Second pilot. Overview of the smartphone Sony Xperia SP

The middle segment according to Sony - I liked the design and functionality of the SP, but there is a question about the main thing - the price. And this is one of the few devices of the brand without a protective film on the display!

Design, construction

This device belongs to the budget segment, but it looks very good, something, but there is enough sonystyle here. Traditionally, on the right is the power button, the story began with the Sony Xperia Z, and I would like it to continue forever. The button, by the way, is made of metal. Next to the strip is the volume button, below is the camera button, this is another plus for a potential buyer. Although, to be honest, I can not call it a significant plus. While walking with SP, I used the button on the display more often than the hardware one. At the bottom there is a transparent strip, this is a reference to last year's Xperia smartphones, the strip is highlighted during charging and a number of other operations. It looks beautiful. The assembly is excellent, the battery cover can be removed, but the battery is built-in, under the cover there is a slot for a SIM card (microSIM) and a microSD memory card. There is an NFC icon on the lid, this is where the area is located - you can connect accessories with one touch or exchange files with other devices. On the back are the main camera lens, speaker hole, flash. Perhaps this is one of the few Sony smartphones without a slot for attaching a strap. The device is not protected from moisture, there are no plugs here, on the upper end there is a 3.5 mm jack for connecting a headset, on the left is microUSB. Above the display is the front camera lens, sensors, below the display is a microphone hole.

What else to add? The plastic here is matte, the device is pleasant to hold in hands, it is rather heavy. Dimensions are 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98 mm, weight - 155 grams. Available in three colors: black, red, white.

I like white the best, but black looks good too. By the way, there is no factory film on the display, it seems to me that this is rather a plus. Moreover, the screen is protected by Gorilla glass. Carried SP in a pocket with keys, in a bag - it seems that no scratches appeared.

The pluses, in addition to design, include the location of the controls. The button is right under the thumb (or index finger, if held with the left hand), the same can be said about the volume control.

Display

Diagonal TFT-display - 4.6 inches, resolution - 1280 x 720 pixels, the sun can see everything more or less well. In general, the screen is normal, I traditionally find fault with the viewing angles, but here you need to understand that the Sony Xperia SP is a budget device. Very good for a budget smartphone. Although you can safely argue with me.

Performance

Qualcomm MSM8960Pro Dual Core (1.7GHz), Adreno 320, 1GB RAM, using Android version 4.1.2, recently updated (12.0.A.1.257) system. The device is fast, like other Xperias, it has its own design, icons are redrawn, a number of programs are installed, a traditional lock screen (blinds, first appeared in Z). The notification bar has indicators for quickly disabling / enabling a number of functions. A big plus is the presence of a radio, traditionally there is Track ID, Office Suite, Evernote, File Commander, Opera Mini is preinstalled, although you can do without it. The McAfee Security app will help you get rid of viruses - I would uninstall it right away.

Sony Xperia SP is quite suitable for running any games and applications. Well, what else to say? Everything I've tried has worked quite quickly and efficiently.

Camera

The resolution of the main camera is 8 MP, as it is written in the official TX, only 7 MP (3104 x 2328 pixels) can be selected in the menu. It supports HD video shooting, LED flash, the camera has its own interface, a lot of settings, but I'd better not say anything about it so that fans of setting everything up do not feel offended. Filmed with automatic mode, you can see examples of shots below. The camera works just as fast as the device as a whole, with the help of a button you can quickly launch it (the behavior of the button is configurable).

Photo examples:

Memory

8 GB installed, 5.37 GB available, there is a microSD card slot, 64 GB cards work quite well.

Working hours

Claimed battery life is about 13 hours of talk time, 44 hours of music playback, about 8 hours of video playback, using a 2370 mAh battery. In Europe, the device kept calm for about two days - calls, SMS, filmed a little. In Moscow, the situation is not the same, but in general, the Sony Xperia SP lasts longer than the same ZR with a similar load. There is a Stamina mode: when you turn off the device, data transfer is turned off, although some programs conflict with this mode (it seems to be Facebook). In the settings you can choose to turn on Wi-Fi by location, I recommend using it.

conclusions

There are no problems with the quality of speech transmission and the volume of the earpiece, but the volume of the main speaker is low. The vibrating alert seemed to me somehow thoughtful and too calm. The average price is about 15,500 rubles. What else can you buy with this money? The choice is very large, it will be difficult for me to list all the devices here. There is the same Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, it has a smaller screen, but in general, it is quite a worthy competitor. If you do not look at the brand, then for this money you can buy a smartphone with a five-inch screen, a quad-core processor, two SIM cards and many other things that the Sony Xperia SP does not have. Naturally, buyers are trying to get the most for their money, and I will not recommend a smartphone to gentlemen who are engaged in the eternal choice, looking only at the characteristics.

But Sony Xperia SP has its own chips. The pluses include the design and management, the speed of work, the operating time also pleased, there is a slot for a memory card. There is also support for LTE. The camera will do just fine to shoot something on Instagram (nothing more, it’s better not to look at the pictures on a laptop). The display could be better. There is a radio, although for me personally this is not such an advantage, I listen to stations on the network more often. The sound quality is not bad, but the Z / ZR is clearly better. A serious minus - you can not use a memory card to install programs, you need to do some manipulations to achieve the desired effect.

What else to add - for 12,000 rubles at the time of release, it would have been a hit. And sooner or later, Sony must understand this, if for top-end devices the price does not really matter, then in the budget and middle segments it does, even as it does. Those who choose such devices are looking for the best among far from the best devices. And the Sony Xperia SP, no matter how good it is, will seem unnecessarily expensive to the target audience. The company has a lot of interesting and good products this year, but companies with hard-to-pronounce names are jumping and pressing with all their might from below, and Samsung and Apple are clapping their jaws from above - Sony will have to clack back. It's time to forget about "we are the best Sony in the world, and therefore pay us a lot of money." The sooner this happens, the better.

Sergey Kuzmin ()

Xperia SP is an expertly crafted smartphone with a refined aluminum frame. The Xperia SP HD Phone's 4.6-inch display is bright enough to make you feel like you're in the middle of the action, no matter what you're watching. The Reality Display is powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, which means you'll enjoy the amazingly sharp images, rich colors and enhanced contrast you've come to expect from Sony TVs. Throw a party in the living room with your smartphone. This NFC-enabled Android smartphone lets you transfer movies, photos and games to your HDTV screen with one-touch screen mirroring. Thanks to NFC technology and screen mirroring, no wires are needed.

MAIN SPECIFICATIONS

General characteristics

Screen

Multimedia features

Connection

Memory and processor

Nutrition

Other features

Additional Information

Test LTE smartphone Sony Xperia SP: life in color

The user has hidden his data

Problem solved

Advantages: 1. Design! He is really good. I have long dreamed of sonorous metal in Sony, and finally, the dream has come true!))) I took it, and not Xperia Z because of the metal in the case. 2. Excellent display. Let there be no Full-HD, but in terms of quality it is not inferior to the same Xperia Z, with its vaunted characteristics. Marketing is doing its job. Why do you need to cram a Full-HD screen into a phone with a 5-inch screen? Zero sense and you will not notice the difference. Pixel density at the level of Iphone 5 - 319 ppi. It is colorful and juicy and, unlike the poisonous colors of amoled, gives out a real color range and behaves perfectly in the bright sun. Compared with Samsung Galaxy Note 2, so the Japanese behaves 2 or even 3 times better in the sun. What they write that the screen sucks here is complete nonsense from competitors' fans!))) Such people want to laugh in the eyes.))) Viewing angles at a very decent level, like on any other phone, fade a little, but why look at screen at almost zero angle???? I really liked the response of the display. It is on par with the Iphone 5 and Nokia 920 Lumia that I had. 3. Great camera, especially without super mode. Produces 8 megapixels. I think that with the new firmware, some shortcomings with stabilization will be eliminated, and so, everything is OK. 4. It catches the net well. Here there can really be no complaints, tk. in the elevator it gives out 3-4 divisions, unlike Samsungs and iPhones, in which the network disappears. The interlocutor is perfectly audible, without any distortion and interruptions. 4G is very good and stable catches! The speed is crazy! 38 Mbps! They say that it can accelerate up to 100 Mbps. 5. Excellent technical filling. The camera, the external and voice speaker, the powerful S4 processor, the powerful Adreno 320 video accelerator are slightly inferior to Z in their characteristics, but in practice, according to various tests, they not only do not concede, but even surpass it. The battery here is a bomb.))) It really lasts for 2 days of active use. Cons: There are practically none. Yes, there are small gaps, but this is a design feature, because. nothing creaks. On a black model, it's almost invisible. If you compare it with the Korean Samsung C3 or Note 2, you will not notice the difference, but if you compare it with the monolithic Iphone 5, you will feel the difference.))) Comment: Comments are superfluous. The device is really good. The main disadvantage that the "competitors" are trying to inflate about the weak viewing angles of the screen and insufficient contrast turned out to be unconvincing for me, because. I really like natural colors, rather than cutting eyes of super-duper amoledas that fade in the sun. DO NOT listen to anyone about this. I advise you to just go to the store and see for yourself the veracity of my words. I think it makes no sense to take a powerful top-end 4-core phone when you can get an excellent smartphone for relatively little money but with excellent technical characteristics, which in practice will not be inferior to competitors in almost anything, both in terms of speed and quality of materials.

At the time of release in 2013, the Sony Xperia SP LTE C5303 surprised with a number of features:

• Strict, but at the same time original design, involving a luminous bezel at the bottom of the smartphone;
• A body made using seamless casting technology using the latest composite materials;
• HD Reality Display with 720p resolution;
• New intelligent technology Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2, which is responsible for the ideal image quality;
• HDR technology for flawless image quality in challenging environments;
• Energy saving STAMINA mode;
• Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro dual-core asynchronous processor

Smartphone running at computer speed

Thanks to the processor, the cores of which are able to turn on and off independently of each other, reacting to the degree of workload, the Sony Xperia SP LTE C5303 smartphone not only allows you to quickly work with several applications at the same time, but also saves battery power. The highest processor performance and 1GB of RAM make even web browsing fast and enjoyable;

Image worthy of admiration

The creators of Sony Xperia SP LTE C5303 have made great efforts to achieve such a great result when showing videos and photos. The Reality Display draws on the expertise of the Bravia TV designers, which have received positive feedback from many users. Large progressive scan screen resolution, high pixel density, wide viewing angle - all this makes watching videos on the Sony Xperia SP LTE C5303 smartphone a real pleasure.

There are drawbacks, but they are very few.

The disadvantages of users include the thickness of the device, which is 10mm and, according to some, the smartphone is a bit thick. In addition, the lack of the ability to charge from the usb port, as well as the poor resolution of the front camera - only 0.3 megapixels.

Affordable mid-range LTE smartphone from a renowned manufacturer

This spring, we brought to your attention a detailed report on how the Japanese corporation Sony, more precisely, its division for the production of mobile devices Sony Mobile, refreshed the market with two new mid-range models at once - the Xperia SP and Xperia L smartphones. Of the two presented smartphones, Sony Xperia SP , of course, is the most interesting, advanced in every sense, but also a more expensive device. It has a more noticeable appearance (metal is used in the case, a transparent polycarbonate insert), and technical equipment no less curious for the middle class (a screen with the ability to control with gloves, an unusual dual-core modification of the popular Qualcomm S4 Pro SoC and, of course, support for LTE- frequencies used in our country). In addition, this device quickly reached the shelves and is already sold in our stores, so this review will be able to assist future owners in choosing.

To begin with, let's give our traditional plate, in which we summarized the key characteristics of the notable modern models we tested. Here it is interesting to compare the new product both with the top modern solutions on the market (including the flagship of Sony's own line - Xperia Z), and with similar capabilities, already cheaper top models of last season (Nexus 4 or LG Optimus G), which can to compete with the model described today.

* The most common SIM card formats are described in a separate article.

Key Features of Sony Xperia SP (Model C5303)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (MSM8960T), 1.7 GHz, 2 Krait cores (ARMv7)
• GPU Adreno 320
• Operating system Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
• Touch screen, 4.6″, 1280×720
• Random access memory (RAM) 1 GB, internal memory 8 GB
• microSD card slot up to 32 GB
• Communication GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communication 3G UMTS HSPA+ 850, 900, 2100 MHz
• LTE Band I, III, V, VII, VIII, XX (2600/800 FDD are used on the territory of the Russian Federation)
• HSPA+ 21 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• Support DLNA, MHL, OTG, Media Go, MTP
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS/Glonass
• 8MP Exmor RS camera with HDR video support
• Camera 0.3 MP (front)
• Li-ion battery 2370 mAh
• Dimensions 130.6×67.1×9.9mm
• Weight 155 g

Equipment

The smartphone comes with high-quality in-ear headphones, naturally, coming with a set of additional ear pads. Also included is a standard charger with a USB cable for charging and connecting to a computer. All this is packed into a small flat box made of soft cardboard, typical for modern Sony Mobile products.

Appearance and usability

The design of the Sony Xperia SP is rather unusual. Plastic and glass parts are shackled here by an aluminum rim that runs along the entire side perimeter of the device. The rim looks quite rough - wide, not polished, with deliberately thickened edges and sharp edges. In combination with plastic parts, it looks like an old rim that binds an oak barrel. There is no particular elegance in this detail, but, apparently, the creators did not strive for this: a kind of brutality is emphasized here even by such noticeable touches as metal screws screwed in in the most prominent places of the side faces.

All parameters of the device, such as weight and dimensions, fully correspond to the concept of "average". Not small, but not a "shovel", not heavy, but not light - everything is within the normal range. In the hand of Sony Xperia SP, due to its wide and rough rim and considerable thickness of the body, it is quite comfortable and firmly held in it. There are no glossy or slippery details here - the cover, like the rim, is matte, although it is made of plastic, not metal.

The cover of the Sony Xperia SP can be removed, but the battery in this model turned out to be non-removable. After removing it, slots for a memory card and a SIM card become available. Since the battery does not support these elements, as is usually the case, both cards can be easily removed and installed back without turning off the device. However, the smartphone itself performs a reboot operation if you remove or insert the SIM card. Why not make the Sony Xperia SP battery replaceable is not clear; and you can’t take a spare battery with you on the road.

Another curious moment is connected with the back side of the smartphone: it is here, right in the middle of the back surface, that the second microphone is embedded, which is rather unusual. The rest is familiar here: the round glass of a digital camera, the eye of the LED flash below it, and next to it is the speaker grille. The camera glass is surrounded by a thick metal rim, which protrudes significantly from the plane of the lid. Accordingly, this bezel takes on the function of a prop and prevents other parts from touching the table surface when the smartphone is placed with the screen up.

The front surface is completely covered with protective glass. The glass is flat, transparent, has no sides, but, curiously, the panel around the screen is painted to match the rest of the body. In this case, it is as white as all other plastic parts. This is quite unusual, because all previous Sony models always had a black front panel, regardless of the color of the case. However, even in Xperia SP this rim will be white only in the white version - for models of other colors, the front panel, as usual, remains black.

If we are talking about colors, then it is worth noting that initially three color solutions for the Sony Xperia SP are supplied to the market: black, red and white (the last option is shown in our photos). Technically, the models are no different, but the black version looks, oddly enough, less rough than the other two. This is due to the fact that all its elements are painted in the same color, and the case is visually a single whole - the roughness of the metal rim is hidden here by paint. In the white version, the metal rim stands out quite strongly against the general snow-white background of the case. As for the red, here the bezel is also painted to match the overall tone of the entire body, but the blackness of the front panel around the screen is very striking. For some reason, they did not paint it in the color of the case, as in the white version, but left it to blacken against the general red background. In any case, color preferences always remain a matter of individual taste, but we repeat: the black version of the Sony Xperia SP in this case looks the most organic and finished.

Another notable design element inherited from previous Sony models is a transparent insert at the bottom of the case. This insert is made of polycarbonate and can be illuminated in different colors depending on many factors. It can play the role of a color sensor that notifies about various events, from the charging process to incoming messages, and can also, like a chameleon, mimic the overall color of the viewed photos or even create color music for the melody being played. This element is rather entertaining, and it is focused primarily, of course, on attracting the attention of young people. This insert is located at the very bottom of the case, and does not thread through the plastic, as in some previous models, such as Sony Xperia U. In general, the transfer of a transparent strip to the very bottom had a positive effect on the overall image of the device.

Now let's take a quick look at the controls and connectors found on the Sony Xperia SP. First, it is worth noting that the three traditional keys under the screen are abolished here - they migrated to the display itself in the form of virtual buttons that now occupy part of the screen. From this, the usable screen area has decreased, and is not 1280 × 720 in points, as nominally indicated in the specifications, but only 1184 × 720 - the rest of the display space in most applications is given to virtual control keys.

As for the hardware buttons, their location has become standard for Sony devices this year: both main keys - the volume rocker and the power and lock button - are located on the same side face next to each other. On the one hand, this is convenient, because when pressed, other fingers do not rest against the button on the opposite side and, accordingly, do not make erroneous clicks. On the other hand, it becomes very inconvenient to perform any operations with the simultaneous pressing of both keys (taking a screenshot, for example).

The Sony Xperia SP also has a dedicated key to control the camera. Today, it makes an ambiguous impression, since this governing body may well be recognized as rudimentary. All modern top models from other manufacturers have long been taught to control the shutter release in camera mode with the volume key, and Samsung, for example, even added the ability to select the functions assigned to this button in the settings (this is how the Samsung Galaxy S4 did it). Therefore, the presence of a separate key for the camera in Sony devices no longer looks like a noticeable plus, although, no doubt, there are people who are so accustomed to this control option that any other option will seem flawed to them. In any case, this is a matter of habit, but the extra key, always looming under the fingers, distracts attention a little - the fewer of them, the better.

The volume rocker here is not very long, quite tight, it is not very comfortable to touch, but you can get used to it. On the other hand, the large aluminum round plate of the power and lock buttons is, on the contrary, very easy to manage due to its size.

The Sony Xperia SP has, as usual, two connectors: a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a Micro-USB for charging and connecting to a computer. The connector supports USB host mode (OTG), so any flash drive with the help of an appropriate adapter can turn into additional storage for a smartphone and is mounted as an external drive when connected. The only pity is that the file manager pre-installed in the Sony Xperia SP (which in itself is already amazing, because Sony did not install any default explorer in their smartphones before) does not automatically open this external drive during connection, as devices from other companies do, such as Samsung, Huawei or LG.

Summarizing this part of the description of the Sony Xperia SP smartphone, it remains to add that, in general, the device does not cause any bright emotions - neither positive nor negative. Calm, solid design, not sparkling with charm, but not quite simple either - it looks exactly for the money it's worth. For women, the device is quite suitable for its size, but with its rough appearance, it will most likely attract more of the male part of the population.

Screen

The screen of the Sony Xperia SP is just as strange as that of the Xperia Z. With any, even a slight deviation from the normal, the screen instantly becomes whitish and the colors fade. Perhaps this is its main drawback. Otherwise, the Sony Xperia SP display is not bad: graininess is not visible, the dot density is sufficient so that the fonts do not seem loose, the responsiveness is up to par.

In numbers, the physical parameters of the screen of the Sony Xperia SP smartphone are as follows: screen dimensions - 57 × 101 mm, diagonal - 116 mm (4.6 inches), resolution - HD 720p (1280 × 800 pixels), PPI pixel density is 319 dpi, which is very good for a mid-range smartphone. In this sense, the screen of the last "loner" Taiwanese HTC is a record in our market so far: in the HTC One model, the dot density reaches 469 ppi. The brightness of the Sony Xperia SP display has both manual and automatic adjustment, the latter is based on the light sensor. Multi-touch technology allows you to simultaneously process up to ten touches, which is confirmed by tests. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. By the way, it is for this model that I would like to note one annoying moment: it is quite unpleasant, and sometimes even painful, to press the hard top edge of a smartphone with a very hard edge of a rough metal rim to your ear. Exactly the same situation was observed in the Xperia ZL model - however, there the rim was not made of metal, but still the sensations are similar.

As a standard, the screen of the Sony Xperia SP smartphone is equipped with support for the technology responsible for image enhancement - Mobile Bravia Engine 2. However, this technology does not directly apply to the matrix itself - it is software-based and works only when viewing photos and videos in media players and photo galleries. What exactly does the Mobile Bravia Engine 2 proprietary function do with images, we examined in an article about Sony Xperia Z. As for the physical properties of the display, it is not always known for certain which technology is used to produce the screen of a particular Sony smartphone model. When answering this question, company representatives tactfully but firmly avoid this topic, mentioning only that screen suppliers in different deliveries may be different, and, consequently, screen production technologies may also differ slightly. Yes, all of these screens are manufactured using technologies developed by Sony, but the manufacturing factories themselves are owned by several different manufacturing companies.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the Sony Xperia SP screen.

The screen of the smartphone is covered with a plate of mineral glass. The protective film that Sony factory-sticks on the screens of many of its smartphones is not in this model. The outer surface of the glass has oleophobic (grease repellent) properties, so fingerprints are removed more easily and appear at a slower rate than with conventional glass. Judging by the reflection of objects, there is an anti-glare filter, but its effectiveness is not very high.

With manual brightness control, its maximum value was 415 cd / m², the minimum was 22 cd / m². As a result, at maximum brightness in bright daylight, the smartphone can most likely be used without any inconvenience, and the minimum brightness will allow you to comfortably work with this mobile device even in complete darkness. There is an automatic brightness control according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker); This function depends on the position of the brightness slider. If it is set to 100%, then in complete darkness, the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to at least 130 cd / m² (too much), in an artificially lit office, the brightness remains at the same 130 cd / m² (acceptable), in a very bright environment rises almost to a maximum - up to 400 cd / m². If the brightness slider is at 50%, the values ​​are: 50, 50, and 260 cd/m², at 0%, 4, 4, and 30 cd/m². In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. At low brightness, there is no backlight modulation (up to and including 100 kHz), so there is no backlight flicker.

Below is a micrograph of the screen matrix:

The structure of subpixels differs from the typical structure of IPS matrices. It is possible that this device has a matrix of some type *VA, indirectly this is confirmed by a characteristic shift of red color shades when viewed at a large angle to the screen. We also note that when the gaze deviates from the perpendicular to the screen, the light shades are even more brightened and pale, the black field is also strongly brightened, but remains almost neutral gray. With a strictly perpendicular view, the uniformity of the black field is good. The contrast ratio is quite high - 800:1. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is 2.04, which is slightly lower than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve deviates little from the power dependence:

The color gamut is slightly wider than sRGB:

Apparently, the components are well separated, and the spectra confirm this:

Note that the color saturation is moderate, visually the colors are slightly brighter, but not yet so oversaturated that color images seem distorted. On the part of the gray scale that matters (dark areas can be ignored, since the color balance is not very important there, and the measurement error at low brightness is large), the delta E value is less than 10, which is considered acceptable for a non-professional device, and the color temperature is not very above standard 6500 K (depending on US. = 0, From. = 0):

In general, there are no particular complaints about the color balance, but you can try to improve it, since this smartphone has the ability to adjust the grayscale balance using two sliders that change the color of the additional hue and its saturation:

The result of such a correction is shown on the gray scale at the top of the screen, while touching this area with your finger, you can see the original version of the shades without correction. As an experiment, we left the parameter Hue unchanged and increased Saturation up to 3 units. The result of such a correction is shown in the graphs above (dependencies US. = 3, From. = 0). It can be seen that this correction, by a happy coincidence, slightly improved the color balance, since the color temperature became closer to the standard 6500 K, and the delta E indicator slightly decreased.

Sound

There are no complaints about the sound of the Sony Xperia SP speakers. The sound in both speakers is clear, even throughout the entire volume range, saturated with low frequencies to the fullest, the volume is enough for any environment. The speaker hole is brought to the back side, however, the bezel around the camera glass, which raises the body above the surface, does not allow the speaker grille to overlap, and the sound, accordingly, is practically not muffled. The sound of the external speaker is additionally processed using proprietary xLoud technology. This technology, developed by Sony, is used to increase the volume of the main speaker without introducing (if possible) distortion into the sound. The interlocutor's speech is easily recognized, the auditory speaker clearly conveys all the intonations and timbre of the voice and at the same time also provides reproduction of a wide range of frequencies, including low ones.

The regular audio player, traditionally called Walkman, as in other Sony devices, is rich in settings and additional software sound enhancements, such as a built-in equalizer with ten preset values ​​​​to choose from (you can also set your own), ClearBass, Clear Phase, xLoud or virtual surround sound. Management of most settings is available if the ClearAudio + function is turned off, otherwise all settings are left to the machine. By the way, the visualization of Sony players is excellent: everything is very beautifully drawn, there are many tabs, settings, improvements, it is not only convenient to use, but also aesthetically pleasing. Here you can edit tags and work with covers.

FM-radio is present in the smartphone, but traditionally works only when headphones are connected, which act as an external antenna. There is a voice recorder in the Sony Xperia SP standard software package, but it is not called in the usual way. You can find it not in the list of installed applications, but in the so-called menu of small applications, which can be called up at any time by pressing the rightmost screen button. This menu has already become a standard for all modern Sony mobile devices.

Camera

Sony Xperia SP is equipped, like most modern smartphones, with two digital camera modules. The front camera is equipped with a 0.3-megapixel VGA-module, it is here only for show, the images obtained with it can only give a general idea of ​​the object being photographed.

The main, rear 8-megapixel camera is equipped with a BSI back-illuminated Exmor RS sensor. There is support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology, which is used to create photos in uneven lighting conditions. An HDR camera takes multiple shots of the same image at different exposures and then overlays them to create a more evenly lit photo.

By default, the camera works in the so-called super-auto mode (iAuto), and the maximum resolution that can be set is 7 megapixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio - then the photos are 3104 × 2328 in size. The maximum resolution of camera shots is 8 megapixels, but it can be achieved only if you switch the shooting mode to normal on your own - then the resulting photos will have a size of 3264 × 2448. However, by default, the Sony Xperia SP camera is set to shoot with a wide aspect ratio of 16:9 and a resolution of 5 megapixels, while photos are obtained at a size of 3104 × 1746.

Pictures taken in Normal mode with 4:3 (8 MP) and 16:9 (5 MP) aspect ratios:

And a few more shots taken with the default settings, that is, those that the user will receive immediately after the purchase “out of the box” (5 MP, 3104 × 1746, super auto mode).

	For 5 megapixels, the sharpness is very good, but the whole thing is spoiled by strong noises in the trees, on the wires, in the sky - all over the picture. Unpleasant sky color gradient, but for a smartphone forgivable.
	Nice and pretty sharp macro. If you look closely, you can still notice some blurring of the image, due to an unreasonably long shutter speed.
	The text turns out well, but the black color is heavily diluted with noise.
	The sharpness is very decent, although in some places in the picture you can stumble upon unsharp areas.
	Sharpness drops noticeably on low-contrast and finely detailed objects. The exposure is well chosen.
	Good macro and beautiful bokeh, but both noise and aggressive noise reduction are visible.
	Oddly enough, there is not much more noise visually at high photosensitivity, although the sharpness is not so bad.
	The blue border around the outer leaves resembles chromatic aberration, although this was observed in many other pictures, so we can assume that these are some other effects, and do not scold the optics.
	Good sharpness and nice colors. The focal plane appears to be at a slight angle to the sensor, giving a strange distribution of sharpness.
	Sharpness drops quite smoothly, and even in the background you can still distinguish the paving stones.
	Good sharpness in the foreground is significantly worsened in the background by noise and chromatic aberration.

Matrices for Sony compact cameras are often characterized by strong noise, which, generally speaking, is surprising, because Sony supplies many well-known manufacturers with its matrices. However, manufacturers using Sony sensors had almost no such problems. And Sony also equipped its Xperia SP smartphone with a rather noisy matrix.

For a camera with a resolution of 5 megapixels, the clarity of the pictures is very decent, although it seems that it could be better if it were not for the noise. At the same time, it is difficult to find obvious traces of software sharpening in the pictures, which is very interesting. If you follow the numbers in EXIF, you will notice that the camera selects the exposure somewhat strangely. Basically it does it well, but these results are achieved by strange manipulations with shutter speed and ISO (at a constant aperture). The established balance of these parameters is not always justified by the situation. For example, on a macro coniferous branch, ISO 250 is set at a shutter speed of 1/50 s, while aggressive noise reduction is noticeable. On a macro cactus - ISO 64 at a shutter speed of 1/64 s, and slight blurring is noticeable here. In some cases, you can observe a strange dependence of noise on photosensitivity - or rather, there is no special dependence, which is strange.

As a result, we have a pretty good camera with good image clarity for 5 megapixels, and even abundant noise does not greatly affect the clarity. In general, if you treat this camera as a documentary, you can ignore the noise - they do not spoil the image much. If we consider the camera as an artistic one, then, of course, the noises are striking, but besides this, the camera also has many advantages - the same macro photography.

The camera can shoot video in Full HD-resolution 1080p, the quality of shooting is average. Below are a couple of test videos shot at maximum settings at 30 frames per second. Clips are saved in MP4 (video is MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound is AAC LC, 96 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels) and have a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels (16:9).

• Movie #1 (37.4 MB, 1920x1080)
• Movie #2 (44.0 MB, 1920x1080)

The camera control settings are standard for modern Sony smartphones: a strip with icons horizontally, a strip vertically. The icons are drawn thinly and small, in bright sunlight they are hard to see. In the settings, it is possible to geotag photos, add graphic effects, enable smile detection, take panoramic shots, and, of course, software enhancement using HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology can be used here, but only for photography, not for video . There is image stabilization, the shutter sound can be turned off.

In modern smartphones, the shutter can usually be released using the volume key, but with Sony, this key is responsible for the digital zoom in the old fashioned way, which most people do not use. Therefore, it is important to recall that the Xperia SP model provided a separate hardware key to control the camera. On the positive side, you can also note the ability to take a photo while recording a video, this function is implemented in almost all new smartphones.

Software

Sony Xperia SP is currently running on the Google Android software platform version 4.1.2. As usual, on top of the standard OS interface, the company installed its own shell, which significantly changes the interface and adds several of its own applications. The desktop consists of five horizontally scrolling screens and a fixed panel of five icons at the bottom. The application menu also has several horizontal screens with a matrix of 4 × 5 icons, but the management of these icons is moved to the top - a convenient menu appears there for selecting, redistributing, deleting and sorting them in various ways. You can even organize your order of software icons, which is handy. It also became possible to create folders - both on desktops and inside the application menu.

In general, in terms of the internal arrangement of the interface and pre-installed applications in Xperia SP, everything is exactly the same as in other modern Sony devices. The set of pre-installed programs in the smartphones of the Japanese company does not change too noticeably from handset to handset. Several online services such as TrackID, Movies, PlayNow offer to choose, buy and immediately launch music, movies and games. Timescape collects information about the social activity of friends. There is a pre-installed file manager, there was also a QR code scanner and the popular note-taking program Evernote. I really like that Sony always pre-installs an extremely useful program for a full backup and restore of both settings and other data.

Telephone part and communications

Sony Xperia SP not only works in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, but also has support for fourth generation networks (LTE) in bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20. Traditionally, this feature is marked as “This feature is not available in all regions." For a domestic user, band 7 is of interest, on which Yota and Megafon operate. Thus, Sony Xperia SP is one of the few devices that officially support Russian 4G networks, which can be a significant competitive advantage for some categories of users. On the other hand, one must understand that compatibility alone is not enough. The real effect of increasing the speed of data access depends on many external factors, including the quality of reception, the workload of the cell and operator channels. However, it should be noted that over the months that have passed since the first testing, the situation has improved: new devices appear, coverage improves, and speed and quality remain at a high level.

The radio part of the tested smartphone Sony Xperia SP is stable, there were no spontaneous signal losses and dropouts from the network of the telecom operator. The screen of the smartphone is quite large, but the drawing of the keys, numbers and letters of the number dial and the virtual keyboard for dialing SMS is traditionally quite small, and all the time you want to increase the font to a larger one. The Sony Xperia SP virtual keyboard, like other Sony devices, has several options for keyboard layouts, as well as visual shells for them, so that everyone can choose the most convenient and attractive key layout from the options presented. It is also possible to enter text using sliding gestures from letter to letter.

There were no freezes or spontaneous reboots / shutdowns during testing. You can restart your smartphone on your own only by completely turning it off and then turning it on: for some reason, the stubborn Japanese still have not included in the menu called by a long press on the power key such an elementary function as a reboot - there is only a complete shutdown. This is also a rather noticeable and unpleasant defect, which, along with the lack of the ability to control the camera using the volume key, does not want to be corrected by the manufacturer. When brought to the ear, the screen is blocked by the proximity sensor. The ambient light sensor controls the brightness level of the screen automatically. We have already mentioned an unusual LED indicator, made in the form of a transparent strip in the lower part of the case under the screen: it can glow red while charging, green when charged, reacts to incoming events, the background of viewed photos and plays along with melodies. There is even a separate page to manage all these settings.

The device is equipped with most modern network interfaces and wireless controllers: Bluetooth version 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (only one 2.4 GHz frequency band is supported), NFC, DLNA, MHL and OTG support. In OTG mode, you can view any files directly from a flash drive connected using an adapter. It is possible to communicate directly with other devices via Wi-Fi Direct, as well as organizing a Wi-Fi access point. To ensure fast wireless data transmission in mobile networks, the smartphone supports the HSPA + standard.

The Sony Xperia SP has support for NFC, a short-range wireless high-frequency communication technology that allows you to exchange data between devices located at a distance of about 10 centimeters. This technology is aimed primarily at use in mobile phones and payment terminals, and in some countries it is already being used with might and main for contactless payments, fare payment in public transport or even personal identification.

Performance

The hardware platform of the Sony Xperia SP is based on the modern (albeit not the latest) SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (MSM8960T), with a central dual-core Krait (ARMv7) processor operating at 1.7 GHz. It is supported by a powerful Adreno 320 chip in graphics processing. The device has only 1 GB of RAM, which is not enough by modern standards, and the retail price of a smartphone of 18 thousand would look more reasonable for a device with more memory. This moment is one of the significant disadvantages of the device in question. The storage available to the user to upload their own files here is just over 5 GB. Nominally, the system memory in the smartphone is 8 GB, but the remaining amount is used only for the system and pre-installed programs. But the amount of built-in flash memory can be expanded using SD cards.

When a smartphone is connected to a computer, both storages are mounted as independent removable drives - provided, of course, that a memory card is inserted into its slot. MicroSD memory cards up to 32 GB are supported, but 64 GB will certainly be recognized here.

The Sony Xperia SP hardware platform is unusual for 2013 solutions, it uses only two cores, but they operate at a frequency of 1.7 GHz, so there is every chance to get a very good speed from this iron filling.

We compared the hardware performance of the novelty in various popular tests with the performance of other top modern smartphones we tested earlier. The Sony Xperia SP showed very good results, but it certainly cannot compete with the top quad-core new products. However, a significant difference is observed only in AnTuTu - in other tests, obviously, multithreading is not used (or has a small weight in the overall final score), so in them the smartphone turned out to be no worse than its more advanced counterparts in terms of hardware. For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing in popular benchmarks in tables. Details below.

As for testing the graphics subsystem in the 3DMark cross-platform test, the subject also showed a very decent result in it - 10256 points.

In the Epic Citadel gaming test in High Performance mode, the Sony Xperia SP delivered a good 57.8 fps. In the tougher High Quality and Ultra High Quality modes, the subject showed equally outstanding results of 56.6 fps and 52.7 fps, respectively.

JavaScript engine speed benchmarks are highly dependent on the browser in which they are run, so comparisons can only be accurate on the same OS and browsers.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. Traditionally, Sony has the poorest support for hardware decoders: if you can still set software sound processing in a third-party MX Video Player, then it will simply be impossible to watch some movies with sound using a regular video player, because there are simply no appropriate settings in it. All results are summarized in a single table.

¹ sound in MX Video Player only played after switching to software decoding; The regular player does not have such a setting.

Additionally, the MHL interface was tested. To test it, we used the LG IPS237L monitor, which supports direct MHL connection using a passive Micro-USB to HDMI adapter cable. In this case, the output via MHL is carried out in a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at a frequency of 30 fps. With an active MHL connection, regardless of the actual orientation of the smartphone, the image on the smartphone and monitor screens is displayed in landscape orientation. The actual resolution is equal to the screen resolution of a smartphone - 1280 by 720 pixels. The sound is output via MHL (in this case, the sounds were heard through the headphones connected to the monitor, since there are no speakers in the monitor itself) and has a good quality. At the same time, at least multimedia sounds are not output through the loudspeaker of the smartphone itself, and the volume is not adjusted using the buttons on the smartphone case, but the sound is turned off at the minimum position of the volume slider. The smartphone connected via MHL is charging.

Video output by means of a regular player deserves a special description. To begin with, using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"), we checked how the video is displayed on the screen of the smartphone itself. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with different parameters: resolution (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps) varied. With). The results of this test (the block titled "Screen") and subsequent ones are summarized in the table:

Note: If both the Uniformity and Gaps columns have green ratings, this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and frame skipping will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the corresponding files.

The results are good, 1080p files at 50 and 60 fps are not actually played, but other than these two cases, it is difficult to visually notice artifacts. Note that uniform frame interleaving is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct interleaving of intervals between frames (or groups of frames) or even to the skipping of individual frames. When playing 720p video files (with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels) on a smartphone screen, the image of the actual video file is displayed one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true 720p resolution. The range of brightness displayed on the screen exactly corresponds to the standard one - in the shadows and in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed (for video in the range of 16-235).

When playing video on a monitor connected via MHL, an exact copy of the smartphone screen is displayed. When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels), the image of the video file itself is displayed on the monitor screen one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. The brightness range displayed on the monitor noticeably does not correspond to the original one - in the shadows there is a blockage of 14 shades, in the highlights - by 16 (for video in the range of 16-235), while depending on the choice of the brightness range in the monitor menu on the monitor screen or the white color is slightly grey, or black lighter than true black. The test results are shown in the table above in the "MHL (monitor)" section. 1080p files at 50 and 60 fps are not played, in the case of 720p files at 50 and 60 fps, of course, some frames are skipped, but in other cases the output quality is very good.

Additionally, video output (with a standard player) via MHL using an MHL adapter was tested. When using this adapter, the monitor output was 720p at 60 fps, which determined the maximum actual image resolution. With the exception of resolution and frame rate, everything else - the nature of the interface output, recharging, sound output and gray scale - did not differ from a direct connection via MHL. The test results are shown in the table above in the "MHL (adapter)" section. The output quality is quite high, and the higher frame rate made it possible to display files with 50 and 60 fps normally. Playing dynamic games, apparently, is better with the use of such an adapter.

In principle, an MHL connection can be used for gaming, watching movies, browsing the web, and other activities that benefit from a multiple increase in screen size.

Battery Life

The capacity of the lithium-ion battery installed in the Sony Xperia SP is 2370 mAh. The battery is non-removable, so if the battery is swollen or otherwise damaged, you won’t be able to replace it with a new one yourself, and you won’t be able to buy a spare one.

To save energy, modern Sony smartphones (and Sony Xperia SP is no exception) have a new battery mode - Stamina. It provides better battery management and extends the phone's standby time. If this mode is enabled on your phone, then when the screen turns off, the phone automatically closes unused applications that use a lot of energy and starts them only when the screen turns back on. Wi-Fi by location also serves to save money: in this mode, the smartphone activates the wireless module only when it recognizes the presence of a familiar network, and does not keep it on all the time.

We carefully measured the battery life in reading, gaming and video modes twice: with and without Stamina enabled. The results, as expected, showed that the energy-saving mode does not have any effect on the duration of continuous operation in such artificially created conditions. This is quite understandable: the system turns off modules and applications only when the screen goes blank, and in our tests it is always on, so the results were absolutely identical.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program at the minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) for 2 hours consumed 17% of the total battery charge, and for two hours watching YouTube videos in high quality (HQ) via a home Wi-Fi network Fi device has used up 28% of battery capacity. At maximum load in continuous 3D gaming (100% brightness, 60 fps), which we usually test with GLBenchmark, the smartphone lasted just over 2.5 hours. A full charge of the Sony Xperia SP takes 2 hours.

Prices

The average retail price of the device in rubles in Moscow at the time of reading the article can be found by moving the mouse over the price tag.

Outcome

As for the price, the official cost of the smartphone at the time of this writing was set at around 18 thousand rubles, although unofficial suppliers were already offering Sony Xperia SP with might and main at a price even lower than 15 thousand. For such a price, a smartphone from a well-known manufacturer, made at a high technical level, using high-quality materials, has a very powerful hardware filling, almost reaching the flagship, and even with several unique (or rarely seen) functions, such as screen control in gloves and support for Russian LTE frequencies looks more than profitable. However, this model seems to be quite an interesting purchase even at the price at which it is now offered on our market. The LG Optimus G seems to be the most similar alternative in terms of features, but it costs much more – at least 20,000. There are cheaper smartphones on the market that support operation in LTE networks, but they all fall short in terms of functionality to the Sony Xperia SP.