Back when the driving seat was shared with Ericsson, Sony was a little short of delivering a real winner in the high-end market, the company's top-range smartphones always a notch below the Galaxy S lineup and their HTC counterparts. Now on their own, Sony cannot shy away from the toughest of battles and the Sony Xperia T is ready to be thrown in the fire.
Sony Xperia T official photos
A true flagship, the Sony Xperia T comes properly powered by a Snapdragon S4 chipset, boasting a class-leading 13MP camera and a marvelously sounding 720p display. There's no quad-core on its resume, but the Xperia T is ready to take on the best Android offerings out there.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
- 3G with 42.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
- 4.55" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine; Scratch-resistant glass
- Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
- Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260A chipset
- 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging, Multi Angle shot
- 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
- 1.3 MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
- Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
- 16GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
- microUSB port with MHL and USB-host support
- Stereo Bluetooth v3.1
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Voice dialing
- Deep Facebook integration
- PlayStation Certified, access to the PS Store
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- NFC connectivity
Main disadvantages
- Display has sub-par viewing angles for a flagship
- Slightly thicker than main rivals
- Relatively modest battery
- JellyBean update not available at launch
- Poor loudspeaker performance
- Video recording could be better
The Sony Xperia T hasn't got the raw muscle of some of its rivals, but there's enough to get you interested. And once you go and give it a try, the design and handling will hardly let you down. In a smartphone market as crowded as today's, handsets with this much character are hard to come by. Now, a grateful nod is well in order to old allies and the Xperia Arc.
Setting record benchmark scores is one thing, but having an excellent chipset in a body that's great to look at is to many a more than even tradeoff. The Sony Xperia T should not be afraid of facing its rivals in a raw processing power battle, though it's the beauty contests it enjoys the most.
The Sony Xperia T at ours
And then there's the software enhancements, to which Sony paid more than enough attention. The Android ICS on the Xperia T comes with a great-looking UI, which Sony claims is also one of the most functional around.
Let's get going then - the unboxing and hardware checkup are this short jump away.
The largest Bravia screen in the business
The Sony Xperia T comes with a 4.55" LCD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels which breaks down to a pixel density of 323 ppi. That's a respectable number and the real-life performance doesn't let you down. The Bravia-powered screen is as sharp as it gets and you'll be unable to tell individual pixels apart even if you look from up close.
The Bravia-powered screen is pretty great
Contrast is pretty good for an LCD and colors are very vibrant. The sunlight legibility is quite good as well, as testified by the Xperia T's result in our dedicated test. Find more about the testing routine over here.
Contrast ratio
- Nokia 808 PureView4.698
- Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III3.419
- Samsung Omnia W3.301
- Samsung Galaxy S3.155
- Nokia N93.069
- Samsung Galaxy Note2.970
- HTC One S2.901
- Samsung Galaxy S II2.832
- Huawei Ascend P12.655
- Nokia Lumia 9002.562
- Apple iPhone 4S2.269
- HTC One X2.158
- Nokia N82.144
- Apple iPhone 42.016
- Sony Ericsson Xperia ray1.955
- Sony Xperia T1.894
- Sony Xperia U1.758
- LG Optimus 4X HD1.691
- HTC One V1.685
- LG Optimus Vu1.680
- LG Optimus 3D1.542
- Nokia Asha 3021.537
- Nokia Lumia 6101.432
- Gigabyte GSmart G13551.361
- HTC Desire C1.300
- LG Optimus L71.269
- Meizu MX1.221
- Samsung Galaxy Pocket1.180
- Sony Xperia tipo1.166
- Samsung Galaxy mini 21.114
Sadly, Sony is yet to address the issue of poor viewing angles. You really need to be looking at the Xperia T head-on to experience arguably the best image quality from an LCD, as once you tilt the phone even a tiny bit, the image quality deteriorates noticeably.
We were also able to put the display under our digital microscope for a closer look at the pixels. Check it out:
The display under a microscope
Handling
The Sony Xperia T handles pretty well, despite its higher-than-average thickness. The curved back helps and so do the two-layered sides. The only issue we see is the power button which is located too low on the right side of the handset.
Handling the Sony Xperia T
That position is actually quite comfortable if you are holding the Xperia T in your left hand, but right-handed use requires you to readjust your grip whenever you want to press the power key. Last time we checked right-handed users were the majority, so it's strange that Sony didn't put that button higher or at least on the other side of the smartphone.
13 MP Camera comes with its own interface
The Xperia T boasts a 13 megapixel camera with a back-illuminated Exmor R sensor and a single LED flash. It's capable of producing stills of 4128 x 3096px resolution.
The camera controls on the Xperia T are available on two taskbars on either side of the viewfinder. On the left you get four shortcuts to various settings, while the still camera/camcorder toggle, the virtual shutter and a thumbnail of the last photo taken are on the right.
The menu key brings up two pages of extra settings - scenes, resolution, smile detection, geotagging, image stabilization and focus mode among others. You can customize three of the shortcuts on the left (the shooting mode shortcut is fixed).
The new camera interface
There are three capture modes to choose from: Normal, Auto Scene recognition, and Sweep Panorama. In Normal, you pick the Scene settings manually or you can enable Scene recognition and let the Xperia T take a guess (it's fairly good at it). Sweep panorama mode lets you take a panoramic shot by sliding your camera in a line from left to right.
The Xperia T features a Quick launch option, which lets you customize the phone's behavior upon a press of the camera key when the phone is locked. The default option is Launch and capture - it unlocks the phone, starts the camera and instantly snaps a photo.
It's hard to frame the first shot right from this mode, but you can quickly take another photo as the camera reloads quite fast. The other option is to just unlock the phone and start the camera, or you can just disable this feature altogether.
The 13 MP camera sensor on the Xperia T produced stills which were for the most part good, with the notable exception of some serious overexposure issues.
For the most part, this was limited to scenarios where objects in the frame reflected direct sunlight, which resulted in loss of detail and inaccurate color reproduction. Individual channel clipping was also a prevalent issue, as in many cases the red end of the spectrum was severely blown out.
To better illustrate the poor metering, we've included two sets of samples. This first series is taken at the default exposure value.
Sony Xperia T camera samples
This second series is taken with the exposure reduced by 2/3 of a stop. As you can see, the resulting samples feature more detail and less highlight clipping, particularly in brighter environments, which proves the camera exposure metering is flawed.
Sony Xperia T camera samples reduced exposure
Otherwise, the camera features a good dynamic range, and excellent macro capabilities. Colors come out good and there's plenty of detail available. The Xperia T might not be the be-all and end-all of smartphone cameras, but it's certainly one of the better cameraphones we've seen.
Image quality comparison
Since there aren't many 13 MP camera sensors out there, we're going to compare the Xperia T to two 12 MP cameras, one belonging to the Nokia N8, the other to the T's predecessor, the Xperia S. Feel free to choose any other adversaries you wish - the tool's page will give you all the information on how to do that and what to watch out for.
Sony Xperia T in our Photo Compare Tool
Video recording could be better
The Sony Xperia T captures 1080p video at 30 fps, currently the standard for high-end droids.
The camcorder has similar settings to the still camera, including focus mode, metering, exposure value, image stabilization and so on. The layout of the shortcuts can be customized here, too.
The Xperia T camcorder features continuous autofocus. It may take a few seconds to refocus after you re-frame but that's better than repeatedly attempting to lock focus and ruining your video.
Camcorder mode offers largely the same interface
FullHD videos are stored in MP4 format (20Mbps bitrate) and the frame is very stable at just below the 30fps mark. The Xperia T videos come with stereo sound recorded at 128Kbps bitrate and 48kHz sampling - all pointing to slightly superior video recording compared to the Xperia S.
Final words
The Sony Xperia T is by all means an impressive phone. The dual-core Krait does a great job of competing with many other flagships not only on its home turf, but in the quad-core arena as well. Add to that a display that pushes out an impressive amount of pixels without issue, and a streamlined Android ICS interface that introduces some nifty features and optimizations not offered by other OEMs, you have a package that is very well put together.
However, when it comes to looking at a complete package - particularly one involving a flagship - it's important to take the price tag into account. At the time of release, many manufacturers promote their flagship as their technological pinnacle and tend to hike the price up accordingly, so it's important to see just how much bang you're getting for your buck.
Currently, the Xperia T can be found for €550 in most markets, which is rather steep, especially considering that certain quad-core smartphones can be had for less.
One such candidate is the HTC One X, which currently retails for around €100 less than the Xperia T. Besides the upgrade to a quad-core 1.5 GHz Tegra 3 chipset, it gives you the same 720p resolution screen, except slightly larger by about 0.15 inches. There's also double the internal storage of the Xperia T, a higher Bluetooth version, and an upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean allegedly coming next month is an added bonus. You'll be sacrificing some camera resolution with the 8 MP camera (down from 13 MP on the T) although it is still capable of 1080p video recording, and 720p on the front-facer is there, too. The HTC One X does not have a microSD card slot though.
HTC One X
Like the One X, the Samsung Galaxy S III brings some quad-core muscle to the show at less cost. The Super AMOLED on the S III is also of 720p resolution, but boasts a bigger 4.8 inch diagonal. You're getting an impressive set of features, including some really neat (and exclusive) tricks at the expense of some rear camera resolution. You'll also enjoy some more uptime with the 2100 mAh battery, and there's microSD support as well. The 16 GB version of the Galaxy S III can be had for about €480 in most markets.
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
Finally, with another flagship looming on the horizon, all of these top droids will be given a real run for their money. The LG Optimus G doubles up both the internal memory and RAM of the Sony Xperia T, and features the first quad-core Krait processor. The Optimus G chipset made easy work of the competition and put devices like the Xperia T in a rather awkward position. Just arriving to the market and they are already offering only half the performance of best in business. The Optimus G also boasts a larger 2100 mAh battery, but no microSD support. It will go on sale for around €600, or just €50 more than the Sony Xperia T.
LG Optimus G E973
While we've looked at devices which are much better than the Xperia T on paper, we can't forget to factor in build quality and design. The Xperia T feels sturdier and more solid than both the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III (with the glaring exception of the poorly-designed microSD/SIM card cover), and the curved back panel not only makes holding the Xperia T a more pleasurable experience, but also separates it from a design template that currently dominates the market.
And while the Android experience is something that has largely been the same across different OEMs, Sony has struck a great balance between great-looking apps and features on an optimized Android core that looks fresh yet familiar. True that while the Xperia T may be behind in the numbers race, the software package that it delivers is truly among the nicest we've seen.
Sometimes it's not enough to simply have the best around - you want to make a statement. Where some makers let the numbers talk, Sony are trying to appeal to emotions with the Xperia T's top notch design and feel. We're happy with the meal, but we guess there's room for dessert. And we sure hope Jelly Bean doesn't take too long.
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