Sony Xperia ion- AndroidNova.org

Howdy Readers,

Before starting this review, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to M/S MIRCHUMAL ELECTRONICS, JODHPUR for providing SONY XPERIA ion HSPA for a day intended for AndroidNova.org.

Lets start with reviewing the Sony Xperia ion HSPA. Some of the specifications of the device are as follows.

Basic Specifications:

1. Chip set: Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon
2. CPU: Dual-core 1.5 GHz
3. GPU: Adreno 220
4. RAM: 1 GB
5. Display: Resolution: 1280*720(HD- 720p) powered by Sony Mobile Bravia Engine, Size:4.55 inches, Capacitive, Scratch Resistant Multi(4) Touch Screen.
6. Dimensions: 133 x 68 x 10.8 mm, weighted 144 grams
7. Camera: 12 MP, video @ 1080p with 30fps (Primary) 1.3 MP, video @ 720p with 30fps(secondary)
8.  Connectivity: GPRS(up to 86 kbps), EDGE(up to 237 kbps), HSDPA(upto  42 Mbps), HSUPA( upto 5.76 Mbps), WiFi(802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot) and Bluetooth(v2.1)
9. Operating System: Android 2.3 aka GingerBread preloaded; ICS(4.0) update available; skinned with Sony Timescape UI

In-Hand Looks and Feels:

To start with, the most basic feature that a reader seeks in any device review is about the looks and feel of the device. The build of the device is actually a royal one with great finishing overall. We must rather include the word “sophisticated” for its build as the device needs actual care. The finishing material of the device acts like a magnet to dust particles as well as the finger prints. While clicking exclusive HD pictures, we took great care and still found that it attracts a lot of dust particles. Do have a close look at the exclusive clicks by AndroidNova.

Apart from the finishing, there are 4 feather touch buttons just beneath the screen, a 3.5 mm jack at the peak of the device, a physical power button key on the top left side, along with volume toggle buttons under that and a dedicated camera key in the bottom of the left side. The right side consists of the USB/Charging slot and a miniHDMI slot to connect and stream the device to large displays on the go.

Performance and Battery Life

When it comes to the performance issues, we received Sony Xperia ion HSPA which was updated to Android v4.0.4 aka Ice Cream Sandwich. In terms of processor and GPU, the performance is very close to perfect as we did not face any lags while testing its multitasking capabilities and playing HD Games on it. The 1.5 GHz dual core processor along with Adreno 220 GPU worked just flawlessly.

In the operational front, we observed that the manufacturer hasn’t skinned the device properly as in many parts of the operations, we observed it leaves a mark of unskinned Timescape UI. The display which is powered by Sony Mobile Bravia Engine has an aspect ratio of 1280*720(HD- 720p) and is by far the best display out there when compared to any high end devices or flagship phones of Samsung and HTC.

In terms of power, the Sony Xperia ion HSPA is powered by a strong 1900MAh battery but still, it disappointed us as with a fair usage of Wi-Fi, music and a few HD games, the battery only lasted for around 16 hours. Probably the reason behind this is the display with HD resolution and also the fact that it is powered by Sony Mobile Bravia Engine adds to it. So in terms of battery life, the device disappointed us big time.

Multimedia

The music player is fine and when tested with the stock earphones, it has an unbalanced ratio of treble and bass, whereas on changing the equalizer settings, we found no effective results to come up with. Hence in terms of music, we would conclude that the music is not up to the mark we that we had expected it to be. The Music player also disappointed us!

The stock video player is able enough to run 1080p videos smoothly even after a jump in the timings. The sharp display and Sony Mobile Bravia Engine does its part of the job perfectly here.

Cameras provided in the device are 12MP (primary) and 1.3MP (secondary) with video recordings of 1080p and 720p respectively both at the rate of 30fps.  While we used the cameras separately, we found that the primary camera has a very low amount of optical zoom and flash is extremely poor. It fails to give considerable results after a distance of 2.5 meters in night or indoors. Moreover, on comparing it with the quality of Samsung Galaxy S2’s primary camera (8mp) in the day time, we found that there is hardly any noticeable difference in the picture quality. Talking about the Secondary Camera, it gives a video resolution of 720p of its recorded output but is basically useless when the camera resolution is 1.3 MP. Also, the shutter of both the cameras is a bit slow and hence can’t be used to click images immediately or in a fraction of seconds.

The overall multimedia features disappointed us big time and the Sony Xperia ion HSPA  fails to meet our expectations on these grounds.

Final Verdict:

The Sony Xperia ion HSPA is basically a device which is meant for “sophisticated” users. With overflowing of embedded features (which are useless at some of the portions), it makes the device a bit costly. The device cost is around INR 36,000($650) which is fairly expensive in terms of Dual-Cored processor powered devices. Also, till date we have no official information from Sony regarding the OS update to Android v4.1 Jelly Bean. We would definitely not recommend this device to our geek readers, but if you are a sophisticated user and searching for a perfect show off material, your search definitely ends here.

AndroidNova.org Ratings: 4.5/5

Thank You and for more updates on Android World, stay tuned to AndroidNova.org

Mirchumal Electronics- AndroidNova.org

Device Provider: M/s Mirchumal Electronics, Jodhpur. Prop: Virendra Mirchandani +91-982-902-4430