Your first impressions about Xperia neo

[Martha-]

So, now that everyone has seen this new phone, we are hoping to gather some feedback from you, and answer a few things specifically, we hope you can participate!

- What's one word you'd use to describe this device?

- Have you read any reviews about this phone, please share the link if you have

- What phones (from other manufacturers) do you think are the most similar in features?

- What do you feel is the feature(s) of this phone that makes it unique amongst our competition.

- What is one thing you feel is missing, or you wished to be available?

Thanks for taking the time for passing this feedback on to us!

This is not the place to ask questions, if you have a technical question, please  make a new thread Thanks!

[#2]

Thanks for replying Uli..and also for the link. I'll deffo install the launcher. It looks really cool. Trish x

[Uliwooly]

no problem its quite nice

[#4]

- What's one word you'd use to describe this device?

versatile

- Have you read any reviews about this phone, please share the link if you have

a lot of reviews & previews, videos from MWC or CES

- What phones (from other manufacturers) do you think are the most similar in features?

galaxy s, galaxy s II, incredible s, desire s, atrix

- What do you feel is the feature(s) of this phone that makes it unique amongst our competition.

• the camera, particularly its low-light performance. I've failed to capture many good nighttime shots on my droid, even with the flash. I would love to have a phone that can take photos as good as a dedicated point and shoot camera, even if those photos were only 5MP.
• the pocketability: Medium-sized, 480 x 854px screen, and mostly rounded corners. Screens over 4" take up too much room in my pocket; I'd rather have the high-res on a screen like this. 3.7 - 4" is the sweet spot unless you're watching movies with friends, in my opinion. My eyes are 20/20 so why not.
• light(er) weight.
• gingerbread. Great to see SE on the cutting edge. Gingerbread includes some great power-savings as well, so that will reflect well on the phone.
• forward camera
• great battery life. This is one of SE's fortes and I'm looking forward to better batt life in my new smartphone.
• touch screen only. I so rarely use my slide-out keyboard, I'd much rather have a phone without the extra weight and size. Offering the Neo & Pro seems like a brilliant decision, though, to cover both camps.
• physical home, back, menu buttons. The positive, tactile feedback helps a lot with these critical buttons.
• SE addons converted to widgets (timescape, mediascape). This seems very win-win to me. Let users have the option so everybody's happy.
• gorilla glass. Having to put screen protectors on your phone is silly when technology can solve the problem for you.
• wifi-N, HDMI, DLNA, ant+, OMA, GSM. More options, more flexibility makes my life easier. I'll be using most of these options immediately.

- What is one thing you feel is missing, or you wished to be available?

1. unlocked bootloader. I want the option of customizing my phone, upgrading the kernel when available, improving battery life. This can also keep me using this phone for much longer than phones with locked bootloaders. I don't mind losing my warranty as custom kernels sometimes allow overclocking, and SE shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes. (It would be nice to find an in-between solution, though) Just read your blog post on offering unlocking on the new phones. Awesome! Neo is my next phone.
2. more RAM. This is the main reason I need to ditch my current phone. At this time, the new xperias really should have been released with at least 512MB RAM. These new phones have great single-core processors and additional memory would have kept them current for much longer. Neo gets 512MB RAM after all!

Additional, less critical, features I'd like:

1. more rounded corners, like the new xperia pro. Corners get caught in your pocket
2. all ports on the bottom. It makes much more sense to have the headphone jack on the bottom; it keeps the cable out of the way when you're holding the phone, and is much more convenient when it's in your pocket. Right now, I have to pull my phone out of the pocket, then flip it upside down to fiddle with the music player, then flip it back to put it back in my pocket. More of an issue when you're running or otherwise preoccupied. While the USB & HDMI ports could go anywhere, it's nice to have them on the bottom for those times I'm using the phone in the rain (sounds silly but it happens).
3. a search button. I use the fourth button (missing on the Neo) all the time for voice commands (calling, searching). Not a must-have feature, but it will be missed.
4. a dock. Of course, if all the ports were on the bottom, this would work more seamlessly...

I know that this is marketed as a mid-grade phone but I'm choosing this phone instead of the arc, play, atrix, thunderbolt, evo 3d, optimus 3d, and every other android phone. It's not about price but about the right mix of features.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the round up!

Glad your happy with the bootloader news

Your "wishlist" items are all realistic as well, I'd have to say.

Thanks again!

[#6]

Hi Folks,

can anyone tell if i can install application in  its external memory card of the xperia neo because its internal is only  320mb.. and what is the cons if it is not possible.....

[Uliwooly]

Android 2.2 and above allow you to be install Apps on your SD

[#8]

Hi,

I got my XPeria Neo for a week so. I must say that I'm more thatn happy with it except a few things. I switched from a W995 which I admired.

There are some misses I found embarrassing in comparison to the W995.

On the application side :

* No application for taking notes :I used my W995 a lot to take short notes and sync them with the SonyEricsson sync portal. After a few hours spent with the Xperia Neo, I couldn't find any similar application that could sync my notes.

* No application to turn the flash led on : There is a native app on the W995 to turn on the flash light, to keep it lighting for 1 minute. I couldn't find this in the Xperia neo. I browsed the Android market but got lost with the number of applications and wasn't sure of wich one to choose.

The other two things I found missing are :

Video Call : The phone has a video call capability that I can't use. I use this a lot with my W995. This is something quite embarrasing as my mobile operator support it, my contacts support it, my contract support it, but not my phone. It would be great to have the phone to support this by default without any specific app.

Alarm support : I've been disappointed to see that when my Xperia Neo was off, no alarms were fired. I was so used to do this in confidence with my W995. I understand that the designed is different but I would have liked to know this limitation before.

Last point is battery life.It's in fact way below the W995. The screen dries out the battery even when the brightness is tuned very low.

Beside that, I found the phone impressive, very easy to use, delivers almost all the features I had with the W995. I may need to wait for a software upgrade to have the Neo at the same level as the W995.

Please can someone at SonyEricsson consider this.

Thanks for reading my impressions.

Regards.

[Uliwooly]

This is a smartphone therefore you can download the apps

to take notes

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.softxperience.android.noteeverything

to turn on/off the LED flash

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bwx.bequick&feature=search_result

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.devuni.flashlight&feature=search_result

[Uliwooly]

for video call try

Tango

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sgiggle.production&feature=search_result

or Skype

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.skype.raider&feature=search_result

or Yahoo messenger (you need both apps)

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.im&feature=search_result

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.imvideo

or Qik

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.qik.android&feature=search_result

Alarms

are you saying that if you shutdown your old phone (W995) it will turn back on so the alarm could go off?

this is new to me bc I have never heard of a phone that did that, not even other electronics, if they do, then they are not off entirely but Idle

[Uliwooly]

to increase your battery performance

To access the battery usage menu:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Application screens icon.
2. Find and tap Settings > About phone >Battery use to see which installed applications consume the most battery power.

To add the Status switch widget to your Home screen:

1. From the Home screen, press the Menu key
2. Tap Add > Widgets.
3. Select the Status switch widget. You can now turn on and off your data connections more easily.

To add the Power control widget to your Home screen:

1. From the Home screen, press the Menu key.
2. Tap Add > Widgets.
3. Select the Power Control widget. You can now turn on and off Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth™ and GPS more easily.

To adjust the screen brightness:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Application screens icon.
2. Find and tap Settings > Display >Brightness.
3. To decrease the screen brightness, drag the slider to the left.
4. Tap OK.

To turn off all data traffic over mobile networks:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Application screens icon.
2. Find and tap Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks.
3. Unmark the Data enabled checkbox.

or download Quick Settings

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.bwx.bequick&feature=search_result