Sony Xperia Sola is one of the 2012 android smartphone lineup from sony.
Xperia sola equipped with dual core CPU, Bravia engine, Floating touch
technology, onboard NFC chip. From the specifications and price point, we could
say that xperia sola is middle class android smartphone. And now we’re going to
review sony xperia sola and find out the performance of this android
smartphone.
Design
Sony xperia sola has a very unique design, some people will love it and
others don't really like it. When you hold it in your hands, it
feels comfortable and quite slim. Xperia Sola made entirely from plastic
materials, but it doesn't feel cheap.
Display
Sony Xperia Sola has 3.7 inches touchscreen display with FWVGA resolution,
that is 480 x 854 pixels. The screen capable of producing 16 million of colours
and 265 ppi of pixel density.
When you look at the screen, you will notice that it's actually very bright,
even if you take outside on a daylight, the screen is still bright, thanks to
the bravia engine inside.
One cool thing about the display of Xperia Sola, is that it has floating
touch technology. It means you can control the screen without actually touching
it, really cool feature.
Hardware
Sony Xperia Sola powered by dual core processors 1 Ghz, Mali 400MP graphics,
NovaThor chipset and 512 MB of RAM. With these kind of hardware specs, Xperia
Sola will be able to run almost every HD game on the Google Play, as well as
playing HD movies.
For storage Xperia Sola has total 8 GB of internal memory (ROM), which the
actual user accessible is 5 GB. But if 5 GB is not enough for you, you can add
extra storage using micro SD card up to 32 GB. I recommend to use micro SD card
class 10 for better performance.
Software
Sony Xperia Sola originally comes with gingerbread 2.3.7 right out of the
box, but there is already available ICS 4.0.4 update. Sony plans to give Jelly
Bean upgrade for some phones next year, but we don't know yet whether
Xperia Sola will also get JB upgrade. Small chance that Xperia Sola will get
official JB upgrade from Sony.
Sony Xperia Sola also comes with the Timescape UI, which has social media
integration. And thanks to the dual core CPU, navigating the UI is very smooth,
no lag at all for both gingerbread and ICS version.
As i said before, this phone has floating touch technology which allows you
to highlight a link when you're browsing the web. But it just for highlighting
only, you can't select or click a link with it. It would be very cool if it
actually can select something without touching the screen.
Besides highlighting link, you can also play with the Xperia themes. You can
control the background of the themes using your finger. For example moving right
to left, the background will follow your finger movement.
Other cool things about this phone is that, it has NFC technology, which
allows you to use NFC connectivity. On the package you will find Sony NFC Smart
Tags. You can program the smart tags with any profile you want. It's hard to
explain, you have to try it yourself.
Camera
Sony Xperia Sola has 5 mega pixels camera on the back, equipped with LED
flash and auto focus. For photo shooting, this camera has several features such
as 3D sweep panorama, 3D sweep angle, sweep panorama, scenes mode, and smile
shutter. Thanks to the LED flash, photo shooting for both indoor and outdoor are
really good. The colours are natural and bright.
The rear camera capable of record HD 720p videos. The LED flash could be use
for video recording, so it's not a problem recording video in dark conditions.
There are several features you can use in video recording, such as scenes mode,
self timer, focus mode, image stabilizer, white balance, metering, exposure
value, video size and photo light.
Sony Xperia Sola has dedicated camera button, so you can access the camera
function without having to touch the lock screen or access the menu.
Unfortunately, Xperia Sola lack of front facing camera. Front facing camera is
very important to make video calls or skype.
Sony Xperia Sola is really nice phone, great hardware performance, excellent
camera, floating touch and NFC feature. The only thing that's missing is the
front facing camera, other than that this phone is perfect.