So, what about the bits under the hood? Well, the good news is we have another device running Android 2.3 - Gingerbread ahoy, and Sony Ericsson is sailing full steam ahead into the most up-to-date Android seas it can charter... or something.
We do wish that it was a dual-core chipset powering things along - instead we have to make do with a single-core 1GHz next-gen Snapdragon processor.
The reason for this seemingly under-powered hardware is the lack of anything to tax it - when the Sony NGP was announced, we also were told that the PlayStation Suite will be coming to the Android platform too.
However, it won't be the most taxing of games that come initially - it's only PSOne titles that are on their way, so even the iPhone 4 will be able to out-game the device at launch.
More annoyingly - we couldn't put together a side by side test as the portal simply isn't ready for that: as you can see, no games or content available in the PlayStation Pocket Portal - which means we can't test out the dual touchpads in the middle and work out whether they're a ridiculous alternative to proper joysticks or not.
But the build quality and design of the Xperia Play are still available for a thorough going over, and it's interesting to see the direction Sony Ericsson has taken in terms of button placement.
The shoulder buttons, flanking the volume up and down keys, are the most noticeable - when the unit's gaming controls are exposed, it feels a little difficult to rest your forefingers on these comfortably.
One solution is to lay the whole finger across them, but then this exposes the risk of accidentally pressing one during gameplay.
The slide-out pad comes with the full array of gaming hardware you'd expect, with the aforementioned touch pads actually relatively easy to access - we can't wait to give those a proper try.
The plastic control keys on the right and left are easy to hold and use - they may feel a little cheap the first time you fondle, but the sensation is robust and in keeping with the design of the Xperia Play.
We're happy to see that you can use the D-Pad to move around the Android screen in the same way as a small trackpad - it certainly makes entering text a lot easier when you have that much control over the cursor.
The other little tweak PlayStation owners will love is the ability to go back using the Circle key - it feels very natural and is the kind of thing we're expecting from anything looking like the PSP Phone.
There's also a little menu key to help you access in game menus - however, it's odd that while most things will turn 90 degrees when sliding out the game pad, the home screen will not - rendering this menu key a little redundant at times.
We're sure this is something that Sony Ericsson can rectify ahead of launch - other devices, like the HTC Desire Z, have managed to work out how to make Android home screens work in both portrait and landscape mode, so fingers crossed ahead of its release.
The overlay on the Xperia Play may be the element that's stopping this though, as it's roughly similar to the used on both Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the Xperia Arc - namely Timescape, but a watered down version.
Read more on page 3
We do wish that it was a dual-core chipset powering things along - instead we have to make do with a single-core 1GHz next-gen Snapdragon processor.
The reason for this seemingly under-powered hardware is the lack of anything to tax it - when the Sony NGP was announced, we also were told that the PlayStation Suite will be coming to the Android platform too.
However, it won't be the most taxing of games that come initially - it's only PSOne titles that are on their way, so even the iPhone 4 will be able to out-game the device at launch.
More annoyingly - we couldn't put together a side by side test as the portal simply isn't ready for that: as you can see, no games or content available in the PlayStation Pocket Portal - which means we can't test out the dual touchpads in the middle and work out whether they're a ridiculous alternative to proper joysticks or not.
But the build quality and design of the Xperia Play are still available for a thorough going over, and it's interesting to see the direction Sony Ericsson has taken in terms of button placement.
The shoulder buttons, flanking the volume up and down keys, are the most noticeable - when the unit's gaming controls are exposed, it feels a little difficult to rest your forefingers on these comfortably.
One solution is to lay the whole finger across them, but then this exposes the risk of accidentally pressing one during gameplay.
The slide-out pad comes with the full array of gaming hardware you'd expect, with the aforementioned touch pads actually relatively easy to access - we can't wait to give those a proper try.
The plastic control keys on the right and left are easy to hold and use - they may feel a little cheap the first time you fondle, but the sensation is robust and in keeping with the design of the Xperia Play.
We're happy to see that you can use the D-Pad to move around the Android screen in the same way as a small trackpad - it certainly makes entering text a lot easier when you have that much control over the cursor.
The other little tweak PlayStation owners will love is the ability to go back using the Circle key - it feels very natural and is the kind of thing we're expecting from anything looking like the PSP Phone.
There's also a little menu key to help you access in game menus - however, it's odd that while most things will turn 90 degrees when sliding out the game pad, the home screen will not - rendering this menu key a little redundant at times.
We're sure this is something that Sony Ericsson can rectify ahead of launch - other devices, like the HTC Desire Z, have managed to work out how to make Android home screens work in both portrait and landscape mode, so fingers crossed ahead of its release.
The overlay on the Xperia Play may be the element that's stopping this though, as it's roughly similar to the used on both Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the Xperia Arc - namely Timescape, but a watered down version.
Read more on page 3
No comments:
Post a Comment