No, unlike the PlayStation Vita, the Xperia Play 2 does not appear to have dual thumbsticks or a touch-sensitive panel on the back. Instead, the basic control scheme remains unchanged from the first Xperia Play, meaning you get a D-pad, shoulder buttons, and a couple of touch-sensitive pads in the middle meant to mimic the controls of thumbsticks.

You will notice that they’ve seemingly abandoned the curvaceous nature of the first Xperia Play (and most other Xperia smartphones) for something a little more squared off, though it still has rounded corners. The rumored spec sheet includes a peppy 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 4.3-inch 1280×720 display, and an 8.1MP rear camera with LED flash. And yes, it’s PlayStation Certified, of course. The touch sensitive Android buttons seem to point toward Gingerbread, but there’s likely an ICS update in the works too.

There’s no way for us to know if this rendering is legitimate, so take this with a grain of gaming salt.

The post Leaked Image of Sony Xperia Play 2 Android PlayStation Smartphone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Designed “with extreme sports enthusiasts in mind,” this phone represents the a larger partnership between the two brands, stretching out to major Billabong events around the world. They’ve also got exclusive wallpapers and other mobile content for the Billabong Edition smartphone, as well as the Billabong Surf Trip game for the Xperia Play PlayStation phone.

Realistically, the Billabong Edition handset is just a branded version of the existing Sony Ericsson Xperia active. This means that it has IP67 certification for dust and water resistance, as well as “wet finger tracking” technology on its smaller 3-inch touchscreen display. It’s tough and scratch resistant. Rounding out the extreme specs are a 5MP camera, FM radio with RDS, Timescape, DLNA support, Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, and Google Android. Plus that handy loop for your lanyard or carabiner clip.

Look for it in “select markets” starting now.

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The ICX Development Team consists of  members DooMLoRD, KeiranFTW, XperiaPlayer, Deanboro or DJ_Steve and including some others from the  XDA Developers Community.  This group of heros have successfully built a customized port of Ice Cream Sandwich for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY handheld device. Sony Ericsson became the first major vendor to offer an official ICS update, but it was initially meant for just three of their devices. While the ICS coverage for customers gradually improves, it apparently leaves much to be desired. Customized ROMs from ICX is nothing new, and in this case, of Sony Xperia PLAY such a ROM brings many treats of real Ice Cream Sandwich to the device.

For their Alpha 2 release:
– no random reboots!
– sound is working
– added stock ICS launcher
– added cpu overclock (up to 2 GHz)
– added file manager

To be included in next version:
– use DesireHD AOSP ROM as a base
– portrait mode will work
– and a lot more.

If you are an Xperia PLAY user, you may want to follow the rapidly evolving development thread here. By the way, the ICX Team is also known by their customized Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for Droid X:

The post Early Alpha ICS Type Port by ICX Appears for Xperia PLAY appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The Sixaxis controllers have been used by the N900 owners for quite a while already, and yet Android tablets have been stuck to the USB tether. Getting envious to the point that you want to switch phones already with your friend?

Gamers who frequently abuse their Android phones for a wide variety of games will be delighted to know that developers Dancing Pixel Studios have released an application called the Sixaxis Controller into the Android market. This app lets users control their Android phone by using the Playstation 3 controller.

Of course, you need to do some things before you can actually use this app. In order to use the PS3 controller, your cell phone needs to be rooted and you also need to manually pair your controller on your personal computer through a USB cable. Once you do that, you can play games either through an emulator or via the Android market using the Sixaxis controller. Make sure to download the free compatibility checker prior to purchasing the app (which costs $1.69/ £1.03, by the way) to ensure that it will work on your phone.

This app does not quite work well with newer Samsung phones and most HTC devices. Also, you can never be really sure that the Xperia PLAY benefits from this since it has no HDMI. Also, Xperia PLAY already has a joypad which somehow negates the necessity for controller access.

The post You can finally use a PS3 Controller to control Android appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

I play a lot of games on my smartphone. The trouble is that a smartphone was never really designed for serious video game playing, and that’s where the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is supposed to come into the picture. It’s PlayStation certified and is purpose-built to give gamers what they want while still doing the usual Android smartphone thing too.

We caught brief glimpses at this phone earlier this year, but it has now launched through Rogers Wireless in Canada, 3, Orange,  T-Mobile and Vodafine in the UK, and Verizon Wireless in the USA. Is the so-called PlayStation Phone worth all these years of waiting? Let’s find out.

Specs at a Glance

The version that I received to review is white, but they’ve also got the regular black version as well. The two colors are functionally identical. And, not surprisingly, the most notable feature on this smartphone is the set of slide-out gaming controls.

We’ve seen these kinds of sliders in the past, but they’ve always revealed hardware QWERTY keyboards. That’s not the case you. You get a set of controls that mirrors what you’d get on a PlayStation gamepad: four directional buttons, four face buttons (X, O, triangle, and square), start and select. Instead of thumbsticks, you get a pair of optical thumbpads. There’s also a menu button on the face, as well as L and R buttons on the shoulders.

Doing a quick run through the rest of the spec sheet, we find a 1GHz Scorpion processor (Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon), Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 400MB internal memory, 512MB RAM, microSD slot, HSDPA/HSUPA support, 802.11b/g/n, 5MP camera, front-facing camera, aGPS, and a 4.0-inch 480×854 touchscreen display.

Build Quality and Design

The overall design is in line with other Xperia smartphones from Sony Ericsson. This was built to look more like a phone and less like a PSP, though there are some similarities to the PSP Go. The back is rounded, as are the top and bottom contours. Because of the sliding mechanism, the Xperia Play (at 16mm) is far from the thinnest phone on the block. It’s also not the lightest at a considerable 175 grams of heft.

The sliding mechanism feels reasonably solid, but I’d imagine that this will wear down over time. The gaming buttons feel very solid and should be able to stand up to the same kind of abuse you’d normally give your PSP. I did find the plastic back was a little too slippery, though, especially when in gaming position. Having the volume rocker between the L/R buttons is an interesting choice too.

And that’s the real crux of why someone would be the least bit interested in the Xperia Play. You can play all of the usual Android games — Angry Birds, YooNinja, etc. — but the key is playing games that are “optimized” for the Xperia Play. It is a PlayStation certified device, after all, even if it’s not a real PlayStation Phone per se.

What’s cool is that when you slide out the gaming controls, the handset automatically goes to the Xperia Play interface where you can choose your games. These are shown as fairly large tiles on the touchscreen, but what’s odd is that not all of your games show up here. I had other games that were supposed to be optimized for use on the Xperia Play, but I could only access them through the usual Android menu.

As far as controls, while I liked the idea of the optical trackpads in place of true thumbsticks, they didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped. I’m unsure whether they’re too sensitive or not sensitive enough, as I just didn’t get the level of precision and responsiveness that I need when I’m playing games. I tried Star Batallion (a flight shooter) and Hockey Nations 2011 for this purpose and I ended up resorting to the d-pad for the former. I mostly used the optical trackpad for hockey, but it still wasn’t perfect.

I’m not sold on the optical trackpads, for this reason, but I am sold on gaming on this phone. Madden was enjoyable, Crash Bandicoot was a hoot, and emulators would surely be a hit too. Battery life has me worried, though, since the phone could barely last a day even with very, very light usage.

So, How Does It Game?

Camera Quality

Other smartphones may have been upgraded to 8MP or even 12MP shooters, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is largely able to hold its own with the five-megapixel camera in tow. The flash is quite powerful and while the images will never compete with a “real” camera, they’re comparable to similar smartphones with similar specs.

• Sample Photo #1 (indoor, flash on)
• Sample Photo #2 (indoor, flash off)
• Sample Photo #3 (outdoors, cloudy)

What’s interesting is that while Sony Ericsson stuck with that TimeScape UI (albeit a fair bit simplified from its Xperia X10 days) for part of the core interface, the company didn’t do anything to skin the camera app. It’s the vanilla Android camera app, which has some options, but not really enough. I’m sure you could find some fun things in Android Market to help you with that, though, should you feel so inclined.

Conclusion

I get what Sony Ericsson was trying to accomplish with the Xperia Play. We’ve been wanting a real PlayStation Phone for quite some time and this is supposed to be it… except that it’s not. You see, Sony has the PlayStation Vita coming out pretty soon and it’s much more of a PSP than this phone can ever hope to be. The current crop of “PlayStation-certified” games that are “optimized” for this platform aren’t bad, but they aren’t that great either. For the most part, they’re still “just” cell phone games.

If someone really wants to play real PlayStation games on the go, they’ll pick up the NGP PS Vita. I think that if the Xperia Play came out a couple years ago, it had a real fighting chance of attracting some more interest. As it stands, I expect it to end up in the same pile as the N-Gage. The poor battery life certainly doesn’t help either, especially if you plan on playing any games at all for any duration of time.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is available now through Rogers Wireless for $99.99 on qualifying three-year contracts.

Manufacturer Specifications

* Battery performance does vary greatly on network and phone usage.

The post Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review: The Android PlayStation phone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The new titles will include massive multi-player online titles (MMO) like Pocket Legends, the world’s largest mobile 3D MMO, and the soon to be launched sci-fi MMO, Star Legends, which is also from Spacetime Studios. Sony Ericsson revealed that Minecraft, the indie PC game from Swedish developer Mojang, will go mobile on the Xperia Play. One of the most popular indie PC games of all time, Minecraft involves building constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world.

“As Xperia™ PLAY becomes available to Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S., the portfolio of great games continues to grow and we are delighted to announce 20 new games optimized for Xperia PLAY,” said Steve Walker, Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “By building on the open Android ecosystem, we’re providing a brilliant opportunity for developers and game publishers to bring their best titles to new audiences and fantastic new experiences for Xperia PLAY owners. Keep watching this space.”

Sony Ericsson also confirmed that new games from their stable of classic PlayStation 1 titles will be coming to Xperia PLAY shortly.  Sony Ericsson will also be supporting new developers with an initiative called “stand out from the crowd” that draws in developers who are struggling to find an audience in the sea of thousands of apps to develop a game for Xperia PLAY.
The new games announced today will be released in the coming months. We’ll keep you posted.

New Games Coming Soon on Xperia PLAY:

·         Pocket Legends by Spacetime Studios

·         Star Legends: The Black Star Chronicles by Spacetime Studios

·         Eternal Legacy by Gameloft

·         Guns ’n’Glory 2 by HandyGames

·         Dungeon Hunter 2 by Gameloft

·         Pocket RPG by Crescent Moon Games

·         D.A.R.K. developed by Gamelab

·         Samurai II: Vengeance by MADFINGER Games

·         Vendetta Online by Guild Software

·         Order & Chaos – Gameloft

·         Happy Vikings by Handy Games

·         A Ball Game by Trendy Entertainment

·         Lumines by Connect2Media

The post  Sony Announces 20 New Game Titles for Xperia PLAY   appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The original PSP was only offered in black. Then, they came out with certain special editions and other iterations that outfitted the portable gamer in a variety of colors and designs. The Xperia Play is barely out of the gate, but Sony Ericsson is already breaking out the paint bucket.

We thought that, at least in the short term, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play would only be offered in the standard black. We thought wrong. If you happen to be in the UK and you like O2, you might be pleased to hear that the device formerly known as the PSPhone is also being sold there in white. And it’s exclusive (or Xclusive, if you prefer) to O2.

Aside from the paint job, there really isn’t anything different with the white version, but it does look sleeker in white. The almost ironic thing? The Xperia Play beat the iPhone 4 to the punch in the battle of white paint. Go figure. No word on whether the white Xperia Play will be offered outside the UK, but I imagine someone else will get it eventually.

[via BGR]

The post White Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Exclusive to O2 UK appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We were all thumbs over the possibility of a PlayStation Phone for a very long time. We had the teaser stuff during the Super Bowl, but now Sony Ericsson has officially come forward with an official announcement for the Xperia Play.

The good news is that this is the world’s first PlayStation-certified smartphone. It’s also good that they finally ditched the all-caps XPERIA in favor of the more normal-looking Xperia. As expected, the Xperia Play runs on Android 2.3 and takes advantage of the recently announced PlayStation Suite initiative. That’s like PSN, but not really.

There weren’t any real surprises with yesterday’s announcement. We see the slide-out controls, 1GHz processor, Adreno GPU, and a wide range of content partners that include EA, Gamehouse, Glu, Namco Bandai, PopCap, and Unity Technologies.

Rogers Wireless has the Canadian exclusive on the Xperia Play, while the phone is destined for Verizon Wireless south of the 49th parallel. Both carriers are expected to launch the gaming phone in March. Let’s just hope for Sony Ericsson’s sake that this doesn’t become their version of the N-Gage.

[Sony]

The post Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Destined For Verizon And Rogers appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We already know all of the most important specs for the upcoming Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play, but we’re missing one very important tidbit: which carrier is getting it? Well, it looks like one retailer already knows.

The handset previously known as the PlayStation Phone, which is now all thumbs, is apparently making its way over to join Big Red. This comes by way of some sources at Wirefly.

Aside from the Motorola Atrix 4G, it looks like Verizon is really looking like the Android place to be these days. It started with hot devices like the DROID Incredible and now we’re on the cusp of a Verizon-happy XOOM, DROID Bionic, and so on. The XPERIA Play sounds like a natural fit, no? Or would you rather get an NGP instead?

[Mobile Burn]

The post Rumor: Wirefly outs Verizon destined Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

An official commercial for the upcoming gaming smartphone is being shown off on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page and it offers some creepy, almost SAW-inspired hack job. They’ve sown on a pair of human thumbs onto our little green friend, saying that Android is now ready to play.

Weird, I know. As far as the XPERIA Play itself goes, it’s everything we’ve been seeing thus far with styling somewhere between the X10 and Vivaz Pro, adding in slide-out gaming controls. An “official” announcement for the phone is set for February 13 (at 1800 GMT) and I guess that’s when we’ll learn about content delivery, pricing, and all that jazz.

Personally, I’m somehow less stoked about the PSPhone today than I was a year ago when it was little more than a rumor. What’s that they say about reality never living up to your dreamy expectations?

[Giz]

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