Thoughts on Xperia Play...

[bladerunner]

So I have been enjoying my new Xperia Play (Playstation Phone) and I have to say the control interface is well done, for the most part. The D-pad and standard PS keys feel great. The trigger switches too feel good, though at first I felt they were a bit too slippery. After a little use, they grew more comfortable. The screen is also fantastic, with even the store clerks remarking on the clarity.

The biggest hardware issue are the faux joysticks which are not responsive enough. Games like Asphalt 6 and Star Battalion are very difficult to play with the touch pads namely because you will end up crashing into everything as the pads can't keep up with your thumb movements. Adjusting the in game sensitivity helps, but still leaves the touch pads feeling sluggish. The rest of the controller is great.

The included games are decent. Asphalt 6, Star Battalion and Crash Bandicoot are great. Bruce Lee down right sucks, Madden is boring and The Sims 3...well less said the better. Selection of Xperia Play enabled games are limited now as well, but I hear Sony wrangled a mobile version of Minecraft as an exclusive, which sounds cool.

I haven't bought any other games at the moment, so I can't say much about what is available. Suffice it to say, that if you are on the fence about the device, you may want to wait for more compelling titles.

Android Gingerbread is great and runs smooth on the phone. The lack of 4G is often cited as a weakness for the device, as is the 5 megapixel camera, but that stuff really doesn't bother me. The game interface intrigued me and I was pleasantly surprised by it.

One thing that has proved disappointing is the recent removal of the best emulators on the Droid Marketlplace, namely NESoid, SNESoid and GENSoid. All 3 are the product of a single developer, yongzh, who has apparently had all his wares removed from the Market (he also has emu's for GB, GBA, etc.) Supposedly we will see official releases of classic games for the Xperia Play soon, and I hope so, I wanted this as not only my phone, but emu machine as well. It looks like there are work-a-rounds to getting these emulators installed, but any subsequent updates will remove them from your SD card, at least that is my understanding (correct me if I am wrong).

So in short, if you are on the fence about this, wait. If everything I said still leaves you interested, you may find the phone rewarding. Hopefully Sony will stick by the phone and get good games to users.

Oh and hopefully I don't have my personal data stolen by hackers, but...yeah

[bladerunner]

I should point out that Snes9x is on the Android Marketplace (and free) and works great with the Xperia Play game controller.

[Inazuma]

I wouldn't buy an Xperia Play, even if it was $1. I have no desire whatsoever to play one and I hope it fails miserably. Fuck Sony.

Well, those are my thoughts.

[AznKhmerBoi]

Amen to that. Its just ugly and why sony ? Your gonna release the ngp why waste time with ericson.

I wouldn't buy an Xperia Play, even if it was $1. I have no desire whatsoever to play one and I hope it fails miserably. Fuck Sony.

Well, those are my thoughts.

[KDub]

I'm not interested in it at all and figure it will probably fail. A phone as a dedicated gaming device just can't work right now. The controls will always be iffy at best, battery life sucks, and many more reasons like price, phone plans, power in the phone etc.

While there are some variables a power user on average gets around 7 hours on a single charge. Add trying to play heavy gaming to that and you'll be charging your phone a lot and that just seems like a hassle.

Not having 4G available on a device meant to get beefy games seems like a big mistake.

As far as NESoid being removed from the market just sideload them, I'm sure they are on the net somewhere. If the Xperia Play doesn't allow side loading...Screw that! Updates to your phone shouldn't remove any third party apps.

I'm not sure how the 5mp camera works on the Xperia works but its crystal clear in my Evo Shift. Can't wait to get Gingerbread as well!

[bladerunner]

Well I knew I wouldn't win any popularity contests buying this phone, but it actually does a decent job as a gaming device. Granted, I would not consider it a dedicated game device, I more or less see it as decent (not cutting edge) smartphone with a game controller. That serves me well on long flights. Additionally, I never had a smartphone before so 3G vs. 4G doesn't mean much to me, though I understand the advantages of 4G. But, Sony is certainly facing an uphill battle on any front these days due to recent events.

Admittedly the pseudo-thumbsticks are a let down but the other controls are good, maybe not as good as a PSP, but at least I only need one device to call, text, email and play retro games. Other devices I am sure do this as well.

As far as NESoid, etc. go, they are available on SlideME, no sideloading needed.

[nickfil]

I'm actually on the fence about getting one. I just got my first android phone and i've been playing a ton of gba games on it. Touch screen is good for games for pokemon and stuff like that, but if i wanted to fire up some mario, I can't. The touchscreen doesn't cut it.

I'll probably pick it up once it drops in price like crazy.

I have absolutely no desire to ever play anything from the sony marketplace though. Maybe minecraft. I think that is the problem with the xperia.

[irixith]

The Xperia play is a PSP Go with a phone and faux thumbsticks tacked on. Considering the success of the PSP Go, I have no idea what they were thinking to blend a phone into it.

I own a PSP Go. The screen is fucking fantastic. The built in bluetooth and ability to hook into a standard PS3 controller, also fantastic. However, the battery life is downright abysmal and it's just cramped enough in size to make for a seriously uncomfortable play experience. Not only have they not fixed either problem, they mixed it with Android and added those awful faux thumbsticks. With no real compelling content and that terrible form factor, it's reminding me of another failed gaming phone.

At least the other one had the courtesy to give us sidetalkin'.

[KDub]

As far as NESoid, etc go, they are available on SlideME, no sideloading needed.

Well I don't know a lot about SlideME but isn't it a 3rd Party app store? You would have to enable your phone to install third party apps then I would think. So that would be side loading, just through a service.

[noiseredux]

I would be interested in it IF:

1. it had a no-contract plan. I've NEVER bothered with cellphone contracts. Right now I have a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go plan for my LG Rumour Touch. I pay $26/mo for more minutes than I use (hate TALKING on the phone), unlimited text (which I use a lot) and unlimited data (good enough for checking email, etc).

2. it had a QWERTY keyboard of some sort. As stated above. I prefer texting over talking.