I’ve had this phone for almost 5 months now.and I am very impressed. I don’t know what happened to the phone of the other reviewer here.but mine has been 100% waterproof so far.
Also, I am a person who’s been using android phones from one of the very first galaxy phones. the samsung galaxy spica. I’ve had 2-3 more galaxies and what I’ve noticed is that they always.ALWAYS slow down within 6 months of purchase. the lag is first noticeable then becomes irritating and then downright annoying.
No such hassles so far with xperia. Buttery smooth till now.No lag, no crashes. Its almost like my iPad! Yes, its that good.
Waterproofing. I’m a doctor.and have to put surgical gloves for various procedures which leaves a thin film of white dust on my hands. i invariably have to answer a few calls in between my procedures and the phone gets all dusty. Once I’m done with my procedures, I simply wash the phone under the tap along with my hands! No issues for the past 2 months.(till now I was scared to do that. But now I do it regularly.)
Camera is fantastic! I have a Nikon D3100 SLR while the pictures from the xperia are not dslr quality, its 13 MP is good enough to take pics in daylight. So good that its very comparable to the same snaps taken on the SLR.(low light quality is not so hot.but better than any camera phone I’ve used so far except the nokia carl zeiss ones) and the best part is that it has a dedicated camera button.it is so very useful!
Battery. these days any high end phone is expected to last a day.thats it. this xperia lasts around 30 hours with moderate use.ive streched it to 50 hrs on stamina mode once.
so heres the bottom line.
What I liked:
All of the above PLUS
removable battery unlike the other waterproof xperias;
4.7 inch display is JUST right. not a monster.not a midget;
top end specs. 15.ghz quad core krait series processor(2nd fastest processor in the world after the newly launched snapdragon 800 series), adreno320 graphics, 2GB RAM, 13MP cam
What I didn’t:
only 8GB internal storage.so a big SD card is a must. I use 16gb. which I find adequate;
VGA front cam.pathetic.esp when u compare the beautiful 13.1MP back cam;
bezels are too big.in fact all the dimensions could be slimmed down a bit;
Slippery.have dropped it 4-5 times already;
speakerphone not as loud as I would have liked.
What I don’t mind.(not deal breakers)
Not full HD screen.cant really tell the difference on a 4.7 inch screen. and in fact, it has the same pixel density as the iPhone retina display, which is enough for me.
Not gorilla glass and can scratch easily but this problem is easily remedied by a good screen protector.
Lots of sony software/bloatware but doesn’t bother me because the phone hasn’t slowed one bit.and some of them are actually useful!
So, hope this review helps! I bought mine from a shop in Kerala for 28 K. I felt then and still feel that its worth each penny.