The Xperia P is a very attractive, flagship-quality device. Superficially, it looks like Sony has shrunken the Xperia S' shell to fit around a smaller display. Sure, it's still a black slab divided in two by a transparent sliver of plastic, but look closer and there are some subtle differences between the two; the Xperia P's main body is made of aluminum. Sony says it has a unibody construction because its rear cover is made from a single piece of metal, but that seems to stretch the definition a little. The important thing is that it’s sturdy, and whichever process Sony has put the aluminum through leaves it feeling very smooth in your hands. Unfortunately, the black portion below the transparency is made from plastic, which reflects light differently from the upper section and may thus annoy perfectionists. Using plastic does help keep the weight down, though — the Xperia P weighs 4.23 ounces (120g), just 0.018 ounces (0.5g) heavier than the featherlight HTC One S. It’s also very narrow: it sits just 0.035 inches (0.9mm) wider than the iPhone 4S, which has a significantly smaller screen.
The front of the device houses a precisely-inset 4-inch qHD WhiteMagic LCD, a front-facing VGA camera, a notification light, and a row of three capacitive buttons set inside the aforementioned transparency. One annoyance with the Xperia S was that its icons weren't actually buttons, so it's good to see Sony use some sense this time around. There’s taut haptic feedback from the capacitive buttons when pressed, and they’re also very easy to find in any light. Extra points are earned for the good distance between the screen and capacitive buttons, which makes accidental presses an impossibility.
DISPLAY
The Xperia P's display has a whole heap of jargon attached to it. Sure, it's a 4-inch qHD (960 x 540) IPS LCD, but it's also got WhiteMagic and it’s a Reality Display powered by the Mobile Bravia Engine! My hatred of techno-jargon aside, WhiteMagic represents a relatively exciting development in the field of displays.
In addition to the red, green, and blue subpixels you'll find on a regular LCD display, Sony has added an additional white subpixel to to the mix, making this panel RGBW. Although that sounds a little like the dreaded RGBG PenTile setup, don’t fret — this is a stripe arrangement, meaning everything is neatly organized in rows, just as it should be, rather than PenTile's crazy mishmash of subpixel shapes and sizes. There is one potential downside to the Xperia P’s RGBW arrangement: in very dark images you’re effectively losing one out of four subpixels, but as the display is so tightly packed, it’s not an issue here.
Because of this arrangement, Sony says that this display saves up to 50 percent of backlight power in low-light conditions by allowing pure light through the white pixels. In addition, WhiteMagic technology can be used to up the display’s brightness, all the way up to 935 nits, which Sony claims is double the brightness of an average LCD. That's a great statistic to show off, but what does it actually mean for the usability of the device? Put simply, in daylight, the Xperia P’s display is hands-down the most readable smartphone display I’ve ever come across. Even in direct sunlight, text remained entirely legible and colors were still accurate.
Cutting through more of Sony’s jargon, Reality Display is Sony’s name for a laminated LCD display and Mobile Bravia Engine represents a set of software enhancements which are supposed to improve image quality when playing back media. Photos and videos do look great, but we'll never know how they'd look without Sony's tweaks.
Aside from the brightness, the display performs as an IPS should: viewing angles are near 180 degrees and colors are accurate however oblique the angle. Given that many manufacturers are still pumping out 4.3-inch WVGA (480 x 800) devices, it's fantastic that Sony has put so many pixels on such a small display without compromising on quality. qHD resolution on a 4-inch display is just a delight to behold, and pixels are nigh imperceptible at 275ppi.
CAMERAS
The Xperia P's f/2.4 8-megapixel camera is fantastic and holds its own against Samsung and Apple's best efforts. Photos are crisp and detailed, and even at full crop display a surprisingly low amount of noise for a smartphone camera. It's good enough to replace a mid-range point-and-shoot camera in almost every circumstance.
As mentioned previously, the Xperia P's dedicated shutter key is a pleasure to use. Pushing it halfway gives a satisfying click and triggers the autofocus, while fully depressing it takes a photo. I found the amount of resistance and travel to be just right and rarely used the other options, but there's also a software shutter key, along with tap-to-focus and touch-to-shoot.
When the Xperia P is asleep, holding the shutter key will automatically power on the device, autofocus, and take a photo in around a second. You can also set it to boot to the camera app without taking a photo, but I found the instant shot feature far more useful.
You'll shoot usable photos in almost any light, and although noise will get progressively worse as the software cranks up the ISO, the results are better than most. The Xperia P's LED flash also performs admirably, and although it still over-exposes nearby objects a little, it rarely ruins a photo. The front-facing VGA camera isn't much use besides video calling, but it at least copes quite well in low-light situations, handy if you want a late-night Skype session.
BATTERY LIFE
Coming into this review I was concerned about how the Xperia P's tiny 1305mAh battery would cope, but its SoC seems relatively good at sipping power. The Xperia P managed around 14 hours of use, including an hour and a half of camera work, watching a two-hour video, two hours of gaming, and over an hour of calls. In reality it’ll get you to the end of the day without any issues, and if you're not a heavy user you'll get a couple of days out of it.
3G PERFORMANCE
Reception and call quality were also top-notch, and no one I spoke with had any complaints. The loudspeaker and mic both performed admirably when in speakerphone mode. There’s been an iPhone 4-style signal-killing "death grip" reported on recently, which I did my best to replicate. While I succeeded in dropping some bars, it's very difficult to trigger by accident, and, in an area with good signal, doesn't even prevent you from making a call — much ado about nothing, as a number of phones suffer from the same issue. Data speeds on 3G maxed out at around 7.4Mbps down and 2.2Mbps up, which is almost identical to the speeds you'll find on the iPhone 4S, Galaxy S II, or pretty much any modern smartphone.
SPECIFICATIONS
| DISPLAY | Type | LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 540 x 960 pixels, 4.0 inches (~275 ppi pixel density) | |
| Protection | Scratch-resistant glass | |
| - Sony WhiteMagic technology - Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine - Timescape UI |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; MP3 ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEMORY | Card slot | No |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 16 GB (13 GB user-available), 1 GB RAM |
| BODY | Dimensions | 122 x 59.5 x 10.5 mm |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 120 g | |
| - Touch-sensitive controls |
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