Sony Xperia Sola Full Review

June 27, 2012

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The Xperia Sola is on the lower spectrum of the NXT series phones from Sony Mobile after their breakup with Ericsson. The Sola is a completely different take on the NXT line-up and we tell you how it fares in this rapid review.

Build Quality and Design

The Sola is a flat and slim phone, unlike the others in the new Sony lineup. The back is a removable soft touch cover which is solid and fingerprint free. The front of the phone has a raised LCD display above the main bezel, which leaves the screen exposed to damage if the device slips out and falls.

In terms of design the smartphone may not be as attractive as the others in the NXT lineup but still fares well in the looks department. The phone is lightweight and easy on the hands, very comfortable to hold, although the location of the volume rocker is quite awkward. The Sola is also missing the iconic transparent bar, which is quite a bummer.

Hardware

The Xperia Sola has 5 MP camera that does only 720p video ( what a let down), The display has a Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine and has a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels and 3.7 inch diagonal size, giving it a total 265 ppi. The Xperia Sola also has touch sensitive controls along with a floating touch display which is pretty much useless.

On the inside, the Phone comes with NFC which is put to great use using smart tags, same NovaThor U8500 with a 1GHz dual core CPU found on the cousin Xperia P, except the GPU is a Mali-400 (vs Mali-400MP)

On the memory department, we have 8GB of internal storage ( 5GB available) and the Sola does have a microSD slot unlike the others in the NXT series. The phone has 512 MB of RAM which makes it truly an understated device.

Camera

The camera is a poor 5 MP camera from yesteryears, looks like Sony is trying to get rid of their sensors. Image quality is mediocre to say the least and video performance is poor, apart from just a 720p video capability, the video itself is choppy and playback leads to a lot of loss of frames.

On the bright side you do get a full set of Sony Camera app features including various scene modes and shooting modes.

Display, Audio and Speakers

The floating touch display is just a novelty feature as of now, its fiddly and does not work as shown in their promo videos. A proper utilization might lead to a good add-on. In its present state it can be used to move the onscreen wallpaper from Sony and navigate through menu items on the Browser. We would have liked an actual interpretation of the floating touch where we could actually navigate the phone using floating touch. Since the equipment is already in place maybe its not too much to ask of Sony to improve the interface in the ICS update.

Audio is loud and clear, the included earphones are a good choice with multiple tips for all sizes of ears. The earphones have excellent sound reproduction and high levels of bass. The loudspeaker is decent aswell, with an actively accurate sound clarity.

Internet, Cloud and Data

Browsing is poor on the main browser, pages are slow and unresponsive. But, that does not mean there is something wrong with the device. Other browsers work great and an update to ICS (expected soon) should fix all issues with the matter.

You do get free cloud storage with Box.net as an add-on to the existing 5GB (usable ) on board. Remember connecting to the Box account and downloading/Uploading media will require a fast 3g/WiFi connection.

Data usage will be high on a device like the Xperia Sola, as you will constantly find yourself connection to streams and apps, updates from social circles are all seamless. Even iGyaan app notifications are fast and efficiently received on the Xperia Sola.

Phone, Messaging and Networks

Phone calls are stable and networks are solid. The phone is missing a front camera so no VOIP services and no video calling. the earpiece and microphone are both loud and clear and there were really no problems indexed during our test phase.

Messaging is fast and easy on the highly responsive touchscreen. The Sony keyboard is well laid out and easy to use. The added gesture input makes it really easy to use the keyboard, and also makes it easy for existing Samsung/Swype users to shift to this keyboard.

Battery

The battery life on the Xperia Sola is good, see our full table below.

Battery Life:

Talk Time 3G network(data off): 5 Hours
Talk Time 2g (data off) : 6 hours
Internet : N/A
Music : 10 Hours
Video : 4 hours

Talk Time 3G network(data on): 4.5 Hours
Talk Time 2g (data on) : 6 hours
Internet : 4 Hours
Music : 9 Hours
Video : 3.5 hours

Talk Time 3G network(data off): 5 Hours
Talk Time 2g (data off) : 5.5 hours
Internet : 4 Hours
Music : 9 Hours
Video : 3 hours

Conclusion

While a little overpriced for the features it brings its only a tad cheaper than the Xperia P. The device is a good looking feature packed phone, but not the best performer and definitely not something we are rooting for.

The smartphone however is well built and sized well, very comfortable device to use and is easy on the eyes. The device is an all round performer with little things missing like a front facing camera, full HD video recording, only 512 MB RAM and most of all a smaller screen. Shell out a couple more K’s to get the Xperia P with added advantages and a sleek unibody shell.