Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G (AT&T)

Four months after making its U.S. debut on Verizon Wireless, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G is now available on AT&T. Not much has changed. In fact, it's nearly the same exact smartphone. But on AT&T it's sporting a bargain bin $49.99 price, a free multimedia dock, and good Internet speeds on AT&T's HSPA+ 21 network. So while the Xperia Play was a good phone for Verizon gamers, it's an even better choice on AT&T.

Physical Design, Call Quality, and Web
One thing that certainly hasn't changed is the physical design. The Xperia Play is still big and bulky at 4.7 by 2.4 by .6 inches (HWD) and 6.2 ounces; most of that weight is for the gamepad. The phone is made of somewhat cheap-feeling dark blue and silver plastic. The 4-inch, 854-by-480 screen looks sharp, but it's dim, even with the brightness set to its highest setting (which it is by default). That's probably to help save battery life, which was an incredible 9 hours 18 minutes. You should be able to do some serious gaming before this thing needs another charge.

The screen slides horizontally to reveal an absolutely wonderful gamepad. There are four directional buttons, four PlayStation action buttons, two analog trackpads standing in for the PSPs joystick, Select, Start, and Menu buttons, and two "flippers" on the top edge of the phone. The buttons mirror the PSP's layout, though they're a bit smaller and tighter than the ones on the PSP. They feel solid and ready for extended gaming sessions.

AT&T also includes a multimedia dock with the Xperia Play, which allows for easy charging and connection to a home stereo system (via included 3.5mm jack). When docked, the phone automatically launches a desktop alarm application, so it also doubles as an alarm clock.

With such a major focus on gaming, it becomes easy to forget the Xperia Play is also a phone. Luckily, it doesn't disappoint in that department. The Play uses AT&T's HSPA+ 21 network and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. The phone also works as a tethered modem or Wi-Fi hotspot with the right service plan. I got some pretty respectable speeds using the Xperia Play. Downloads averaged 4-5Mbps down, while uploads were around 1-1.5Mbps up. That's faster than we've seen on other "4G" AT&T phones such as the Motorola Atrix 4G, which don't support HSPA+ 21.

RF reception was good, and call quality was above average. Calls sound rich and clear in the phone's earpiece, with just the slightest trace of fuzz from time to time. On the other end, calls made with the phone sound sharp, though noise cancellation is lacking; you can hear almost everything happening in the background. The speakerphone sounds good, and goes loud enough for outdoor use, but just barely. You probably won't be able to hear it on a noisy street. Calls sounded good through an Aliph Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129.99, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked fine.

Gaming
The main reason many people will be interested in the Xperia Play is for the games. There are a few ways to download them. The first, easiest way, is to load up the Play Games app, conveniently located on the phone's home screen. It's a scrollable menu of game titles from Gameloft, EA Mobile, and the Android Market. Tapping on a game will punt you over to the Gameloft or EA mobile site, or directly to its listing in the Android Market. You can also go to the Android Market yourself and do a search for "Xperia Play Optimized," but this will turn up plenty of titles that aren't really optimized.           

Downloading titles from the Android Market and EA are easy, but every time I tapped on a game from Gameloft, I was directed to a generic Gameloft page that wasn't specific to the game I wanted to see. You can tap your way through a few more pages to find it, but it should be linked directly. Once downloaded, though, I didn't experience any problems.

Posted in: Sony Ericssion 4G