Sony Xperia sola Review

Introduction:

Last year we were introduced to a whole bunch of well-executed Android mid-rangers made by Sony Ericsson: the Xperia ray, Xperia neo, and Xperia mini, to name a few. Fast forward to 2012 and Sony is on its own, but will it manage to keep on delivering decent hardware at a reasonable price? Well, let's find out!

What we are reviewing today is the Sony Xperia sola, which comes with a 3.7-inch LCD display, 5-megapixel camera, NFC, “floating touch” technology (more on that later), and most importantly, a dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz: a specs sheet that has “mid-range” written all over it. Care to know how it performs in real life? Then read along...

The box contains:

• Wall charger
• Data cable
• Wired stereo headset
• 2 SmartTags
• microSIM adapter
• Quick start guide and other papers

Design:

The Sony Xperia sola is clearly not meant to be used as a fashion accessory. Instead of curved, shiny elements we have a plastic candy-bar body with a soft touch finish applied to its back. And in all honesty, we like it! That is because the smartphone feels nice to the touch and gives us the impression of a well-built versatile tool – a tool that you will mostly use to do stuff, not just pose around with. Perhaps the thicker than usual display bezel is the only thing that we are not too crazy about, but we don't consider that a deal breaker by any means.

If jumbo-sized smartphones are not your cup of tea, the Xperia sola will most likely suit your preferences for its size is ideal for single-handed operation. It will fit inside pretty much any pocket or purse as well: the unit has a thickness of 9.9 millimeters and weighs 107 grams.



You can compare the Sony Xperia sola with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

We have no complaints about the trio of capacitive Android buttons, located underneath the smartphone's display. Same can be said about the lock key and 2-button volume rocker, which reside on the device's right side. The 2-stage camera button, however, leaves room for improvement. Pressing it half-way is not much of a problem, but then pushing it all the way down requires excessive force to be exerted.


Display:

The LCD display on the Xperia sola measures 3.7 inches in diagonal and has a resolution of 480 by 854 pixels, which translates into a relatively high pixel density (265ppi). As a result, graphics look detailed and fine text does not require much effort to be read. On top of that, we are pretty satisfied with the display's accurate color reproduction. Blacks, however, do not look as deep as they do on some other display types, such as AMOLED and S-LCD panels. In addition, there is a barely noticeable motion blur, which might be annoying in some rare cases. Fortunately, the display is bright enough to ensure relatively comfortable operation in broad daylight.

Interface:

Sony is no stranger to making good-looking custom interfaces, and we are quite happy with what we see on the Xperia sola. Pretty widgets, smooth animations, and gently floating live wallpapers make us almost forget that underneath all this eye-candy lies the aging Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread. But worry not as an update to Ice Cream Sandwich is to be released this summer.


The Sony Xperia sola is the first among the company's smartphones to come with “floating touch” technology, which is just a fancy way of saying that the screen can detect your finger even from a distance of a centimeter or so. While surfing the web, this can be used to highlight web links as if you were hovering with your mouse cursor above them. Also, the default wallpaper reacts when your finger is in proximity. As a whole, floating touch is nothing but a gimmick for now, but further uses may be introduced in the future as the API will be made available to developers.

With a display of such size, one might think that the on-screen keyboard would be tricky to use, and boy how wrong would they be! In fact, the stock virtual keyboard is extremely accurate and responsive regardless of what orientation it is being used in, and on top of that, you get an auto-complete bar and on-the-fly typo correction.



Software:

Timescape is a feature that has been present on all recent Xperia smartphones. For those not familiar, it serves as a centralized hub for social network feeds, and as a whole, it can come in handy if you are into social networking. Another useful tool that Sony has thrown in is the Data monitor application, which does exactly what the name implies. In addition, you get Recommender, which aggregates applications that you might like, and also lists what your online friends are watching, playing, or listening to. McAfee Security is what will protect your smartphone against malware.

Processor and memory:

This is one of the few times when we get to see the NovaThor U8500 dual-core chip in action. As implemented in the Sony Xperia sola, it performs quite well and handles most tasks without breaking a sweat. Clocked at 1GHz and paired with 512MB of RAM, it ensures smooth operation under most circumstances. Sure, there is a slight lag when a live wallpaper is applied, but that doesn't really make navigation any less comfortable. 3D games such as Temple Run and Tiki Kart 3D run flawlessly.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Sony Xperia sola	2294	5415	27,7
Motorola Defy Mini	951	2391	15,6
Samsung Galaxy mini 2	1922	2695	15,5

Casual smartphone users won't run into any storage capacity issues too quickly as 8GB of on-board storage come standard with the Sony Xperia sola. Those who enjoy carrying lots of photos or a bigger portion of their audio collection on their smartphone, however, should consider expanding the smartphone's storage with a microSD card.

Web Browser:

In terms of features, the stock web browser has it all, including text reflow, multiple windows, and Adobe Flash support. However, it doesn't perform well when rendering heavy web pages, and that is a flaw that was not present on any third-party web browsers that we tried.



Connectivity:

As expected, all basic connectivity features are present on the Sony Xperia sola: Wi-Fi b/g/n, 3G at up to 14Mbps on the downlink, Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, and FM radio. As an added bonus, you get a pair of SmartTags, which take advantage of the smartphone's NFC chip. Gimmick? Not really. In fact, that is a feature that some users might find quite useful. The device can be configured in a way that when a tag is in contact, a number of actions would be performed, such as the change of a setting or the launch of an application.

Camera:

What is really cool about the 5-megapixel camera on the Sony Xperia sola is that you can capture a frame really quick without bothering to unlock the device. Just hold down the camera shutter and a photo will be taken in under 2 seconds. Focus, however, is not precise at times, so use the feature only when speed is of importance.


When conditions are optimal, photos taken with the Sony Xperia sola and its 5-megapixel camera look pretty good, but in general, their quality is average. Exposure and color reproduction are mostly accurate, but fine details are somewhat blurry. When lights get dim, digital noise is quick to invade your photos.


Videos can be captured at 720p, and although they look sharp for the most part, there is a noticeable amount of pixelation, most likely due to compression.

Sony Xperia sola Sample Video:



Sony Xperia sola Indoor Sample Video:




Multimedia:

This wouldn't have been a Sony smartphone if it didn't come with a fancy music player. And sure enough, the one present on the Xperia sola does not disappoint. It comes with a minimalistic interface, home screen widget, and always-on lock-screen controls available at the flick of a finger. Features such as searching for artist information, lyrics and video are included as well. On the back of the handset we have a single loudspeaker that is capable of outputting undistorted audio at a pretty high level when the xLOUD feature is turned on.


The video player might not look too fancy, but it played back any single file format we threw at it. Anything of resolution up to 720p ran smoothly and looked awesome with the Mobile BRAVIA engine turned on.

Performance:

The only thing that we think should have been improved on is the volume level of the earpiece, which is average at best. Other than that, voices sound natural on both sides of the line, without any crackling or hints of digitizing. There is a secondary microphone for noise reduction on the back of the Sony Xperia sola, and it gets its job done pretty well. While speaking, background noise is reduced to a minimum.

The smartphone's battery is non-removable and has a capacity that is somewhat below the average by today's standards: 1,320mAh. That should provide about 5 hours of talk time or under 20 days of stand-by, and we know that many mid-range handsets can do better than that. Music playaback time should be about 40 hours, which is a lot more acceptable.

Conclusion:

After putting it through its paces, we can conclude that the Sony Xperia sola is a well-made Android smartphone. If you are looking for a decent mid-range offering that gets you a good amount of bang for the buck, do not hesitate to check it out! We would definitely recommend it over smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Ace plus or the Motorola MOTOLUXE. Alternatively, we have the HTC One V marketed at a similar price point, and even though it does not have the performance advantage of a dual-core processor, it comes with a superior display and a slightly better camera.

Sony Xperia sola Review: