Reviewed: Sony Xperia Sola — mid-range onslaught

There was much speculation about Sony’s survival in the cellphone market after losing its Ericsson connection, but it’s come up with an excellent range of phones to make their own mark. The Xperia Sola comes as an added option in the mid-range Android market in order for Sony to strengthen its onslaught.

What you see

The phone is somewhat smaller than the Xperia S and, weighing in at 107 grams, fits nicely into the hand and has a good solid feel. The matte finished plastic backing helps to hide fingerprints and will also make scratching less visible. The translucent band of the Xperia U, P and S is not part of the Sola package, but in spite of this the phone still has a stylish look. The phone is available in black, white and red.

The 3.7” 16M-colour capacitive touch screen boasts scratch-resistant glass and I suspect time will tell how well it will fare with everyday use. A new feature here is a floating touch display and although not too many apps make use of this yet, the browser makes use of this functionality. The screen “senses” your finger movement when hovering above, but without actually touching the screen. The display is clear and crisp and is easy to view even in sunlight courtesy of the Sony Bravia engine.

The phone is equipped with a 5MP camera and a LED flash set in the rear panel. It features geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and 3D sweep panorama. Video comes in at 720p@30fps with or without continuous autofocus. Unfortunately no secondary front camera is included.

Under the cover

The heart of this phone beats with a dual-core 1 GHz processor, 512MB RAM, and internal storage of 8GB which can be expanded further with a microSD card of up to 32GB. It is driven by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which is somewhat of a disappointment as the newer Android 4.0 is already out in the marketplace, but then it must be said that there are not too many contenders in this segment currently running on the newer versions of the operating system. However, the phone runs fast and without a hitch with this version of the operating system. An upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) should become available soon.

The Sola is factory fitted with a 1320 mAh Li-ion battery which Sony claims will provide power for up to six hours talk time, 40 hours of music listening or up to 475 hours standby time.

The Sola uses a standard sized SIM card, so no need to change to a micro SIM yet.

The driving experience

Choosing between IOS (Apple), Android and Windows operating systems is not a battle intended to be fought here and in my opinion is pretty much a matter of preference. Having entered the smart phone market some time ago with an Android phone, I cannot imaging changing at this time, or for that matter anywhere in the future unless Android falls way behind in its development.

The phone was a breeze to get to terms with. Everything is where it should be and navigation is easy and fast. The phone is very responsive and the touch screen is very accurate, even for guys with bigger fingers. New users of Android will find the menu system easy and friendly to use.

A five-pane home screen is used and at the bottom of the screen there is space for four user programmable shortcut keys along with the launcher shortcut. Unfortunately one cannot add or delete any panes but there is a neat overview option whereby all active widgets are presented on a single screen when the screen is pinched. The launch shortcut gives access to the applications panels.

The Sola is firstly a phone and it does the job well in that respect. The active noise cancellation results in clear sound in rather noisy surrounds.

Apart from being a phone, it is also a good social network connector. The contact book is comprehensive and allows the user to include all the details for a contact in one place: phone numbers, email addresses, IM, addresses, organisations, website, just about everything. You have one entry point to contact someone via sms, mail, Skype, WhatsApp or whatever format you wish. A custom ringtone can be set for each contact and there is even the option to divert calls from a contact directly to voicemail.

The Android store, now known as the Play Store, has more than enough apps available that can be downloaded and used with the Sola. The apps cover just about every field from business right through to play.

The cameras on Sony phones have always been exceptional and despite the Sola having an older 5MP camera, the results is still bright and pleasing. The video recorder does not represent the latest in present standards, but is still very presentable and appealing.

An excellent music player is used on the Sola. The interface is simple yet functional and operates smoothly. It also boasts a neat equaliser that allows you adjustment of five frequency bands and a useful range of presets. Sound is of good quality and several sound enhancements is also available, in particular for use with headphones.

Apart from the above, the phone features Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth, a stereo FM radio with RDS and NFC connectivity which is the new buzz in cellphone circles and certainly sets this phone apart from other contenders.

A final word

The Xperia Sola package presents a good option for midrange smart phone users who demands good value for money.  Although one would have liked to see the newer operating system rolled out here as a standard, the phone boasts some neat extras that make up for the older OS. These extras set the Sola apart from the rest and in any event, Sony should make the updated operating system available in Q3 of 2012 and this can be installed via the Sony PC Companion software that is shipped with the phone.