Review: Sony Xperia T

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Sony’s post Ericsson existence as a handset maker is nearly a year old and the company is celebrating in style with the release of the Sony Xperia T. A with a curvy and powerful new flagship 4.5-inch smartphone.

The Sony Xperia T is being marketed heavily as the ‘Bond Phone’ because it appears on the latest SkyFall movie and Sony has loaded it with wallpapers, videos and screensavers all pertaining to one agent 007 of the MI6. 

Remove the packaging and all the extras and there’s nothing particularly Bond-like about the Sony Xperia T, except that it is a very good-looking phone in a sleek, almost tactical-looking design.

For better or worse, Sony didn’t even etch the 007 logo anywhere on the aluminum clad body. They could have gone a step further to push the 007 branding, like make the smartphone available in a silver colour to match the iconic Aston Martin DB5 or even tweak the startup animation to emulate the Bond Gun Barrel Sequence that appears in every film.

The last movie tie-in smartphone I can remember was the Dark Knight Returns Lumia 900 which had a subtle but cool-looking Batman logo etched on the back of the device. The Lumia 900 is no longer a flagship smartphone but the Dark Knight Lumia is in high demand in places like eBay.

Bond phone or not, the Sony Xperia T is the most attractive Android smartphone Sony has made so far. It feels refined and well thought out. The use of a metal body is made more noticeable by the slight curved profile that sits nicely in the hand and ensures that the camera is unobstructed. It looks unlike any other Android smartphone we’ve seen.

It has the high-end look and feel worthy of a Nexus flagship device and it should be interesting to see what Sony comes up with when their turn comes around to make a Pure Google flagship smartphone.

The camera is a big update with a 13 megapixel auto focus shooter which has an aperture of f/2.4, face detection and 1080p HD video recording. The camera is quick, takes photos almost instantly and shoots lag-free video. These are all features that have been consistently great with the Xperia line and this model takes everything to the next level in terms of how easy it is to take great photos and videos.

Since Sony makes cameras for other popular smartphone makers, it is no surprise that they poured in an abundance of technology on their own device.

There’s more Sony tech attached to the Xperia T. Walkman makes an appearance as an App for playing music, the handset is PlayStation certified for future games, and TrackID music recognition technology and xLOUD audio filters are there to enhance digital music playback.

Xperia Link, which enables quick control of HDTVs (preferably Sony, of course), turns the Xperia T into a set-top box and HDTV remote control. This will appeal to users who consume content on both their mobile devices as well as their home theatre set-ups. The Xperia T is also NFC enabled and Sony isn't waiting around for widespread use of the new touchless communications interface, it ships its own Smart Tags as well as integrates the NFC standard for pairing smartphones with headphones, speakers and various accessories.

All-in-all, the Xperia T is the most exciting Sony smartphone we’ve seen at the higher-end. It is a quality device, has a great processor and ample RAM the new choice of material is far more favorable than the plastic of past models and being a Sony device, it is loaded to the gills with technology.

For users who don’t mind not having the latest version of Android (it features 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, an update to 4.1 Jelly Bean is promised), who are focused on media consumption, games and shooting superior video and photos will find the Xperia T a worthy smartphone. The Sony Xperia T is available from Bell and Rogers. 

Rating: 4 out of 5