Reviews related to : Sony
Joining the ever-increasing ranks of smartphone models is the Sony Xperia I V handset which has been keeping out reviewer company.
I must admit to a certain element of surprise when offered the opportunity to review a particular Sony smartphone. The model in question was the Sony Xperia 1 V whose launch has been announced nine months ago, which some might regard as a hefty chunk of some phone models life span. But once the initial burst of surprise departed I was ready to take on the task of checking the capabilities of the Sony Xperia 1 V product when put to the test.
If you are stuck for ideas then this next announcement might help with some suggestions for the 18th of June.
Nudge! Nudge! Wink! Wink! we are getting near that day when Fathers take central stage with Father's Day being the 18th of June. Sony has asked me to mention some of its products which might be considered suitable as a gift for a father, especially one who is into gadgets and the like. Listed in price order, these products are as follows:- The , priced at £49.00, can provide up to 50 hours of listening pleasure from a single battery charge.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will relate the new of a pair of headphones that could enhance your listening experience.
A recent announcement from Sony informed me that the company has two new headphone models that could well appeal. These headphones are the and models. The two models give the purchaser the choice of over-ear or on-ear wireless connectivity when wearing the headphones. Designed for over-ear use, the WH-CH720N is a wireless headphone product.
Adding to its range of smartphones, Sony has released its Xperia L3 model. As is often the case, my review sample of the smartphone handset has been provided by Vodafone for the purpose of this review.
In familiar fashion the front of the handset is dominated by the unit’s display 5.7 inch screen delivering a 75.6% screen-to-body ratio. The Sony Xperia L3 is fitted with an IPs LCD capacitive touch screen that is capable of displaying 16M colours. With a resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels at 18:9 ratio, the screen has a ppi density of ~282. Providing protection for the screen, in the case of accidents, is a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
With dimensions of 143 x 69 x 7.7 mm (H x W x D) and weighing 152g, the Xperia X is Sony’s latest entry into the rather overcrowded smartphone market sector.
The Sony Xperia X handset is currently available in a choice of colours. The user can select from models coloured White, Graphite Black, Lime, Gold and Rose Gold. My review sample is the Graphite Black model. The Sony Xperia X’s metallic casing is dominated by a 5-inch screen that is capable of displaying Full HD 1080p resolution with bright clearly visible content in different lighting conditions.
It looks like a round neck pair of in ear buds. It is, so you could use them as a simple music player however it is also a Wearable Music Player with Fitness Tracker, so it can play music in a beat to match your heart rate (pulse).
12cm across and 12cm tall would match the non-twisted size of these buds, each ear has a 5x2.5x1cm unit in front of the bud and their total weight is only 42grams. It would be totally wrong to describe this as a music player even though it can play music.
Continuing my look at mobile devices available from Vodafone, it is the turn of the Sony Xperia M2 Aqua offering.
The Xperia M2 Aqua is a member of the Sony family of smartphones. This handset is available in a choice of purple, white or black with the latter being the colour of my review sample kindly provided by Vodafone. The Xperia M2 Aqua has dimensions of 139.7 x 71.1 x 8.6mm (H x W x D) and weighs in at 148g as Sony seem to be positioning this model at a middle of the road market sector.
The Sony Xperia Z3 is a waterproof smartphone. This particular model is available in a choice of white, green, copper or black with my review sample being of the latter colour. I have to thank Vodafone for kindly provided the unit that is the basis of this review.
When taking the handset out of the box, it was immediately obvious that the Xperia Z3 completely dwarfed by current smartphone. I could immediately tell that there would definitely be a problem if I tried to insert this beast into the pocket I usually use for my mobile device. Presumably Sony did not take into consideration the storage of such a device when not in use. With dimensions of 146 x 72 x 7.
Joining the like of Apple and Samsung in offering users both smartphone handsets and tablets, Sony latest release in the latter category is the Xperia Tablet Z. This is a 10-inch tablet running the Android operating system.
Predominately black in colour apart from the silver Sony logo on the front and the Xperia name on the rear, the Xperia Tablet Z has dimensions of 266 x 172 x 6.9mm (W x H x D) with a weight of 465. Looking almost as if it has been on a diet, this tablet should have no problems with regards mobility.
First from Sony something of a lightweight offering so maybe ideal to take with you out and about the a set of headphones designed to go in an audio outlet for studio quality units but unscrew it and you have a 3.5mm jack.
These are described as Monitor Headphones and are on-ear design. The lead is of the flat type favoured by a lot of recent earbud offerings as it is less likely to knot up. The lead like the headphones are red, 30cm to the point where the leads from each ear link to form a single cable and then .8metre to the ‘L’ shaped 3.5mm plug.
It's been a while since I have had an opportunity to look at one of the excellent Cyber Shot range; in fact from memory the last Sony offering I told you about was the NEX6L almost a year ago. Here a fixed lens offering to fit into your pocket.
Just because it fits into your pocket do not dismiss its capabilities. The Sony CyberShot HX50 is a 20MP offering with 30x optical zoom. It is 10.5x6.5x3.7cm, the last figure when turned off, fully zoom in and the lens can extend by as much as 6cm onto that figure. It weights 273grams. The flash flips up manually from the top left edge of the camera and can never be closer than 5cm from the lens.
Here something that I have not looked at recently a couple of MP3 players, both from Sony. The first is a water resistant offering mine was white. The second in more normal black a unit that claims a quick charge time of only three minutes.
This is an all in one unit with the earbuds fixed into the player unit. With some earbuds you can choose to hang them directly from the ears of to take them round your neck, here there is no choice as the ‘C’ shaped band will only locate in the ear if you then go behind your neck. The stretched out length of the band connecting the two buds is 33cm but is will always return to two ‘O’ shapes.
Since reviewing The NEX5 a couple of varietys have emerged, however new cameras from Sony are not frequent so when I saw a prototype some months ago I immediately requested to review the new NEX6 when it was available.
Small enough to be a digital camera but it’s not. Small enough to fit in a pocket but it has a neck strap. It can have different lenses and mine came with a 16-50mm lens, this can also zoom to 2.8 times. Another reason why this is a DSLR – although Sony just call it an interchangeable lens camera - is that it has something most digital units do no longer have, a viewfinder.
It has been quite a while since I last had the opportunity to check out a handset bearing the Sony name. In fact it was back when Sony was in partnership with Ericsson for the development of its handsets.
Since taking over complete control following the break up of the Sony Ericsson partnership, Sony has developed a number of high specification devices including the Xperia brand with the subject of this review being one example. I have to thank Vodafone for providing the review sample of the Xperia T model (now why does that sound familiar?) Totally black in colour, this smartphone adopts the standard look of a candy bar shape and has dimensions of 128.4 x 67.3 x 9.
Recently the Sony team was out in force at a Central London location to demonstrate some of the companys new products that could end up on your wish list for the Christmas season.
Wishing attendees a “Very Sony Christmas”, the company had various products on display. These products were categorised as Home Entertainment, Imaging, Computing, On the Go and At Home. While the constriction of available space means I can not cover all the various products, I will include at least a couple of offerings from each category. Lets begin with Home Entertainment and, in particular, televisions.
When I think of Sony, my thoughts gravitate towards hardware such as BRAVIA televisions, PlayStation consoles, VAIO laptops and a range of mobile phones. However, as the subject of this review goes to prove, Sony does have a software department that is responsible for the Windows-based Imagination Studio. Now up to version 3, this package brings together tools for video, photo and audio tasks plus DVD authoring.
When installing this product you are offered a range of options. For a start there is the main Imagination Studio software. This consists of ACID Music Studio 8.0, DVD Architect Studio 5.0, Sound Forge Audio Studio 10.0 and Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11.0. In each case you will need to activate these applications by entering their specific serial number and provide registration details.
The latest do everything phone from Sony - the Xperia S. In a form factor little bigger than just a mobile phone you can surf the Internet, get your emails, make and receive phone calls and use third party Android software to keep in touch.
Being Sony of course they also have their own ‘Apps’ so not only do you have the complete range of Android offerings but Sony’s own as well as those which may be offered by the Network supplier in this case it is Three. The Sony Xperia S measures 17x6.5x1cm, in the case of the last figure the width it is a maximum of 1cm and the edges are only .5cm thick. However despite its lack of thickness this is still a very strong feeling unit and it weighs a substantial 145grams.
Blu-ray movies always seem to carry a premium over the normal DVD version, so making the leap means first a new player and then to get the best from it, buying Blu-ray movies, Sony here offer a starter pack of a Blu-ray unit with eight Blu-ray movies.
Not content with offering a neat - small - unit Sony get it to perform a range of extras with the BDP S185 such as playing music and viewing Internet via Ethernet, this latter option also gets more features for some movies, however it stubbornly refuses to make the tea, do the hovering, or, even the ironing. It is 29x18.5x3cm however you will need around another 3.5cm to the middle figure the depth if placing on a shelf to allow for cable connections.
While a few may still be wowed by huge MegaPixel, most now know its the quality of the CMOS that gives quality of image, here you get a perfectly respectable 12.1MP and an excellent 20x optical zoom in a small form factor.
It is 10.5x6x3.5cm and weights 220grams. When on the lens can extend by up to another 5cm fully zoomed out. Mine was silver grey but it is also available in black or pink. The left side is clear, the right side has anchor point for the supplied wrist strap and a rubber bung behind which are HDMI and USB connections. The base has anchor point for tripod – essential if you use anything like the 20x zoom – and a door behind which is the solid battery and any SD card you may use.
Its been a while since I have looked at an MP3 player rather than an iPod. It is also a nice small unit that is smaller than most of course size and weight mean the display is tiny in comparison to some units but this is from Sony.
The Sony Walkman NWZ-B173 measures 8.5x2x1.3cm and it weighs just 27grams. Perhaps the biggest thing in its favour is that you can plug the USB connection (remove the cap of the unit) into a PC it is read as a drive and then you just Drag and Drop items. We all take Drag and Drop for a given today but if you are old enough to remember times before it you still appreciate what it gives not least when certain products do their best with fancy installers to stop you using it.
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