Sony Xperia S (white, unlocked)

Pros: DISPLAY
CAMERA
UI
WISEPILOT
SMART ACCESORIES

Cons: BATTERY(NOT MAJOR THOUGH)

Summary: My suggestion is don't trust CNET review. I mean for a average consumer this phone is DIVINE and I repeat it, it is DIVINE.

Review follows:

The best dual core smartphone in the market now. The mobile has an amazing performance and more over it is SONY. I further suggest you to take a look at the Sony Mobiles website and the videos they have of this phone. Then you will know the true power and functionality of this phone. If you want to look the pros and cons, here they are(though to fairly say there are not many cons);

PROS:

1. Amazing Display: Now what do you do with your phone most of the time. You look at it and Xperia S makes that an absolute pleasure. Beating the Retina display of Apple by a huge margin, this Reality display deserves that name. The colors are vibrant and the graphics amazing. After all, at 342ppi, not much can go wrong.

2.Processing Power: I admit that the processor is dual-core 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon S3(older generation) but Sony makes the most of it and the phone runs like a breeze. No lags and smooth UI and ICS has helped things get much better. The 1 GB RAM is icing on top of the cake and makes the experience much better.

3.Camera: The highest resolution on a smartphone camera in India at the time of this review(Sorry, I don't consider Nokia mobiles as SMARTphones). The pictures are amazing. I accept many other cameras offer good pics at 8MP but at 12MP it is a different story. The most amazing thing about this camera has to be the low light photography. The Exmor sensor captures great pics at almost complete darkness. Trust me on this I have tried it. You have to use it to believe it. And a BIG (and trust me when I say BIG) plus is the presence of an external camera button. If you have never had it on any of your phones, I would say you'll love it on Xperia S. It is so comfortable to have a camera button than having to turn on the screen and launch it from there.

4.WALKMAN: The phone does not come with WALKMAN out of the box, but once you upgrade to ICS, the WALKMAN player comes and makes listening to music a pleasure. I don't mean the stock music player you get without upgrading is also amazing, but the WALKMAN can do a lot more. It can download missing album art, download music information, search for song lyrics and so on. Anyway, any music on any Sony device sounds great. They are THE BEST in multimedia. The headphone surround is great and the ClearBass is fantastic.

5.Looks: Not many phones are sexy, but this one surely is. The transperent strip bellow the screen is miraculous and the mobile looks fabulous in light and divine in dark. Just for that form factor you can go for this phone as not many other phones are head turners as this beauty is.

6.SONY: The name itself is an advantage, with minute characteristics they make the user experience much better. They have a special recommender app and when you go to the Play Store you get a SONY window on the main screen and there you will have all the recommended apps for Sony. Sometimes, you get some apps for free, which are paid otherwise. Last but not the least, Sony has been voted the most developer friendly OEM by xdadevelopers (don't ask who they are, if you know anything about smartphones). So, it is easy to root and Sony is always the best OEM for giving news on it's updates and their specific timeframes.

7.WISEPILOT: This is Sony's way of voice guided navigation and this app comes pre-loaded.

8.NFC: And there is NFC. That means you can personalize specific functions on the phone using SMART TAGS. You need to buy them separately (I found that they sell 4 for Rs.500/-). Add other smart accessories like SMART WATCH and the mobile becomes a technological masterpiece. I don't think any other company has such innovative ideas with their smart phones.

CONS: Not many and even the cons mentioned bellow are minor if you ask me. Anyway let us go in there;

1.Battery: Don't get me wrong the battery backup will last you for one and half to two days at normal usage. But when you add heavy gaming and video watching the battery will drain under 10 hours(remember the 342ppi pixel density). But remember you have to pay a price for that amazing display.

2.Gingerbread out of the box: ICS is already released so I don't think upgrading it will be a problem. And Jelly Bean is on the way.

So, that's it humans, the review of Xperia S. My suggestion, you want a dual-core processor mobile with a great display an amazing camera and fantastic performance, go buy Sony Xperia S.

P.S: The Xperia SL is released but other than the slightly bumped 1.7 Ghz as compared to the 1.5 Ghz on Xperia S, they are virtually the same phone. The Xperia SL is Rs.2000/- more than the Xperia S. So, I still suggest Xperia S.