Sony Ericsson Xperia active Review

Smart and rugged are the two words that define the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active, although these are the words that do not match with each other especially when you're talking about mobile phones. There was a time when even a light or moderate clash with the ground would pretty well destroy the majority of smartphones out there. This gave rise to the birth of rugged phone market. However, both the smartphones and rugged phones keep their distance in terms of their appearance and design but the game was changed with the release of Motorola DEFY that paved the rugged-smart way and since then the smartphone market is now onto its next wave of rugged-smartphones with the DEFY's replacement, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover and the Sony Ericsson Xperia active all competing for a position in your fast-moving lifestyle.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is a cute little phone that comes with a rugged water resistance, dust proofing and pre-installed fitness apps together with its smart 1GHz processor, Android 2.3 and optimized user interface. Furthermore, the handset is shipped with the set of accessories that make you get a great deal out of the box.

The overall design and feel of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is quite attractive. Over a year ago the screen size of above 3.7" were considered an innovation but with the introduction of Android, there came an influx of about 4 - 4.3" screen and this trend of bigger screen sizes is on its way with the Google Nexus Prime (4.6"), HTC Titan / Sensation XL (4.7") and Samsung Galaxy Note (5.3") that is just round the corner. However, a modest 3 inches screen size of Sony Ericsson Xperia Active definitely charges the trend while demonstrating that it is not trying to be a media giant rather a bulbous, lively and weather-proofed cell phone that can even be dip up to three feet or 1 meter while comfortably hanging from the supplied lanyard.

Advantages

• Sony Ericsson Xperia Active comes with a moderately sized screen that measures in at 3".
• It has a resolution of 320x480 that is gifted with a couple of Sony Ericsson's own technologies including Mobile Bravia Engine that boosts the visual performance of the handset and wet-finger tracking system that allows touch input even when the screen or your finger is wet.
• Viewing angles are amazingly excellent.
• Physically the appearance is bulbous that we already have touched with.
• Regardless of being small, at 16.5mm the device is bordering on full of chunks. Three capacitive buttons and the microphone are present just below the display while a LED notification, light sensor and in call speaker are present above the display. On the other hand, the bottom of the phone houses two weather-sealed flaps, which disclose the 3.5mm headphone jack and micro USB port.
• It's no trouble to slip in a pocket and is very comfy to hold. The tough back is nice to the touch.
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Active comes with two back covers, one black and one pearly white for those who love to customize their smartphones.
• Up to 1 meter water proof ability that lets you to use your handset even in heavy rain, and not be anxious even if you spill out water on it.
• The handset feels like plastic which entails you will not be excessively precious about it having the abnormal swing or tap. This also makes sense given the dust and water-proofing.
• Dual back cover design for increased protection.

Disadvantages

• Although the screen resolution is good yet the outdoor viewing is not the greatest. Therefore take this into consideration if you are planning to take this active handset on a desert march or a summertime hike.
• The brightness of the screen is of average standard and even at its brightest, you may would like to shine the Sony Ericsson Xperia active a little brighter.

With a smaller than the majority of displays, the Sony Ericsson Xperia active's user interface practices the right thing and adopts straightforwardly from the working formula launched on the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini / Pro. This provides the user with all the benefits of Android 2.3.4, in addition Sony Ericsson specific user interface changes enabling comfy use on a small display. Most outstandingly these tweaks contain: shortcut screen corners, all housing between 1 and 4 application shortcuts that spread out upon selection, a T9 portrait keypad for text entry with QWERTY available in landscape and redesigned widgets.

Advantages

• Sony Ericsson Xperia Active water resistance test shows that wet finger tracking works like a charm and the display faces no problems understanding finger commands even when very wet.
• Sony Ericsson Xperia active offers a 360-degree spin owing to its small size. At 92 x 55 x 16.5 mm definitely is a little chunky. You can call it solid rather than heavy.
• The Sony Ericsson Xperia active runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with a custom skin and a nice package of apps.
• With its user interface, you can enjoy more than one widget per screen.
• A wide variety of pre-loaded applications including a data monitor app, Connected Devices (DLNA) and other Sony Ericsson standards such as LiveWare and TimeScape, which now incorporate plug-ins from Android Market, contributing extra services that you can pursue through the program, like Gmail or Foursquare.
• Furthermore, device specific apps take in WalkMate that tracks your steps and the pretty long winded iMapMyFITNEESS, a holistic fitness application that tracks exercises and nutrition. You can even connect with a separate heart-rate monitor in order to bring accurate calorie consumption.
• By using GPS satellites alone, you can get localized in about 3 minutes however using a GPS, you can get found instantaneously.

Disadvantages

• No secondary camera, no video calls
• No smart dialing
• Loudspeaker has below average performance
• Due to the small screen, typing on the portrait on-screen keyboard is not among the best of experiences.
• Sticking to the landscape QWERTY keyboard although is not as great as it is supposed to be but yet quite tolerable.
• No DivX / XviD support.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia active comes with quad band GSM and dual band 3G along with the customary, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, microUSB connectivity on top of DLNA.

Advantages

• Generally speaking, the internet experience on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is enjoyable.
• The internet experience is fine if you want to check a couple of websites, or make a quick search.
• The Android browser runs splendidly on the Xperia mini, without significant delays in scrolling, zooming, and so on.
• Into the bargain, because of its 1GHz processor and native Flash support, you will not fail to see a single thing when browsing.
• The phone stays responsive even when viewing a Flash-intensive website.

Disadvantages

• For longer usage the internet experience starts to get burdensome owing to its small screen size.

The Xperia active is associated with a 5 megapixel camera along with a single LED flash. There is a useful dedicated shutter key as well identical to those on the Live with Walkman and the Xperia mini.

Advantages

• Xperia active's camera comes with a very intuitive user interface that comprises of a bar with five shortcuts to popular features on the right. These shortcuts allow you to modify the capturing mode, resolution, to enable / disable touch capture and turn on flash.
• Image quality is satisfactory on the Xperia active. The produced photos have good quality color reproduction.
• Noise is extremely low thanks to the forceful noise reduction algorithm.
• Video quality is also impressive and the video runs quite smoothly. Furthermore, the color rendering is exactly right and the HD samples look good on the small display.

Disadvantages

• The quantity of captured detail is not so impressive and details get blurred as you look further away from the center of the picture just like on the Live with Walkman.
• Panorama option produces below an average result.
• Result of close-up photos is not so impressive since much of the details are lost due to aggressive noise reduction algorithm.
• Though the video quality is on balance with the Live with Walkman but the captured detail is low and there's a pinkish spot in the center, and the HD samples are not that great on a bigger screen.

Our judgment of how the Sony Ericsson Xperia active works is noticeably split. On the one hand where you have got a decent 1GHz processor bearing solid speeds on the whole, particularly considering that this is a rugged phone.

Advantages

• The overall performance of Sony Ericsson Xperia active is quite satisfactory as it comes with a 1GHz processor that delivers solid overall speeds.
• It inclines to take off through most applications in addition to with its revised UI that is designed for the miniature display delivers decent usability.
• Adding to that its strong signal strength that makes the Sony Ericsson Xperia active a winner.
• The battery powering the Sony Ericsson Xperia active has a power of 1200mAh, and is rated at 4.5 hours of talk-time, and 14 days of stand-by.
• The battery comfortably last a full day.

Disadvantages

• The call quality is extremely poor that maculates the handsets performance enormously with dampened audio from the in-call speaker being the average.
• Any average to intense wind furthermore makes conversation impossible to hear. The ultimate nail in the coffin enters in the form of a devastatingly low maximum volume.

We just cannot help but like the Sony Ericsson Xperia active provided the huge number of accessories you obtain out of the box, and certainly not to refer to the weatherproofing and pre-installed fitness apps. We even developed to like the projecting bottom seeing that it houses the lanyard which we discovered ourselves utilizing all the time. Unluckily on the other hand, nothing saves the Xperia active's call in-call speaker. It truly is a disgrace and weighs a lot on our rating. If you plan to make use of a Bluetooth headset or the bundled headphones for making calls, you can buy the handset with confidence, unless on the other hand, keep in mind this is a great phone with a big bicker.