great deal more choppy than First Wave is on the Samsung Galaxy S. I assume this is due to the game being in its earlier stages, but I wasn’t able to confirm that. And yes, that was confirmation that there is another Dungeon Defenders expansion pack coming out – this one is a timed exclusive for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.
As far as the other bits that make up the hardware go, the buttons felt great. They weren’t too easy to press, and weren’t too hard – just right. And those analog sticks were pretty damn accurate, too. I had trouble with it at first, but it’s a touch sensitive interface that differs greatly from traditional analog sticks. I’m sure I would’ve gotten better with it if I had more time with it. (Wink wink, nod nod!)
The Xperia Play has a 4 inch capacitive touchscreen, but unfortunately isn’t powered by the Bravia engine that we’ve slobbed about on the Xperia Arc. It also doesn’t have the same camera sensor as in the Xperia Arc, but the Play’s is still quite decent in low light conditions. (I only had a chance to test it inside the club where the event was hosted.)
On the phone was a PlayStation hub where you’ll eventually be able to download PlayStation 1 classics. I asked a Sony representative if PSP games would eventually be available in PlayStation Suite, but he was unable to confirm or deny.
They claim that over 50 titles will be available at launch, but I’m not sure if that’s including PSX games. These games will come from 10-12 publishers, and what comes preinstalled on the device will eventually depend on each carrier. One confirmed carrier is Verizon, and we expect most of Europe’s major carriers to offer this device, as well.
I also asked about the openness of the device in terms of game developers being able to take advantage of the Play’s unique controls. I was told they want to encourage market developers to develop for the play even if they aren’t directly partnering with them.
This indicated they would probably be introducing an API that developers can use for their games. This wasn’t confirmed, either. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play will be offered by Verizon initially in the United States, while most major Canadian and European carriers are expected to make announcements later this week.
Be sure to stay tuned to our Mobile World Congress coverage. We’ll have even more Xperia Play stuff – including gameplay demos and benchmarks – as well as more from the rest of Sony’s family and everything else that’s bound to come out of the event.
Anyone remember the N-Gage?
Anyone remember the Nokia N-Gage? Neat phone, but I dont see it being a big hit.
The N-Gage failed because of the need to use cartridges while the Play can download the games. The only thing I could see preventing this from finding its niche is battery life, it would have to be able to survive a full day of gaming and surfing or else the phone may fail.
It’s patethic. Just disappointed with this shit. WTF Slow Motion gameplay ? And the UI is fucking slow and bugged!
@DJ The N-Gage had crappy games, OS, and screen. Get over yourself, this will be great but I don’t care because its going to the worst carrier in the US. Besides its on the same caliber as my Hummingbird.
Asphalt 6!? FIFA 2011!? Bruce Lee!?
Wait.. am i missing something? if no.. then those games are available! but they’re not.. can anyone explain that!?
What is wrong with Sony this couldve been the hottest thing going? Verizon exclusive? The only way I would move to VZ is if my company paid for it…..
I would get it but not as my main phone but as media device and tether to my Nexus S when needed. Just imagine playing the Angry Birds series, Worms, Asphalt, SNES, PlayStation, N64 emulators, and PowerAmp music player without worrying about killing your main phone’s battery.
one word……meh. How about something worthwhile.
I couldn’t agree more nexus Eddie. If this comes out on tmobile I would definitely get it for games since I bought my Nexus S at full price. So I still am able to use my upgrade. And really my main reason would be to use that for games since I love the controls.
wtf? I only posted the first one. I’m not sure which DJ you were referring to NexusEddie, but I also agree with DJ#2. It is definitely cool looking, and may get Sony support, but I simply don’t see it breaking into Nintendo DS series/Sony PSP-PSP2 territory. Obviously, it’ll have a better screen than the3 N-Gage – if it wasn’t better than 10-year old technology, then it would be catastophic, comical failure. It’s definitely a cool device, I just don’t see it going over huge either (like DJ#2). I definitely am not calling it a fail, I just don’t seeing it competing with DS/PSP. The “get over yourself” comment makes no sense. I’m not stuck on myself, sport. I’m just posting my take on it. Chillax
@DJ#1 my bad it though you were starting a rant and didn’t know it was two DJs here. You right that its not going to top the DS and PSP series but you have to admit that Android offers different games from the PSP and DS
Absolutely NexusEddie, they definitely do offer different games, and I hope this device helps drive Android gaming further, which, if you’re an Android fan like me, which you likely are, will admit that we, as Android users need a really good boost in the gaming department. We have a few good ones, but there is a LOT I would love to see on the Android platform. PopCap developing Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Peggle, etc. for Android is very cool, but getting Sony into the game by devekloping a game-centric Android phone could be great for us. I also wouldn’t mind having one of those just to play all of my emulator games on.
-DJ#1 lol
^developing
This is nothing like the n-gage. Nokia tried to build a gaming platform with a built in phone (or at least that’s the way it was marketed) while the Xperia Play has focused on being a phone first with gaming added in later as a bonus. Its size and features are comparable to other smartphones on the market, it just substitutes the qwerty keypad for physical game controls. That’s what has me interested, despite sony erricsons poor record with pushing updates. I can have a phone that does everything I want it to plus all those games I already play during my daily commute can now play better/easier.
Hopefully some Australian carriers announce their plans soon.
This is nothing like the n-gage. Nokia tried to build a gaming platform with a built in phone (or at least that’s the way it was marketed) while the Xperia Play has focused on being a phone first with gaming added in later as a bonus. Its size and features are comparable to other smartphones on the market, it just substitutes the qwerty keypad for physical game controls. That’s what has me interested, despite sony erricsons poor record with pushing updates. I can have a phone that does everything I want it to plus all those games I already play during my daily commute can now play better/easier.
Hopefully some Australian carriers announce their plans soon.
“Everything runs at 60 frames per second at all times outside of games”
I could see for myself in the video that this is false. Heck, I’m not sure even iOS would be able to make such a claim. Besides, it would be a waste of power. For menus, 30-45fps is plenty fine. Look at the evo, when it was capped at 30, people still raved at the speed.
It’s interesting to see VZW getting exclusive Android phones. I was guessing that they would pushing the iPhone more and move the Android to the back. Android must be doing well for them, to keep pushing them hard as well.. good job VZW… I’m with Sprint.. so i’ll go weep in the corner and hope that after it’s stops being a VZW exclusive Sprint gets one.
Is it LTE? Wish it was higher res like the Bionic.
I hope it will be launch here in the Philippines soon…
i dont know much about the n gage but from what i see on youtube the games weren’t that great!
i dont know much about the n gage but from what i see on youtube the games weren’t that great!
getting a good htc phone and the ngp instead of this only gullible teenagers will buy this
tmobile u failed!