Mobile Phones

Sony at MWC 2012: Xperia P and Xperia U

Sony Xperia PWe caught of glimpse of Sony’s WhiteMagic display at MWC 2012. It was embedded in their Xperia P, which was a nearly identical but small knockoff of the Xperia S. The WhiteMagic refers to an extra white line of pixels added to the good old RGB. How do this work? Text is sharper and visuals are better in sunlight. Also, the viewing angle was much wider and the contrast sharper.

This phone is stuck on Android 2.3.7 and won’t get hit with Android 4.0 until the second quarter. Also, you are chained to Sony’s extensive customizations, which is a grave disappointment. From Sony’s side it’s a good thing, because you have their hooks in you by being directly plugged into their content services. However, the camera is instantaneous. The shot you take when the camera’s in sleep mode takes only one second.

Then there is the makeshift TV technology Sony slapped on to impress their most idiot of customers. Yes, there is a so-called SmartDock and TV launcher app. Your display will be reflected on a TV through the HDMI port. If you have a TV remote you can remotely control it. If not, then plug in the mouse and keyboard, yes to your phone, and you will probably need a little duct tape to hold it all together. The worst part of it all is that the Launcher is just a slap dash of shortcuts to regular Android apps. How ridiculous does Sony look now? Enough said about the Xperia P!

Sony Xperia USony’s other vague attempt to titillate the market is the Xperia U, which was also announced during MWC 2012. It’s got a 3.5” display a 1GHz CPU, 5MP camera, and the xLoud sound processor. It is housed in a compact design. Notifications can be customized to display your favorite color. Even the bar color can be customized, but also set to match the colors of any photo displayed at the moment. Color seems to be what Xperia U is all about. It will hit the public’s hands in the second quarter as well.

The Xperia P and Xperia U are part of the Xperia NXT series. Since the demise of Ericsson, Sony has tried striking it rich with Xperia’s of all kinds. None have made it so far.

In fact, the CMO seems to be delirious. He thinks that separating all the different functions each into its own phone is appealing to the public. Does he expect us to have one phone for viewing outdoors, one for HD content, and another when we want to go portable? Come on!

Near Filed Communication (NFC) is what they all share in common. Place a tag somewhere and when you are near it you tap it and the phone changes its configuration accordingly. However, the question arises, why would I want a physical tag when I could tap a shortcut on my display? This is yet another silly ideas Sony has come up with to fool people into buying their products. It is as if Sony knows they make poor products and need gimmicks to sell them.

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