A smart phone for people who don't want things they will never use. It is about the same size as the Iphone 4S and at 1/3 the price (no contract). The screen is beautiful which makes watching videos great. It will work with AT&T or any of their MVNOs. The best part is that it has a micro SD slot. Few other phones of this size have the slot.Lacking a front camera but that doesn't matter now because data is no longer truly unlimited. The Ice Cream Sandwich update is due anytime now so if you want a small, up to date phone without a huge price tag, this is it!
I use the phone for phone, texting, listening to podcasts, following news, GPS navigation, social media. The one thing missing out of the box is a good speed dial/voice dial but I was able to add these from Google Play.
The camera is fine in good light but not so good in low light. The flash isn't very strong. There is no front camera. But of course if you want these features you can pay a bit more and get them. Since they're not that important to me it's great that this phone exists at this price point.I bought this product to use in Venezuela and works perfectly !!!! At first I really wasn't sure to get it because the many complaints about de battery and I got it for a month and I think is OK. I recommend this to everybody :DIt looks and feel great, but it has a Wifi problem. If you search u can find a lot of report that sony firmware for xperia has this issue, and there is no repair.
If you got luck, u can ask for refund. Unfortunally, i'm from Brazil and just bought the Xperia Sola in my trip to USA, so i can't ask for refund now...
If u think in getting this cel, i recommend the Motorola Atrix 4G. It feels even greater, has 4" LCD and it's as good as this xperia.UPDATE (FINAL): I have returned this device. It had problems not being able to connect to WPA2 WiFi networks, and had a low battery life. I got over this by buying USB cables and extra plug and downgraded my home network to WPA. I updated to ICS which should have fixed this. It fixed the WPA2 (see below), but added more problems. After updating to ICS, WiFi is constantly turning itself off and when surfing the web in Firefox (since Chrome is so slow it is unusable) will lose WiFi and say Offline (even though I do have 3G coverage). The phone is no longer able to connect to my Google Apps email account over ActiveSync. Now the phone will constantly freeze up on simple tasks like checking email (app says No Mail and then finally shows the messages that were already there), Firefox or other apps turn black and then freeze. My biggest problem, is that when I am not on WiFi, sometimes it will just not give data access to certain apps (for example I get Network error on Amazon app, but can go to Amazon.com in Firefox, although the keyboard will not type in the search box on some sites (including Amazon), so my ability to check prices on the go is destroyed (this happens sometimes, and restarting sometimes will fix it). However, when doing small tasks and trying to surf the web I constantly lose WiFi and get Offline or No Internet Error. I contacted Sony about downgrading back to GingerBread (which had its problems but they were livable; through exterior changes) and they said I would have to send it to them (which is not practical). I really liked this phone it is a nice looking phone and worked well. However, these problems are adding up and are getting worse, I tried really hard to make this work, but it just is not working and its problems are making it useless (I try to get to a computer over using it, which defeats the problem of a smartphone). I also wanted to mention that the phone side of the ICS update was ridiculously slow. Receiving a call would make the phone ring, but the screen would not light up. After about two rings the phone would light up and you had to hurry and answer before it got sent to voicemail. The phone app on the device is also very slow, just scrolling through contacts or dialing (pressing numbers) would be slow to react and occasionally pressing a number would not do anything and all of a sudden it would just blare the sound for about three seconds (like if you held it down). A phone is not to useful if it is slow to just make and receive phone calls.
Below is the original review; it covers many aspects (good and bad) as well as the problems. However, the problems in ICS are significant and make it unusable (constantly losing network and freezing using simple apps). If you decide on this phone I do not recommend upgrading, or at least waiting for Jelly Bean (which might never come, due to the time it takes for upgrades from Sony). -I really did like this phone, but these bugs are too much!
UPDATE: ICS has been released. I was able to plug into Bridge for Mac and download ICS (availability is by country, and some may be able to get OTA update depending on carrier). However, I have been having some problems with this update. First, the phone would not update without me doing a repair (which does a clean install), which is not a big deal, since clean installs are preferred by me (this was a problem with Bridge not the phone, if you are using PC Companion you might not have this problem). First off, I really like the new interface!
UPDATE: I have found that having Glove Mode enabled causes the phone to respond to my cell phone case (Belkin belt sleeve for iPhone). Making it occasionally unlock and interact with the case. I have also found that the screen now stays unlock after a BlueTooth call (since I had to disable security to have lock screen alerts), and that the case interacts with the phone launching apps. I think the phone needs to go back to sleep after a call (if previously asleep), I might have to reenable security and just not have lock screen notifications. -I wish I could have both like in Gingerbread....
UPDATE: I have found that the WiFi issue (not working with WPA2) is gone. However, I have found that a new WiFi issue is present that will work then stop periodically throughout use. I have found the problem seems to be with Wireless B, if you have a wireless router try setting it to Wireless G, Wireless N or mixed (I had it on Wireless B/G at first). I set it to Mixed and it now works perfectly, and I stay connected all the time.
UPDATE: I have found a problem with email, when using a Corporate account (Google Apps for Education), I have to accept the Remote Management Rules; however, once I do and the account is added emails will come through and everything appears to work, however, all emails are White (blank) except for header (who from, who to, and Subject). All emails in this account are blank, if the account is setup in Gmail app it works fine, or if setup as IMAP in Stock it works, just not as ActiveSync in Stock Email. I believe the problem is with the Remote Management. I have tried several settings from the Google Apps Control Panel, and nothing makes it work. I have emailed Google to see if they will remove the mobile management feature from the Google Apps account, and am waiting to hear back. I guess if I cannot get it to work I will have to use IMAP, although that is a waste of battery... If I find a solution I will post it here!
UPDATE: Google Chrome is unbearably slow on this phone, I switched to Firefox and it seems to work better. Chrome has some neat features, but it is so large and slow it is a nightmare to use, Firefox works great (better than stock, as far as speed).
The interface is great, the menus and options looks great! When i first started the phone after updating to ICS, the phone background was changed, it was the ribbon, but did not feel right, it only moved when you scroll, not just by hovering your finger. After digging around I found the old ribbon with floating touch interaction, go to Settings > Wallpaper >> Live Wallpaper >> and it is Cosmic Flow (you can change color by going to Settings from that menu) -The Theme setting will change it to that scroll one, but you can get the live one by going to Cosmic Flow.
The lock screen is improved (and worse at the same time). You can now access the camera from the lock screen, and if you have Pandora or other radio playing you can go to next track from the lock screen (swipe the clock to the left; used to you could only control the built in music player, now it is whatever is playing). Now, the lock screen is worse, because you now have to choose to either have the swipe (where you get those features) or to have a lock on it (pattern, PIN, or password). You cannot have both (use to you would swipe and then pattern), now if you have pattern on you see it when you hit power button. Also, if you have anything other than swipe, you will not see notifications in the lock screen. For example, if setup you can see emails (who and subject) in the lock screen above the slide, and then you can know who the email is from without opening the phone, now if you have a lock screen (other than slide) you will have to always unlock. I like being able to see at a glance if something is important, so I took off security and have slide, but I wish they would have kept the Slide then lock type (I should not have to choose between ease of use and security); although remember, I cam from the iPhone and am used to that layout.
The menus are nice looking and apps just look better now. I like the app switch (hold down home) and the slide them to close them, it is very nice!
The Walkman app is very nice and has a nice look and feel to it.
Chrome is now on the phone. However, Chrome has been ridiculously slow, and using it freezes this phone to where you cannot interact with it, until you are able to kill chrome. The Stock browser is not that much better. I also, find that when using Chrome or Stock that the Wifi icon will disappear and I will get the No Internet Message in Chrome or Stock. I am going to reinstall Firefox and see if it is any better. So far browsing is a nightmare.
The email app is greatly improved (and also loss a little), the new options are nice and the ability to remember safe senders for images are nice. You can also choose which account to send new emails from, from the message (use to you had to open that inbox, or it would always use default account). However, there is no way to default to Combined Inbox, and occasionally simple messages (just text) will be completely blank on the screen, I will have to use the computer to see the messages, because the Mail app will not open them (well, it opens them, just does not show anything). You can also no longer zoom out to see the entire message from the screen, the app zooms in to where it thinks it is best and you can not zoom out (you could do this in Stock Mail app in GB, but never in Gmail app). One good thing, is now when you see a message on the phone's lock screen and you open it on your computer, it will remove itself from the lock screen and stop flashing the green light on the phone (used to all messages would backlog on the lock screen and then when you unlock they would go away, now they go away as you open them elsewhere (like on a computer). -Great improvement!
The phone's performance, is adequate, sometimes it runs great, other times it gets so slow I cannot use it, and have to restart it. It has crashed on me once (where all of a sudden the Sony logo pops up and the phone reboots). I have also went to Shut Down phone and it restarts itself (makes me think it crashed while shutting down).
Battery is not that great, using Chrome for about 10 minutes drained the battery by 10%. battery was not that great before, but it seems worse (I am not using the battery saver thing, since it turns off networking when sleep, and that defeats the purpose of a smartphone).
The ICS copy/paste and text alterations are really great, and a lot easier to use than that hold and wait system in GB.
NFC is also improved and you can do more with NFC, although I do not like the new icon in the top for NFC, it is large and takes up space in my already overfilled bar (battery now has a percentage gauge that I cannot turn off).
I am still trying to improve the performance of my unit with ICS, I really like the features and use, but right now Internet browsing is horrible. I am going to reinstlal Firefox, and play with it and see if it is better. There are so many great changes, but then there are these compromises you have to make which really take away from the greatness. I am happy with the upgrade, and after some more fine tuning, it should be better. I will keep you informed, and hopefully the problems I am facing will be fixed by an update.
Here is the original Review (note, this is in Gingerbread, see above for ICS related items):
So this is my first Android smartphone, I have an iPhone ever since the iPhone 3G was released (had iPhone 3G then iPhone 4), so switching to Android was a big change (my iPhone 4 stopped working, and I felt it was time for a change).
Firs off, I looked at the Xperia U, but the lack of Micro SD card slot, made me come up to the Sola, since the built in 8GB (only 4GB usable same on U and Sola) was not enough to even hold my music.
I also, like this phone since it is the same size as the iPhone 4 (almost identical), this one has a large screen, but the body is identical (just a mm or so larger). This was important to me since it means most of the iPhone accessories work with this phone, like my holster and my sport armband, this phone fits in perfectly and since the headphone jack is on top it matches the iPhone.
To let you know I use Straight Talk here in the USA (Bring your Own Phone, AT&T Based Micro SIM; from my iPhone 4). I also purchased a Micro SIM adapter for this phone, since it used a regular sized SIM. However, once I got the phone I found that I did not need it since the phone included a Micro SIM adapter. The SIM card slot on this phone is a very open slot under the back wall so you do not have to fear too much about it getting jammed (I would be nervous using an adapter if I had to slide the SIM card deep into the phone). Also, the Micro SIM adapter included with this phone had a piece of double sided tape that would stick to the Micro SIM and keep it in place, so it getting jammed is not much of a problem (I have no issue using my Micro SIM in the adapter included with this phone). -It was a great bonus to have the adapter come with this phone! Most do not include it and I wish I knew it was included before I purchased one, however, the fact that it came with it made this phone great!
I set it up (if you are using a prepaid network do not use the APN setting down loader (from Sony in the phone) since it will not find it (at least for Straight Talk, it tries to use ATT). Once I got the phone setup I went to Settings and added my APN and MMS settings from the Straight Talk website and it worked perfectly (3G/EDGE and MMS all worked).
The floating touch one of the feature of this phone is neat to play with on the home screen, but really only works on the stock browser. When viewing websites that have mouse over events this feature allows you to hover over the phone and the site will react as if you are mousing over it. It has some neat uses on certain websites. But over all except for playing with the scrolling ribbon on the home page it is not very useful, Sony says they hope to make it a bit more useful in future releases. However, it has promise!
I also found that WiFi was easy to setup, however, it did not like my WPA2-PSK network, so I lowered it to WPA, and it worked perfectly. This is not an issue with the phone, but with Android (since you will find it online all over the place about others having this problem regardless of the phone), if you downgrade your home network security it will work [the problem is the wifi looping through Connected Connecting Obtaining IP Disconnected constantly]. Hopefully this will be fixed in Android Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean.
The phone has a great looking display responds quickly (no dragging) and looks great! The design that Sony gave this phone is gorgeous and the Sony interface is beautiful, the phone has a nice music player from the lock screen (scroll the lock screen clock to the left), and has a slide to unlock like the iPhon, or slide to Turn Sounds ON/OFF). You can also set a pass code or maze lock on the phone. Movies play instantly (on the SD card) and look amazing, that Bravia engine greatly improves how the video looks! The camera takes great pictures and video and it has a bright flash that helps low light pictures. The phone has some neat features like auto smile camera (takes photos when it sees a smile automatically) and auto face focus.
I use Gmail and Google Apps for my email, and found that using the Stock Android app works the best (over the Gmail app); I found that the Gmail app cannot scroll out to see large emails (with images), and notifications just work better on the Stock email app (where I can see the from and subject of email on lock screen). Messages works great and the phone app is nicely formatted. I tried the Stock web browser, but decided to go with Firefox (will probably switch to Google Chrome when ICS comes out).
The NFC tags were not a big deal to me, however, I have grown to find them useful. I put the two that are included with the phone (Red and Black), on my night stand (on the wall above it), then when I go to bed I tap the phone on the Black one, it turns off sounds and launched the Alarm app [when sounds are off the alarm will still go off], and then when I wake up I tap the red one which sets the phone to Loud Sound. -Just to note, the phone has to be on and unlocked for the tags to read. I have found this to be a quick way to go to sleep and wake up, without having to manually do everything. However, the tags can do so much more, so there is a lot of use you can find for them and they can control many aspects of the phone!
The phone also paired easily with my Car (Ford Focus [SYNC]), however, I had to try twice to get it to take the pass code, but once it did the car downloaded the phone book and worked perfectly (no Text messaging through the car though, although the iPhone could not do it either), however, call waiting and call hold worked.
As you can see this is a great phone, it works great, it looks great, and is easy to use.
Now for the reason the item lost a star:
The sound is not that loud coming from the speaker. I believe the main problem is that the speaker is facing out from the back of the phone. Therefore the sounds are not going toward you, instead going toward the back. I wish the speaker was facing you or was on the bottom. You may find it easier when using speaker phone to hold the phone with the screen facing down. I also, have found that if the phone is laying on books or some other non hard material the speaker becomes muffled and is hard to hear, so I found to always leave it hanging over the books, or to keep it in the holster (I can hear it fine from in the holster). The headphone jack is on top and supports standard headphone jacks, the phone includes a pair of Sony in ear ones, but the in ear kind have never fit inside my ear.
When I put the phone in my belt holster, I found that when using the phone (Bluetooth headset) when sitting down would constantly go to call fail. After testing and experimenting I found the problem. The antenna is at the top of the phone, thus when I would sit down the phone would press into my stomach and then when the phone was pressed against my stomach the antenna would be blocked and I would go to no Service. FIX: A quick fix I found was to always put the phone in the holster head first (top of phone in so the base of the phone pressed into my stomach). This fixed the problem and it no longer when to no service when in the car.
OK, so I learned to live with the antenna problem by putting in the phone upside down in the holster. I then found another problem. BATTERY! I found that the phone would not last the entire day, so I started researching and found that if I turn down the display it would help, it was on 100% with Auto on, so I turned it down to about 30% with auto on and it still looked great and was super bright.
I found many people recommend a Task Killer, however, my knowledge of LINUX would make me not want to use it since, I know that Android is automatically handing processes in the background and interfering will probably cause more battery use for the apps to restart in the background later, so I do not use a Task Killer.
In the end I have Wifi, Cellular Data, Auto Sync, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC all on; Push email; and have display at 30% with auto brightness. I now get about 10 to 16 hours on a charge. It depends on my use of the phone, I find that making voice calls drain the battery the most, and if I make voice calls for more than 1 hour on a day I will probably only get 8 hours.
I wish that Sony gave it a bigger battery, but for the price this is actually a pretty good battery life compared to other Android phones.
In the end, this phone looks, feels, and works great! I am very happy with this phone. I get my push everything and it offers most of the apps I used on my iPhone. I learned to live with putting the phone in upside down, and that fixed that first problem, and the battery issue seems to be a problem with all Android devices. If this phone had a larger battery it would have been better, but for the price I can learn to live with it. I can charge the battery with my USB port in my car, so I am going to get a USB cable for my car (to keep in the glove box), for emergencies when my battery dies. I will also add a charging station near my desk to get a charge whenever I am at my desk. This phone works and looks great, there are a few flaws I found, but for the price I can learn to live with them. I am happy with this phone and would recommend it. Sony did a great job with this phone, and the features and feel of this phone make it a great phone!
Sony also gives you PC and Mac software for troubleshooting this phone (clean install of Android) and the ability to transfer images, music, videos and everything else to and from your phone. I use Mac OS, and found this software the best way to add music since I can add playlists from iTunes to the phone. The software can be downloaded from Sony Mobile's website. The music player on the phone is also pretty sweet and can download all the music info for you (cover art, and metadata).
Also, if you have a problem with the phone Sony offers pretty good support, they offer US phone support (they have it for all different countries, but I only used the US number), the wait time is a bit long, but the people are knowledgeable and will walk you through any problems. They also offer Chat support which I find to be quicker for small questions (this info is on the Sony Mobile website).
The phone also comes with a few apps you may want to uninstall (like a game store, and a few music stores from Sony), to uninstall click the little squares symbol on the bottom left of the phone and hit the red X over each app you want to get rid of. You cannot remove them all, but you can easily remove some that you do not need. The Music identifier program that Sony gives you is really nice, so you may want to give it ago.
I know this is a long review, but making a phone purchase is a big deal to me, and I spent a lot of time doing research before purchasing this one. If you have any questions on this phone let me know (comments) and I will try to help. It is truly a nice phone, and a few flaws were not enough to make me return it and I have been enjoying it greatly since I got in the habit of it (it was tough switching after having an iPhone for so long). Also, when you get this phone don't forget to install the Amazon App Store, they give you a free app a day, and a couple of days a go I got Angry Birds for free, so they offer some nice apps for free!
Also, to let you know Ice Cream Sandwich is not available for this phone yet, Sony says it will be available this year, so hopefully it will be here soon. The current version for this phone is Gingerbread, however, a build approval for this phone's ICS update as been approved so it should not be long (hopefully).
UPDATE: After seeing other reviews, I thought I better clarify that the phone has 8GB of internal space. However, like all phones (if you ever had an iPhone you know when you buy a 16GB model you can only use 13GB for data) the OS takes up quite a bit of this, so after the Android OS and all of the software that is added you will have about 4GB available. Internal Memory (last option on the Storage section in Settings), is for Android and is not for holding user files. This will change constantly and will be cleared when the phone is rebooted. The benefit of this phone over the Xperia U is that it supports a Micro SD card, so you can add a Micro SD card and add a lot of space to it. Sony has listed that this phone has 8GB and 5GB available to use that means that 3GB is just for Android and software (although I find that after Sony apps and Android it uses about 4GB), and as you upgrade to newer Android OS and install more apps that will be even lower. This true of any phone. On my phone after installing all of my apps (about 30 of them [games, financial, reference, video streaming, and music streaming and utilities]: I have 3.76GB of available space on my phone and total space was 3.98GB to start with [after upgrading to build: 6.0.B.3.184]. I put most my movies and music on my Micro SD card.
UPDATE: After seeing the other review about battery replacement, I thought I better add a little more info on the actual battery. This phone has a removable back cover for adding a Micro SD card and the SIM card, however, the battery is NOT changeable. The battery does not come out and if you need it changed you should send it back to Sony (either through Warranty or general pay per incident support). This is identical to how iPhone works, the battery is not changeable by the user but can be replaced by the manufacture if needed. However, just to mention it, since some people will, there are (like everything) a way to do something that was not meant to be. You can find plenty of videos and tutorials on how to change the battery, however, you are not suppose to and it will most likely void your warranty. This phone's battery is not meant to be changed it cannot be easily removed and is meant to be changed by only Sony. However, like the iPhone it is possible to do it yourself, however, there are great risks and other than issues with warranty you may damage the device if not done right. I would not recommend changing the battery yourself; plus it will probably be hard to find a replacement battery since Sony does not sell them (I personally do not like using non manufacture parts in my devices), and the risk of damaging the device. is not worth the cost of having Sony change the battery.
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