TimeScape
interface on Xperia P
Similar to Xperia S, P is still running on
Android 2.3 with same features. Sony also equips their product with TimeScape
interface that changed appearance mostly compared with original GingerBread
Android.
With dual-core processor, TimeScape works
smoothly on the mobile phone and it is rarely late compared with Arc or Arc S.
Displaying effects which are transparent or revealing are quite beautiful and
attract many people. TimeScape is also the interface integrated deeply into
social networks like Facebook and allows users to continuously update
information from friends or share photos…via widgets appearing on the home screen.
Updates from Facebook can be shown on the lock screen if users selected.
Sony fully equipped their mobile phone with
connection, work or entertainment utilities. The most outstanding is still
music – movies – photos – videos features and NFC. However, this product lacks
of supporting PlayStation certification like Xperia S.
Music
player on Xperia P
Music player on TimeScape is designed
simply and images about song data is a CD case, which makes it become striking.
Buttons controlling music have large design to help users manage easily. The
ability to manage music, sort to list, select playing mode is full and useful.
Even when the phone is locked, users can still control music by sliding the
lock screen, which helps widget playing music appear.
In playing music mode, the symbol like
infinity located in the right corner allows users to quickly search songs or
videos on Youtube that are similar to tracks playing on the phone, add more
songs in the same album and look up artist data or lyrics.
Sony still integrates Xloud, audio
technology helping increase quality and volume of the speaker. Besides that,
Equalizer feature enables users to adjust 5 frequency bands and Clear Bass mode
slide serves users’ ears. An added feature is Headphone Surround Option which
increases surround sound effect to ears with 3 modes: Studio, Club and Concert
Hall.
With in-ear MH-750 headphone included, Sony
mobile phone can play music impressively with detailed sounds, noise reduction
while showing soft, clear and enough strong bass to make listeners feel excited
in vibrant songs.
About video performance, the addition of
some new codecs has helped P handle more formats. With a HD 720p file in MKV
format, the model of Sony can run softly. Fast forward playing doesn’t cause
videos to stop or lose audio. However, a shortcoming on this model of Sony is
that there is no separate camera application and playing videos from Gallery
doesn’t support subtitles.
Xperia
P is the smartphone with good camera feature
Comparing with technologies such as
ImageSense applied by HTC, camera feature on Xperia P may not be equal, but it
is still the phone that is able to take beautiful pictures. Camera interface is
arranged clearly, easily for use and it comes with many professional capturing
features such as autofocus, pixel focus…, face, smile detection and different
shooting modes such as Panorama, 3D…Basically, camera features on Xperia P are
similar to 12 Megapixel Xperia S.
Even in lock mode, users can take photos
quickly by holding camera button on the side of the phone (which can be
adjusted in Setting). Actually, it takes about 2 seconds for user to take a
photo since they press the button. However, these photos captured quickly are
easy to be blurred and fuzzy.
Like S and U, in Auto Scene mode, P only
allows focusing on the center and does not enable to change much in parameters,
which results in photos as not as expected. However, if you switch to Normal
mode, photos taken from Xperia P will give better quality than some small
adjustments. In fact, Xperia P is the smartphone with 8 Megapixel camera that
takes photos well. Photos show details, bright and real colors, especially with
green. Nevertheless, like Xperia S, the weakness of P is that there is still
color distortion even though it is less.
M8 Megapixel model is equipped with Full HD
1.080p video recording capability which has 30 frames per second speed and
continuous autofocus function. Recorded images are soft but they are not really
detailed and sharp. Compared with some models that are able to record Full HD
video, the product of Sony is still not equal.
Meanwhile, NFC feature on Xperia P is
similar with S, allowing users to use Smart Tag of Sony to set quick tasks or
transfer music, photos and videos between Sony mobile phones that support NFC.
Performance and battery duration
Sony equips Xperia with NovaThor U8500
dual-core processor with Cortex A9 running at 1GHz, Mali-400 graphics and 1GB
of RAM. However, Android smartphones last year and this year of Sony don’t
focus mainly on the power of hardware with huge performance marks.
Performance
mark of Xperia P is not high but its ability is not worth being blamed.
Therefore, in fact, through direct
comparison by software such as BenchMark Pi, Linpack or NenaMark 2 to
check CPU and GPU processors, Xperia P only reached a half compared with its
direct rival, One S of HTC. Performance mark of the phone was tested by Quadrant
Standard Benchmark software and Xperia P got over 2,100 points, lower than
the first dual-core series such as Optimus 2X and Galaxy Nexus of the previous
year.
600USD for a dual-core model with the
performance like Xperia P seems a bit expensive currently. However, considering
the notebook market, this model is so attractive. Because in actual use, Xperia
P still meets the needs of entertainment, work and network connection.
TimeScape interface is fast and smooth.
The configuration of Xperia P still plays
well most common and popular games. Of course, if Xperia P can’t play some
games such as Shadow Gun and Real Racing, it is not a big
problem. We didn’t meet Force Close due to lacking of memory in a week that we
continuously used Xperia P. Even with Home pages full of widgets in the home
screen, sliding between screens of Xperia P is still comfortable. If you don’t
think of figures and just pay attention to practical experience when using, the
configuration of Xperia P is a good choice.
When being used continuously, Xperia P
still heats up near the middle of the back and front of the screen, but it
doesn’t become hot too fast or too annoying. The aluminum cover makes it dispel
heat better than other models and be used more comfortably.
With
monolithic cover, Xperia P doesn’t enable to remove the battery
There are many advantages from design to
function, but there is disadvantage that many people will pay special attention
to Xperia. It is bad battery. Although P uses White Magic with promises saving
50% of consumed energy, the battery which is over 1.300 mAh per hour doesn’t
help it operate during one day.
With the average intensity including
receiving messages, opening 3G connection, syncing two mail accounts 15 minutes
each hour, surfing the web, playing games in 15 minutes, taking some photos and
without calling, Xperia P only worked from the morning till late afternoon. For
standby with 3G connection, after 8 hours at night, the battery lost nearly 8%.
Therefore, to use Xperia P effectively in a working day, users should carry a
battery charger everywhere.
A note of Xperia P is that it comes with
EP-850 charger and the battery can recharge quickly. 10 minutes of charging
will allow it to call more 60 minutes. Also, it takes about 1 hour to charge
100% of the battery if it has only had 10%.
