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Sony Xperia T Review
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Review: September 2012 |
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Phone rating: 
In a nutshell: The Sony Xperia
T is Sony's flagship phone, featuring a 4.6 inch HD display
and an amazing 13 megapixel camera with full 1080p HD video
recording. A second front-facing camera enables HD video calling.
The phone runs Android 4.0, is powered by a fast dual-core processor
with 16GB of memory and features NFC wireless communication.
Best buy: *Free* from Dialaphone
(Black).
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Sony are being busy bees in 2012, releasing a swathe of Xperia Android
smartphones onto the market. The Xperia T is their latest flagship device,
picking up where the Xperia S left off.
The Xperia T is perhaps more conventional-looking than the S, lacking
the clear plastic strip below the screen. But it also has an attractive
curved back, reminiscent of the SE
Xperia Arc S. It's approximately the same size as the Xperia S -
just 1mm thinner. The back has a rubbery finish, which makes it easy
to grip. But just in case, the screen has scratch-resistant glass with
a shatterproof sheet on top.
The phone features a slightly larger screen than the S - a generous
4.55 inches - with the same HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels). It's
an impressive display, with pin-sharp images and smooth HD videos thanks
to Sony's Bravia Engine and the dedicated Adreno 225 GPU. Although it's
not quite the biggest screen available, it's virtually a match for the
HTC One X or Samsung
Galaxy S3.
The handset is available in Black, Silver or White.
The Xperia T is not an earth-shattering phone. It's very much an incremental
development of the Xperia S, which after all was released just six months
earlier. While the S shipped with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), the T comes
with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Not Jelly
Bean (4.1) you'll note, but Sony have never managed to get the very
latest release of Android into their phones right away. An update to
Jelly Bean is promised in due course.
If you've used a Sony Android phone before, you'll know that they come
tweaked with a bunch of enhancements to the user interface. The home
screen can be customised with widgets, shortcuts, folders, themes, wallpaper,
and you can flick left and right to access four home screen extensions.
The Timescape app puts all your messaging into one place - email, texts,
facebook and twitter. You can also view your photos here. Tapping the
Infinite button lets you branch out to related info, such as finding
all the communications with a particular contact. The virtual keyboard
allows for some user customisation, which is a nice feature.
The camera and video are very impressive. Equipped with Sony’s Exmor™
R for mobile CMOS sensor, the Xperia T has the highest resolution yet
of any Sony phone, with a massive 13 megapixels plus 1080p HD video
recording. This is one of the best camera phones we've seen, with a
large f2.4 aperture lens and equipped with a full set of advanced features
- face recognition, touch focus, image stabilisation, red eye reduction
and more. The phone also comes with an Album app for managing photos
and videos. And it's worth mentioning the dedicated shutter button,
which is such a handy feature.
Musically, we have a strange sense of deja vu. The Xperia T comes with
a Walkman app. Back to the Future or what? The app is simply used for
managing playlists. But no complaints, because this is a great music
player, with graphic equalisers if you're a fussy audiophile, or xLoud
loudness enhancement for the rest of us. An FM radio with RDS is also
included. You can send your music out through the 3.5mm audio jack,
or stream it via DLNA.
Plenty of memory is essential in such a product, and the phone comes
with 16GB of flash memory - 2GB for downloaded apps, 11GB for data,
and 3GB for the system. You can also add a microSD card up to 32GB.
A full 1GB of RAM is available too, so there's no reason for apps to
misbehave.
Hey - we haven't yet mentioned that the phone has a mighty 1.5GHz dual-core
processor to power it along. Sony haven't yet embraced the power of
quad-core, but nevertheless the Xperia T zips along perfectly fast enough
with the help of the dedicated GPU. If dual-core is enough to power
full HD video and a HD screen, what need is there for a faster CPU?
As befits a modern smartphone, the Xperia T will connect with anything.
Equipped with 3G HSPA giving a theoretical download speed of an extraordinary
42.2 Mbps, you can also access data via Wi-Fi and use your phone as
a Wi-Fi hotspot for connecting other wireless devices. Old-fashioned
Bluetooth and USB are here of course, and as mentioned you can connect
to devices around your home via DLNA and HDMI. The phone also comes
with an implementation of NFC, which lets you share photos, music and
other content with other NFC-enabled phones just by holding them next
to each other.
All modern smartphones struggle with battery life. There's just so
much going on. The Xperia T has a larger battery than most, rated at
1850mAh, and it should give a similar battery life to the Xperia S.
You should get a full day's use out of it, but heavy users need to watch
out and maybe keep a charger at work.
Finally we're pleased to report that as well as making a fabulous phone,
Sony have got the pricing right too. At launch, the Xperia T is available
free on contracts for less then £30 per month, putting it in the
same price range as the HTC One X and Samsung
Galaxy S3. The HTC and Samsung might offer a quad-core processor
and a slightly larger screen, but the Sony excels when it comes to the
camera. In fact, choose any of these three phones and you'll be very
happy with the outcome.
Features of the Sony Xperia T include:
- 13 megapixel camera with f2.4 aperture, 16x digital zoom, autofocus,
face recognition, smile detection and pulsed LED flash
- HD 1080p video camera with video light
- 1.3 megapixel front-facing 720p video camera, Google Talk with video
chat
- Display: HD TFT capacitive touchscreen, 1280 x 720 pixels (4.55
inches), 16 million colours with auto-rotation
- Media player with album art, shuffle, smart playlists, TrackID and
PlayNow
- xLOUD Experience, Clear stereo and clear bass, 3D surround sound
- FM radio with RDS
- MP3 ringtones
- aGPS with Google Maps, Street View and Latitude
- Messaging: SMS, MMS, email, conversations
- 3D games, motion gaming, PlayStation® Certified
- Vibration alert
- Internet: WAP 2.0, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, WebKit web browser, RSS feeds,
YouTube, voice search, accelerated Adobe Flash
- Processor: 1.5 GHz Qualcomm dual core processor
- Memory: 16GB flash memory plus 1GB RAM plus 32GB microSD card slot
- Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, HDMI,
DLNA, NFC, WiFi hotspot support
- Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) plus 3G UMTS/HSPA (850, 900, 1700,
1900, 2100) - up to 42.2 Mbps downloads
- Size: 129 x 67 x 9.35 mm
- Weight: 139g
- Battery: 1850mAh
- Talktime: 7 hours
- Battery standby: 450 hours
Sony Xperia T User Reviews
Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this
phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so
please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive
language, and please, no advertising!
Average rating from 10 reviews: 
Reviewed by Andy from England Uk on 9th Jun 2013
Well this is my first smartphone. Screen and pics are amazing!. I downloaded
a free sat nav app called waze which was recommended by a friend. And its superb.
But 2 things i have been very disappointed with. First off the quality of e
mail video messages. Very poor quality. Much worse than older and current upto
date smart phones. Seeing as the camera is great on this phone its not good
and slightly annoying. And also when using skype no one can see me. I can see
them, The sound is fine, but i am not able to be seen. And i know its not my
settings. Now these two issues kill this phone for me as i actually use these
2 a lot. Especially skype!...Anyone who uses skype could maybe comment on this!....Therefore
3 stars is more like it for me. Good but not great!
Rating:  Reply
Reviewed by John H from United Kingdom on 13th Apr 2013
Got the phone just over a week ago and still wont work on any map related app
despite store & sony instructions.
Store offered another T and this wont work either.
Back to store AGAIN tomorrow for a resolution!!!!
Everything else superb but this stops it being usable - very disappointed. Can
only give 1 star because this cannot seem to be sorted.
Rating:  Reply
Reply by John H from United Kingdom on 14th
Apr 2013
Visited store again today (Phones$u - they are great) and even they could not
get Nav / Map app to work - they even tried another Xperia from the shop. Walked
away with a Motorola RAZR - it works and is so quick. Utterley disappointed
a big name brand like Sont cannot get any of the phones i tried to work
Reviewed by Katie from UK on 28th Dec 2012
amazing phone, superb!!!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by THEIN from BURMA on 19th Dec 2012
Got this phone just five days ago. Very impressive ! Works beautifully. Connectivity
is very very fast and internet browsing is a lightning. Software update to Build
number 7.0.A.3.195 just took some 25 minutes. Camera is really awesome with
crystal clear images! Unlike S series, the extra microSD card is a great welcome.
Now that Jelly Bean update is on the way, really looking forward to use this
phone to its full capacity. Sony has done it again ! Bravo ! All 5 stars from
me.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Pete from Ireland on 6th Nov 2012
Have it two weeks now. Moved from a Galaxy S2. Seems to be doing the trick so
far. Bit slower than the S2. Screen is very clear. Camera is fantastic. Liked
the feel of it with the matt finish on the back but this has started to wear
away at one corner. Have it in a case now so its not a major issue but still....thought
James Bonds phone would have been a bit more rugged!!! Its bang on for me as
Im not a super power android user. Call quality a bit low but okay. 4 stars
is enough!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Mindy from uk on 30th Oct 2012
I just bought this phone today, and wow, it's so easy to use! The graphics are
second to none, and picture quarter is superb! The interface is easy and foolproof
too. I highly recommend this phone to anyone looking to buy a phone hands down.
10/10 rating from me.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by John B from Ireland on 23rd Oct 2012
This phone is a bit of a disappointment and there is very little improvement
from the S. As far a Android phones go it is good and has an above par camera
that is excellent but everything else seems to lag behind its competition. If
you have come from a high spec phone I don't recommend this device unless your
an avid photographer or if its your first mid range android I can recommend
this device. Don't get me wrong its a good phone but its not a very high spec
phone except for its camera. One other thing that got me frustrated was the
phone seemed to collect dirt and dust to easily around the grooves on the perimeter
of the screen and also this phone really show up fingerprints big time, so if
these bother you steer clear. It is a good looking device and feels good quality
in the hand.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Dave from UK on 22nd Oct 2012
Purchased this phone on it's release day and I have to say how disappointed
I was. It is a nice comfortable size in the hand, however I felt the position
of the buttons was a bit awkward. The phone runs smooth enough and is pretty
fast but the screen is a bit of a let down compared to the Samsung S3 or HTC
One X. On the plus side it does have a fantastic 13mp camera and a dedicated
camera button for those quick snaps.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Jim from UK on 22nd Oct 2012
I have had this phone for two weeks and am pleased with my choice.
My main reason for choosing this model was the camera and I am not disappointed
- the resolution really is exceptionally good and it takes better pictures than
my previous phone, the Nokia N8.
I have found that the call quality is very good and have had no dropped calls.
I like how you can use the mobile as a Wifi hot spot and it effectively turns
my Wifi only iPad into a 3G model.
I have never used Android before and have had no problems getting used to it.
The build quality seems very good and the screen size is just right.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by john from uk on 15th Oct 2012
i had this phone for 3 days on and upgrade. i returned it promptly. the screen
has that washed out look also viewing angle is poor. no where near the samsung
3 or htc one x. the buttons are in a weird place right where you hold it so
your hand will always be on the buttons. its pretty fast and runs well but thats
about as thrilling as it gets. no way would i call it outstanding sony are well
behind when it comes to screen and cpu
Rating: Reply
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