Sony Xperia S

BionicRasher · 30-04-2012 1:28pm

OK have the Xperia S for a week now and here are my thoughts

Good stuff
• Screen – amazing
• Sound from both speakers and headphones is great
• Well built
• Looks great
• NFC (still waiting on the tags to be sent to me but possibilities look endless)
• Camera is great
• 50GB free space on Box.com (online cloud storage)
• Some great apps like Timescape, Liveware manager, Powersaver, TrackID,
• Notification light is good.
• Battery seems pretty good so far – getting about 18hrs of heavy first week use and tinkering (old HTC Desire would get just 24 hrs of use normally)

Not so Good stuff
• The cover on charging port is annoying – also the charging cable is hard to push in and remove
• The capacitive buttons take a bit of getting used to (they actually act more like hardware buttons and maybe that is a good thing but they take a bit of getting used to)
• There is a bit of a lag when swishing between home screens
• The Calendar and Contacts app are poor – very hard to come from great Sense UI on HTC to these as they are not good.
• Seems to be a bit of a lag when pressing the app drawer and sometimes takes 2 presses to open it.
• When scrolling up and down screens fast text gets a bit blurred (this didn’t happen on old HTC Legend or Desire)
• The top right of my screen seems a bit unresponsive (maybe just my handset)

So as you can see its a bit of give and take with this so far. A lot of my gripes are around software so hopefully with ICS on the way they can be resolved. Other than that its a great piece of kit and I am still getting used to it and trying to get the most out of it.

ED E · 30-04-2012 1:40pm

You shouldnt be getting any lag.

BionicRasher · 30-04-2012 1:51pm

Yes lag is definitely present and is worse on the Xperia home launcher than it is on Go Launcher EX for example
I really hope ICS helps

marcbrophy · 30-04-2012 2:08pm

I'm a bit cheesed off that my device has developed that yellow tint issue! :mad:

Does anyone know anything about getting it fixed?

BionicRasher · 30-04-2012 2:12pm

another tip to save battery is
Settings -> Network Settings -> Mobile Network -> Network Mode -> select GSM only modes

BionicRasher · 30-04-2012 2:13pm

marcbrophy wrote: »

I'm a bit cheesed off that my device has developed that yellow tint issue! :mad:

Does anyone know anything about getting it fixed?

can you post a screenshot?

ED E · 30-04-2012 2:13pm

marcbrophy wrote: »

I'm a bit cheesed off that my device has developed that yellow tint issue! :mad:

Does anyone know anything about getting it fixed?

Sony will repair it for free, ~2wks turnaround time.

BionicRasher · 30-04-2012 2:16pm

A few other things that annoy me are

Accounts and Sync - its really confusing. What is Facebook inside Xperia syncing if I already have Facebook sync. My Picasa albums wont sync and also instant upload to Google+ for photos only works 1 time in every 3 or so attempts. My contacts are mostly synced to a Facebook contact but only some are updating and the only way to get an update seems to be to log out of Facebook and back in again to see if it updates again

Also I hate the way the screen shuts off when I am on a call while in Car Mode – normally the screen stays lit so I can press mute etc if needed on the screen – now if I am on a call in the car and the other party hangs up then I need to press the power button to get the screen to turn on again

marcbrophy · 30-04-2012 2:38pm

tui0hcg wrote: »

can you post a screenshot?

The problem is with the screen on the device, so I'd need another camera to take a picture of the phone itself, but I don't have access to one now! I'll see what I can do later on.

ED E wrote: »

Sony will repair it for free, ~2wks turnaround time.

That's cool.
Would I be best to re-lock the bootloader and put on the correct firmware again, before sending it back?

ED E · 30-04-2012 5:19pm

marcbrophy wrote: »

That's cool.
Would I be best to re-lock the bootloader and put on the correct firmware again, before sending it back?

Fuuuuuuuuark! Mine just got a yellow spot on the top right. I could see it before when I tested it and heated to 40+ *C but this was when it was pretty cool. ICS is rumoured to be round the corner but I'm going to have to send it back :rolleyes:

They appear (based off Arc rhetoric) to not really care whats on a phone as long as it wasnt obviously overclocked, that said, for a few minutes work I'd do it. I'd wipe my phone before sending it anyways, dont want their techs snooping, so may as well while you're at it.

marcbrophy · 30-04-2012 6:27pm

ED E wrote: »

Fuuuuuuuuark! Mine just got a yellow spot on the top right. I could see it before when I tested it and heated to 40+ *C but this was when it was pretty cool. ICS is rumoured to be round the corner but I'm going to have to send it back :rolleyes:

They appear (based off Arc rhetoric) to not really care whats on a phone as long as it wasnt obviously overclocked, that said, for a few minutes work I'd do it. I'd wipe my phone before sending it anyways, dont want their techs snooping, so may as well while you're at it.

Crap, bad luck man!

How can you find out the heat of the device? Is there an app? My screen only needs to be on for about 60 seconds before I start to see it. Bottom, just over the home button, very noticeable :mad:

Yeah, I think for peace of mind, I'll set it back the way I got it and wipe it! I don't have a kernel that supports over-clocking anyway, so no real worries there!

ED E · 30-04-2012 7:36pm

marcbrophy wrote: »

How can you find out the heat of the device? Is there an app? My screen only needs to be on for about 60 seconds before I start to see it. Bottom, just over the home button, very noticeable :mad:

There are plenty of apps, the only sensor in the phone is the battery, so its that temp you get rather than the core temp, but in handsets like this temperature tends to be pretty even all over. I use widgetsoid.

marcbrophy · 30-04-2012 9:37pm

Cool, I'll try that one anyway!!
SetCPU used to show me a temperature on other phones I've had, but on this one, it just shows 0.0 degrees the whole time!

BionicRasher · 30-04-2012 11:17pm

Has anyone got .73 firmware ota yet? Looks like other countries have it. I don't see it anyway

ED E · 30-04-2012 11:50pm

Some do, loads dont.

And simfree generics mostly dont.

ThunbergsAreGo · 01-05-2012 8:27am

tui0hcg wrote: »

Has anyone got .73 firmware ota yet? Looks like other countries have it. I don't see it anyway

Im on meteor bill and got it two saturdays ago

BionicRasher · 01-05-2012 9:01am

naughtb4 wrote: »

Im on meteor bill and got it two saturdays ago

I am on Meteor bill pay too but got the phone in CPW. Unlocked and unbranded and I still dont have the update.

Phone is starting to annoy me now as its doing strange stuff. GPS keeps turning on and I cant find any app that requires it, phone wont go on to vibrate when its set to do so through Timerific app, screen shuts off after 15 seconds of inactivity if I am reading a webpage (I have set it to 1 min and on other Androids it would dim first before going off completely)

Onboard memory keeps spiking up around 80% also but then drops to 30% for no reason even though there are only a couple of apps running

maybe its time to do a factory reset and start again. I hope ICS is a better experience than this

ED E · 01-05-2012 2:15pm

tui0hcg wrote: »

I am on Meteor bill pay too but got the phone in CPW. Unlocked and unbranded and I still dont have the update.

THree branded, still 62.

Phone is starting to annoy me now as its doing strange stuff. GPS keeps turning on and I cant find any app that requires it, phone wont go on to vibrate when its set to do so through Timerific app, screen shuts off after 15 seconds of inactivity if I am reading a webpage (I have set it to 1 min and on other Androids it would dim first before going off completely)

GPS: Thats an app triggering it, got facebook?

When you're reading a page I find it handy to just keep one finder on it, move slightly every now and then so it never sleeps.

Onboard memory keeps spiking up around 80% also but then drops to 30% for no reason even though there are only a couple of apps running

This is a good thing! Android isnt windows, it tries to fill memory rather than leave it empty, its wasted empty. The apps that it fills it with are frozen when not in use so they dont use any CPU cycles, but are ready to go when you need them.

maybe its time to do a factory reset and start again. I hope ICS is a better experience than this

ICS is designed for this generation of phones, unlike GB, so there's a good chance things will be a bit smoother.

BionicRasher · 01-05-2012 3:46pm

ED E wrote: »

THree branded, still 62.

GPS: Thats an app triggering it, got facebook?

When you're reading a page I find it handy to just keep one finder on it, move slightly every now and then so it never sleeps.

This is a good thing! Android isnt windows, it tries to fill memory rather than leave it empty, its wasted empty. The apps that it fills it with are frozen when not in use so they dont use any CPU cycles, but are ready to go when you need them.

ICS is designed for this generation of phones, unlike GB, so there's a good chance things will be a bit smoother.

Yes FB may be a culprit but I have that set to manual updates only so not sure what else it could be - Maybe Google+

I really hope ICS will be better as the software leaves me feeling hard done by and not in keeping with the really nice hardware

IncognitoMan · 02-05-2012 5:14am

Has anyone bought a case or cover for this yet?

ThunbergsAreGo · 02-05-2012 8:47am

tui0hcg wrote: »

Yes FB may be a culprit but I have that set to manual updates only so not sure what else it could be - Maybe Google+

I really hope ICS will be better as the software leaves me feeling hard done by and not in keeping with the really nice hardware

Stupid question, but how do i set facebook to manual update?

BionicRasher · 02-05-2012 9:01am

naughtb4 wrote: »

Stupid question, but how do i set facebook to manual update?

Go to the Facebook app -> Menu -> settings
Select Refresh Interval and set to never

Then each time you go in to Facebook app you need to manually update or refresh from the menu

flazio · 02-05-2012 10:15am

IncognitoMan wrote: »

Has anyone bought a case or cover for this yet?

Has anyone found some one selling any on the high street?

BionicRasher · 02-05-2012 12:21pm

checked a lot of bricks and mortar stores but no luck finding a cover yet

was thinking of one of these

http://www.fone-master.com/product.php?pid=3576

or this

http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/flexishield-skin-for-sony-xperia-s-transparent-black-p34433.htm

ED E · 02-05-2012 2:11pm

Nilkin all the way guys.

BionicRasher · 02-05-2012 2:43pm

ED E wrote: »

Nilkin all the way guys.

Any links to these cases?
I am really looking for a gel case rather than a hard plastic one - gel seems to bounce better:D

ED E · 02-05-2012 3:00pm

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Nillkin+Xperia+S

BionicRasher · 02-05-2012 4:27pm

ED E wrote: »

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Nillkin+Xperia+S

Ah so its Nillkin and not Nilkin

ED E wrote: »

Nilkin all the way guys.

no wonder I couldn't find it:rolleyes:

ED E · 02-05-2012 4:32pm

Google does suggest corrections...

BionicRasher · 02-05-2012 4:50pm

ED E wrote: »

Google does suggest corrections...

Who is to know Google is always correct with its corrections!

Just looking for a link to where anyone has purchased one of these and if they are a recommended seller etc.

mondeo · 02-05-2012 5:28pm

I'm really stuck as to buy the one s or buy the xperia s. I'm thinking the xperia s offers better value for money as it is similar spec and cheaper.

Does anyone here regret buying it?

ED E · 02-05-2012 6:34pm

tui0hcg wrote: »

Who is to know Google is always correct with its corrections!

Just looking for a link to where anyone has purchased one of these and if they are a recommended seller etc.

/takes off troll cap

http://myworld.ebay.ie/busyduck/&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2754

This guy was who I got mine from. HK but quick enough. He was worried about the easter break causing it to be held up but it actually got here in about a week. Rapid reply to my messages too(I screwed up and sent it to an old US address instead

).

IncognitoMan · 02-05-2012 7:01pm

mondeo wrote: »

I'm really stuck as to buy the one s or buy the xperia s. I'm thinking the xperia s offers better value for money as it is similar spec and cheaper.

Does anyone here regret buying it?

I don't regret buying it. I can't speak for the one s as I've never played around with one. But the phone is very good and a big improvement form the 3gs I came from.

Screen is as good as ive seen on a phone,

Speed for browsing the internet is impressive,

I've just started putting emulators on the phone aswell and I'm enjoying playing some classic games,

Speakers are good for playing music or listening to podcasts,

Hdmi to the tv so I can watch any media I have on the phone/youtube videos on my tv,

Ive seen people complaining about the capacitive buttons on the phone but after a day I have got the hang of them and don't find them annoying at all now.

Just my opinion on the phone but I am very happy with my purchase

Be good to see what improvements ice cream sandwich (android 4.0) will bring

ThunbergsAreGo · 02-05-2012 8:08pm

IncognitoMan wrote: »

I don't regret buying it. I can't speak for the one s as I've never played around with one. But the phone is very good and a big improvement form the 3gs I came from.

Screen is as good as ive seen on a phone,

Speed for browsing the internet is impressive,

I've just started putting emulators on the phone aswell and I'm enjoying playing some classic games,

Speakers are good for playing music or listening to podcasts,

Hdmi to the tv so I can watch any media I have on the phone/youtube videos on my tv,

Ive seen people complaining about the capacitive buttons on the phone but after a day I have got the hang of them and don't find them annoying at all now.

Just my opinion on the phone but I am very happy with my purchase

Be good to see what improvements ice cream sandwich (android 4.0) will bring

Also coming from a 3GS and liking it so far,
Wiimote and an Emulator is alot fun

I was in the same one x or xperia s dilemma and went for the xperia s
1. its cheaper
2. battery is currently better, who knows about the future
3. its a good phone now on gingerbread and will likely get better on ICS
4. Screen is just the right size, One X is a bit too big

Also turned off Gmail sync today and used only 20 percent battery in approx 12 hours today, i know its not purely related to that, but thought it was pretty impressive

BionicRasher · 02-05-2012 10:02pm

mondeo wrote: »

I'm really stuck as to buy the one s or buy the xperia s. I'm thinking the xperia s offers better value for money as it is similar spec and cheaper.

Does anyone here regret buying it?

See my post #302

I wouldn't say I regret buying it (yet) but TBH I am not far off regretting it. Most of my gripes are software based so I will wait for ICS to see how I feel.

maybe I have a dud handset but its not been a smooth experience so far. Main issues I have lately are

Camera - its normally great but.....Press the button once and it takes a photo then for no resaon at all it randomly takes another photo 5 or 6 seconds later. some times no matter how many times I press it no picture is taken

Some widgets are freezing and I have had to reboot a good few times to get them back working

When I open a text from the lock screen then I sometimes get a black screen and only way of getting back to home is to hold power button for 1-2 seconds

phone has frozen on me 3 times in the first week and a half (a small gripe I know but it has never happened before on previous devices)

Lag between opening and switching apps and moving between screens is annoying - I get a lot of judder. Screens seem to chug along and some of my home screens that have folders on them take 3-4 seconds to populate when I move to them from another screen

Oh and finally - NFC tags still not arrived so thats got me mad too!

If I had my time over I dont think I would have been so keen to go for Xperia over HTC One S. Now I know the One S may have issues too but HTC just seem to make phones that work (maybe ICS has a lot to do with it) Price was a factor for me but for the few extra quid then maybe ONE S is a little better

Dont get me wrong as this is a great bit of kit and when ICS lands it might fix all my woes as spec wise, build quality wise this is probably better than the One S and the screen is amazing

ThunbergsAreGo · 02-05-2012 10:38pm

tui0hcg wrote: »

See my post #302

I wouldn't say I regret buying it (yet) but TBH I am not far off regretting it. Most of my gripes are software based so I will wait for ICS to see how I feel.

maybe I have a dud handset but its not been a smooth experience so far. Main issues I have lately are

Camera - its normally great but.....Press the button once and it takes a photo then for no resaon at all it randomly takes another photo 5 or 6 seconds later. some times no matter how many times I press it no picture is taken

Some widgets are freezing and I have had to reboot a good few times to get them back working

When I open a text from the lock screen then I sometimes get a black screen and only way of getting back to home is to hold power button for 1-2 seconds

phone has frozen on me 3 times in the first week and a half (a small gripe I know but it has never happened before on previous devices)

Lag between opening and switching apps and moving between screens is annoying - I get a lot of judder. Screens seem to chug along and some of my home screens that have folders on them take 3-4 seconds to populate when I move to them from another screen

Oh and finally - NFC tags still not arrived so thats got me mad too!

If I had my time over I dont think I would have been so keen to go for Xperia over HTC One S. Now I know the One S may have issues too but HTC just seem to make phones that work (maybe ICS has a lot to do with it) Price was a factor for me but for the few extra quid then maybe ONE S is a little better

Dont get me wrong as this is a great bit of kit and when ICS lands it might fix all my woes as spec wise, build quality wise this is probably better than the One S and the screen is amazing

It does sound like you have a bit of a dud

ThunbergsAreGo · 02-05-2012 10:53pm

Mine seems awfully slow to charge, how are others finding it in this regard?

ED E · 02-05-2012 10:55pm

naughtb4 wrote: »

Mine seems awfully slow to charge, how are others finding it in this regard?

What charger are you using? The stock ep800(850mA) is slow enough, if you can get an ep850 thats 1.2 or 1.5A and a lot faster. Going to try mine on an ipad(1.2A) charger tonight to see how she does.

ThunbergsAreGo · 02-05-2012 10:56pm

ED E wrote: »

What charger are you using? The stock ep800(850mA) is slow enough, if you can get an ep850 thats 1.2 or 1.5A and a lot faster. Going to try mine on an ipad(1.2A) charger tonight to see how she does.

Yeah just read that online, im afraid of moving from the stock as it could damage the battery no?

Let me know how you get on

ED E · 02-05-2012 10:59pm

naughtb4 wrote: »

Yeah just read that online, im afraid of moving from the stock as it could damage the battery no?

Let me know how you get on

Yeah, I'm cautious of that too. In older cell technologies fast charging wasnt the best at all, with Li-ion and Li-Poly its not so bad. Lots of the HTC range with similar packs charge at 1A+ so I'm not super worried. Maybe in a hot climate but my room tends to be pretty cool.

ThunbergsAreGo · 02-05-2012 11:14pm

It seemed to take me 15 minutes tog o up a single percentagwhich is not good.

I have been charging at night so havent noticed it before,

will discharge over the weekend and try again to see what results i get

marcbrophy · 02-05-2012 11:35pm

I never bothered to take the charger out the box when I got mine. Checked it there and it's 850mA.
I've been using one from an old sony ericsson and I just checked that. It's only 700mA. No wonder it takes so long to charge the phone!
I'm gonna use the one that came with the phone from now on

IncognitoMan · 03-05-2012 2:36am

tui0hcg wrote: »

See my post #302

I wouldn't say I regret buying it (yet) but TBH I am not far off regretting it. Most of my gripes are software based so I will wait for ICS to see how I feel.

maybe I have a dud handset but its not been a smooth experience so far. Main issues I have lately are

Camera - its normally great but.....Press the button once and it takes a photo then for no resaon at all it randomly takes another photo 5 or 6 seconds later. some times no matter how many times I press it no picture is taken

Some widgets are freezing and I have had to reboot a good few times to get them back working

When I open a text from the lock screen then I sometimes get a black screen and only way of getting back to home is to hold power button for 1-2 seconds

phone has frozen on me 3 times in the first week and a half (a small gripe I know but it has never happened before on previous devices)

Lag between opening and switching apps and moving between screens is annoying - I get a lot of judder. Screens seem to chug along and some of my home screens that have folders on them take 3-4 seconds to populate when I move to them from another screen

Oh and finally - NFC tags still not arrived so thats got me mad too!

If I had my time over I dont think I would have been so keen to go for Xperia over HTC One S. Now I know the One S may have issues too but HTC just seem to make phones that work (maybe ICS has a lot to do with it) Price was a factor for me but for the few extra quid then maybe ONE S is a little better

Dont get me wrong as this is a great bit of kit and when ICS lands it might fix all my woes as spec wise, build quality wise this is probably better than the One S and the screen is amazing

I have not had any of these problems so maybe you would want to get the device checked out.

I have mine about 5 weeks now and would be on it a good bit all day between texting, checking various football scores, looking at different sites and a bit of gaming when im bored. Then using it connected to the tv to watch downloaded content. Only thing the really annoyed was the battery life but I suppose it is no worse than the 3gs its just im on this phone alot more but it seams to have improved since the start.

cherryghost · 03-05-2012 12:25pm

Won this a few weeks ago. Arrived this morning so once I get home I'll be playing around with it.

BionicRasher · 03-05-2012 4:05pm

have lock screen notifications set up as in screenshot

https://www.box.com/s/a145a97291dcb502bcd6

but the only ones I can see on the lock screen are text messages and missed calls

What should I be seeing from the rest?

thebman · 06-05-2012 1:09pm

tui0hcg wrote: »

Dont get me wrong as this is a great bit of kit and when ICS lands it might fix all my woes as spec wise, build quality wise this is probably better than the One S and the screen is amazing

I've had mine a day and have problems with location services but googling it is a known issue and fixed in ICS update which brings a new kernel.

My last 4 phones were all Sony Ericsson/ Sony and this is the biggest problem I ever had so I'm sure they'll fix it. they have dedicated support forums that are staffed. Try looking there or posting to see if they can resolve your issues.

ThunbergsAreGo · 06-05-2012 4:14pm

Anybody bought a usb battery pack for this? or can reccomend one?

ThunbergsAreGo · 07-05-2012 6:18pm

Anyone know how to go back to stock launcher while leaving zeam or another installed?

Edit: it ok got it

ED E · 07-05-2012 6:25pm

naughtb4 wrote: »

Anyone know how to go back to stock launcher while leaving zeam or another installed?

You can change it from default application settings under application settings.

BionicRasher · 07-05-2012 9:14pm

Still getting used to this phone but its been tough love from me.

Old HTC Desire was a great bit of kit and rarely gave trouble (bar the lack of space for apps)

This is still giving me grief and I think its all to do with software TBH. Examples of stuff that worked without fail on Desire but not so well on Xperia S are

Video - Sony camera is great but playback of a few samples I have done are stuttering and not smooth at all
Video - saved files are showing in the Camera Folder and not Video folder in the Gallery
360 camera pan - its a great camera and when it works in 360 mode its brill but 3 times out of 5 it stops taking the photo when I am half way through the pan.
Just Dance 3 (Autodance) wont work at all and just seems to take hundreds of frames of video and store them as photos (may be related to above issue)
Widgets freeze and cant display on the home-screen - only way to fix is reboot
Lag between switching screens is a curse and not at all as smooth as my 2 year old Desire

I really hope ICS brings a big improvement or I may have to try to sell this as its kind of doing my head in at the moment

On another note - ordered a Nillkin Gel case so as soon as it arrives I will post my verdict

Sony Xperia S

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