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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (PlayStation Phone) given an in-depth preview
The folks at Engadget managed to score themselves a working prototype of Sony Ericsson’s “holy grail” of the past few months. The Xperia Play or better known as the PlayStation Phone made its way into their eager hands where they did an in-depth preview and rundown of the device, with pictures and videos for the whole world to see. From hands-on report, it looks like the Xperia Play is nothing to shout about. Besides the slide out gamepad (that works very well with games), it’s just a run-of-the-mill high-end Android phone.
The Xperia Play packs a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor with an Adreno 205 GPU, 512 MB of RAM, a 4″ multitouch 854 x 480 LCD display (like the X10), and a rumored Bravia engine for improved video playback. The D-pad works perfectly with Android, so if you’re used to having a trackpad or trackball on your Android device, you can use the directional keys to accomplish the same things. It’ll come with Gingerbread (Android 2.3 – yay!) and Mediascape is no longer an app, but a bunch of widgets. It looks like this phone is going to be targeted at consumers who want an Android phone for gaming.
With Sony Ericsson yet to explain how their games store will work, what games will be on it and how much they will be priced, the device still looks like it’s sitting on the fence between being a passable phone and an awesome one. Sony Ericsson could hit or miss with this device, but we’ll have to wait for more details when they finally unveil it to the world at the Mobile World Congress next month. Head over to engadget to read the full write up.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?