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[antipod]

Shit you're right, the two bottom pictures are the at&t variant with the metalic strip. Still, it's the Xperia T.

The two bottom ones aren't the same either. The metal strip isn't the same, the front black plastic are thicker on the middle compared to the bottom one and it doesn't have that, what to say, diagonal bottom. And the large and small side button are reversed.

Not really that fond of Sony (and older Sony Ericsson) design though the original Arc (and S) was really nice and looking at those three pics you posted the bottom one do have a very appealing profile.

Edit: Had to go look up the phones in question and have come to the conclusion that the bottom picture is the Sone Xperia V. The middle one might be the Xperia TX. The Xperia V actually looks very good even from other directions and do have that 342 ppi 1280x720 4.3" screen. Had I been looking for a new phone it might have been an insteresting contender.

 

[Milchjon]

i'm due for a new phone, and am leaning towards the iPhone 5 but i'm not fully satisfied with it. i don't want a huge phone; i'd like to comfortably use it with one hand. that nokia phone looks very nice, but all that social website integration looks stupid. i don't use facebook or twitter or anything, so maybe i'm not the target audience. i play with my friends galaxy s3 all the time, but i don't like it because it's too big and i'm not a fan of the OS. i loved my iPhone 3GS and 4S before i lost them.

i used to be so anti-apple, but now i only want their phone! iPhone is the BEST phone ever.

Ignore it? It's fully optional, and it won't interfere with your use of the phone in any way if you opt not to use it.

If you like FB/Twitter, it improves your experience.
If you don't, it doesn't make it worse in any way.

As for the Xperia phones, did they stop with the light strip below the display? I liked those designs.

 

[Mario007]

That is a pretty compelling list. It would take a lot to move me from Android but that feature set is very impressive.

I'll try for the Xperia T:

The best design of any phone.
Great skin of android that is elegant and not as intrusive as HTC or Samsung variant
One of, if not the, brightest screens on the market with Bravia engine
WhiteMagic technology which saves up batter when the screen is bright
13MP stacked camera sensor and amazing camera software
About 1-2 seconds from locked-screen to taking a photo
Great ppi pixel density (323)
Micro-SD slot
Dual core Krait chipset
Beat every other phone on the market now in benchmarks
Playstation Mobile
Sony exclusive apps like the Walkman
Android ecosystem with 600 000 apps, you can customise pretty much everything, use face-to-unlock, google beam etc.
Soon to be upgraded to Jellybean with Google Now and Project Butter and will more than likely receive a Key Lime Pie update down the line.


Also this:

Only Screen that works with gloves,

is technically false of the Lumia 920. Xperia Sola has had a floating touch technology, where you don't have to even touch the screen and thus can work it with gloves since February.

 

[Mario007]

The two bottom ones aren't the same either. The metal strip isn't the same, the front black plastic are thicker on the middle compared to the bottom one and it doesn't have that, what to say, diagonal bottom. And the large and small side button are reversed.

Not really that fond of Sony (and older Sony Ericsson) design though the original Arc (and S) was really nice and looking at those three pics you posted the bottom one do have a very appealing profile.

Edit: Had to go look up the phones in question and have come to the conclusion that the bottom picture is the Sone Xperia V. The middle one might be the Xperia TX.

I'll have a look as well, if it's V i'll take it down. Though TX and T are the same varients and will be sold in markets around world as basically the same phone so I'll leave them there.

I like that they're returning to the Arc design. It was easily the best mobile phone design ever.

Ignore it? It's fully optional, and it won't interfere with your use of the phone in any way if you opt not to use it.

If you like FB/Twitter, it improves your experience.
If you don't, it doesn't make it worse in any way.

As for the Xperia phones, did they stop with the light strip below the display? I liked those designs.

They seem to have two series now, the NXT series for first half of the year and Arc series for the second.

 

[Psychotext]

I'm loving the 920, but WP really needs to step it up on the apps front, even if that means picking the 200 most popular apps and moneyhatting / working with them to get a version on WP.

The app ecosystem is just so much better on the iPhone. It's barely even comparable.

Am no longer considering Android. From both a development and end user perspective I just find it awful.

 

[Nicktendo86]

I'll try for the Xperia T:

The best design of any phone.
Great skin of android that is elegant and not as intrusive as HTC or Samsung variant
One of, if not the, brightest screens on the market with Bravia engine
WhiteMagic technology which saves up batter when the screen is bright
13MP stacked camera sensor and amazing camera software
About 1-2 seconds from locked-screen to taking a photo
Great ppi pixel density (323)
Micro-SD slot
Dual core Krait chipset
Beat every other phone on the market now in benchmarks
Playstation Mobile
Sony exclusive apps like the Walkman
Android ecosystem with 600 000 apps, you can customise pretty much everything, use face-to-unlock, google beam etc.
Soon to be upgraded to Jellybean with Google Now and Project Butter and will more than likely receive a Key Lime Pie update down the line.


Also this:


is technically false of the Lumia 920. Xperia Sola has had a floating touch technology, where you don't have to even touch the screen and thus can work it with gloves since February.

Ummm looks good. My contract is up next August so will see what's around then. Hope the rumour of multiple OEMS making a new Nexus is true, would love to see Sony's take on it.

 

[FindMyFarms]

I'd love the 920 a lot more if it didn't have all that empty black space on the bottom. It just bugs me for some reason and ruins the phones visual appeal tremendously to me.

 

[Souldriver]

I'll try for the Xperia T:

The best design of any phone.
Great skin of android that is elegant and not as intrusive as HTC or Samsung variant
One of, if not the, brightest screens on the market with Bravia engine
WhiteMagic technology which saves up batter when the screen is bright
13MP stacked camera sensor and amazing camera software
About 1-2 seconds from locked-screen to taking a photo
Great ppi pixel density (323)
Micro-SD slot
Dual core Krait chipset
Beat every other phone on the market now in benchmarks
Playstation Mobile
Sony exclusive apps like the Walkman
Android ecosystem with 600 000 apps, you can customise pretty much everything, use face-to-unlock, google beam etc.
Soon to be upgraded to Jellybean with Google Now and Project Butter and will more than likely receive a Key Lime Pie update down the line.


Also this:


is technically false of the Lumia 920. Xperia Sola has had a floating touch technology, where you don't have to even touch the screen and thus can work it with gloves since February.

A good list, and i recognize a few of your points as i'm on an xperia myself. But apartfrom the walkman app perhaps, most of the junk sony adds to the phone doesnt really feel like a plus. And i hate how theyre not removable.

 

[Nicktendo86]

A good list, and i recognize a few of your points as i'm on an xperia myself. But apartfrom the walkman app perhaps, most of the junk sony adds to the phone doesnt really feel like a plus. And i hate how theyre not removable.

You can disable them since Ice Cream Sandwich though?

 

[dark10x]

I am enjoying Flash 11.1.115.17 my 4.1.1 Jellybean on my Galaxy Nexus

Is this argument even valid? I was under the impression that OFFICIAL Flash support will be disappearing soon on Android and, even still, Flash on mobile isn't exactly a booming success. Websites are moving away from it and the popularity of the iPhone has made it so that nearly every site you could visit supports HTML5 or some other compatible format.

Flash is dying. It's a relic.

 

[kharma45]

You can disable them since Ice Cream Sandwich though?

Yeah you can disable them and hide them but it'd annoy me that they're still there taking up space no matter how minute.

Is this argument even valid? I was under the impression that OFFICIAL Flash support will be disappearing soon on Android and, even still, Flash on mobile isn't exactly a booming success. Websites are moving away from it and the popularity of the iPhone has made it so that nearly every site you could visit supports HTML5 or some other compatible format.

Flash is dying. It's a relic.

It's not, Flash for Mobile is dead. You can still get it on Android by sideloading but haven't Adobe stopped supporting it?

I could count the number of times I've needed Flash on Android with one hand.

 

[Damon Bennet]

i'm due for a new phone, and am leaning towards the iPhone 5 but i'm not fully satisfied with it. i don't want a huge phone; i'd like to comfortably use it with one hand. that nokia phone looks very nice, but all that social website integration looks stupid. i don't use facebook or twitter or anything, so maybe i'm not the target audience. i play with my friends galaxy s3 all the time, but i don't like it because it's too big and i'm not a fan of the OS. i loved my iPhone 3GS and 4S before i lost them.

i used to be so anti-apple, but now i only want their phone! iPhone is the BEST phone ever.

its a pretty good phone

 

[Nicktendo86]

Yeah you can disable them and hide them but it'd annoy me that they're still there taking up space no matter how minute.

True. If you root though you could install system app mover and move them off system so you could delete... bit much though just to delete some apps you don't want.

 

[dark10x]

It's not, Flash for Mobile is dead. You can still get it on Android by sideloading but haven't Adobe stopped supporting it?

I could count the number of times I've needed Flash on Android with one hand.

Yes, that's what I meant. Flash is still being used, but mobile Flash is dead.

 

[Mario007]

Ummm looks good. My contract is up next August so will see what's around then. Hope the rumour of multiple OEMS making a new Nexus is true, would love to see Sony's take on it.

I wonder about the Xperia strategy for next year. Sony is banking on mobile to drive them forward and they advertised Xperia S pretty well (and apparently it sold well too) and the T is getting the Bond promo so I think they are certainly doing the right thing in terms of market awareness.

Also Xperia Nexus listing has been seen on the DotNoCo website to be released in December.

A good list, and i recognize a few of your points as i'm on an xperia myself. But apartfrom the walkman app perhaps, most of the junk sony adds to the phone doesnt really feel like a plus. And i hate how theyre not removable.

As others have said you can disable them in the ICS but I know they're still kinda there. I like stuff like Life contacts, timescape widget and such. What Xperia do you have? If you've got S then you'll probably will be soon able to get vanilla Android without even rooting your phone.

 

[RukusProvider]

Pre ordered the iphone5 but I really want the 920. Too bad there is no damn release info. Come on.....

 

[Nicktendo86]

Also Xperia Nexus listing has been seen on the DotNoCo website to be released in December.

Awesome, can't wait to see it. I'm pretty sure I will stick with the Nexus line from now, I love the vanillia Android, but am more than happy to go away from Samsung. If Sony make a premium looking/feeling Nexus with stock Android I will be all over it.

 

[Mario007]

Awesome, can't wait to see it. I'm pretty sure I will stick with the Nexus line from now, I love the vanillia Android, but am more than happy to go away from Samsung. If Sony make a premium looking/feeling Nexus with stock Android I will be all over it.

I kinda hope Google moves Nexus away from Samsung, simply because Samsung had it for two years and in their line-up Nexus is competing with the S series and that's never a good thing. LG is also rumored to be working on a Nexus, by the way. I have to agree though, Nexus phone are damn amazing.

 

[coldfoot]

I kinda hope Google moves Nexus away from Samsung, simply because Samsung had it for two years and in their line-up Nexus is competing with the S series and that's never a good thing. LG is also rumored to be working on a Nexus, by the way. I have to agree though, Nexus phone are damn amazing.

They should partner up with Sony.

 

[maeh2k]

Pre ordered the iphone5 but I really want the 920. Too bad there is no damn release info. Come on.....

By now we have a pretty good idea about the release info. Various carriers around the world have already announced it.

 

[Mario007]

They should partner up with Sony.

I think it would be awesome if they did. Xperia Nexus has the potential to be amazing.

 

[bob page]

I have a Nexus 7 so I'm a FULL believer in Jellybean. I've never used an OS that was so smooth. Multitasking is a joy. And hot damn...the ability to customize the device is wonderful.

Let me get this straight- you're comparing performance on Jelly Bean & the Nexus 7 to that of your iPhone 3G?

Jelly Bean is definitely significantly more enjoyable than previous versions of Android but it still isn't as smooth as iOS 5 or even the iPad 2. Comparing my Nexus 7 side by side with the iPad 2 definitely revealed some hitches and imperfections on the N7 front.

It'll be interesting to see how the next major release of Android stacks up, though. I'm enjoying iOS 6 a lot right now, especially with the new maps app, but the UI is pretty stale at this point.

 

[Nicktendo86]

I think it would be awesome if they did. Xperia Nexus has the potential to be amazing.

I'm with u on that. Samsung have their hands full with the galaxy s series anyway. Let lg make a cheaper nexus and Sony a premium one, perfect situation in my mind.

 

[coldfoot]

I think it would be awesome if they did. Xperia Nexus has the potential to be amazing.

+ Playstation certified in order to better compete in the games space.

 

[Mario007]

I'm with u on that. Samsung have their hands full with the galaxy s series anyway. Let lg make a cheaper nexus and Sony a premium one, perfect situation in my mind.

100% agree!

+ Playstation certified in order to better compete in the games space.

I think that goes without saying. Pretty much all high-end Sony phones are PS certified.

 

[ektoll]

By now we have a pretty good idea about the release info. Various carriers around the world have already announced it.

I'm waiting for the price of the phone, without any carrier plan. That's also an very important point!

 

[buhdeh]

How does WP handle notifications? Do they have a pull down menu for it too?

 

[nib95]

Is this argument even valid? I was under the impression that OFFICIAL Flash support will be disappearing soon on Android and, even still, Flash on mobile isn't exactly a booming success. Websites are moving away from it and the popularity of the iPhone has made it so that nearly every site you could visit supports HTML5 or some other compatible format.

Flash is dying. It's a relic.

Flash is still useful, and I won't be updating my fw to anything that doesn't support it (unless there's an unofficial option). Tonnes of lesser video sites still use Flash, or at least, the Flash alternative is still better in video quality comparative to the HTML5 option. A lot of promo and photography websites (portfolios) also still Flash, so yes, whilst it's dying out, there's still use for it.

 

[Milchjon]

How does WP handle notifications? Do they have a pull down menu for it too?

It uses "toast" notifications, a little bar that pops up at the top of your screen, much like on Android, I think.
There's no notification center (pull down menu), all of that is handled with live tiles (either with counters or by actually showing you the message).
The lack of a real notification center is one of the minor annoyances with WP, though. You sometimes end up having to scroll up and down the start screen to find out which app caused your phone to vibrate in your pocket.

 

[kinggroin]

It uses "toast" notifications, a little bar that pops up at the top of your screen, much like on Android, I think.
There's no notification center (pull down menu), all of that is handled with live tiles (either with counters or by actually showing you the message).
The lack of a real notification center is one of the minor annoyances with WP, though. You sometimes end up having to scroll up and down the start screen to find out which app caused your phone to vibrate in your pocket.

Sounds like pre ios 5 iPhone days. That would be a rather large annoyance for me personally.

 

[maeh2k]

How does WP handle notifications? Do they have a pull down menu for it too?

No.

It displays immediate notifications for a couple of seconds. Those can be tapped. Otherwise they are gone.

It uses the tiles on the start screen to display new information. It will display a number for things like new calls, messages, emails. For other tiles (or larger tiles) it can display more information such as whole text messages.
So for the most important tiles that you always see when you look at the start screen, you can easily see notifications.

And it offers notifications on the lock screen. In Windows Phone 8 you can choose up to 5 apps that can do lockscreen notifications (e.g. calls, messages, mails). They display a small icon with a number next to it.


A lot of Windows Phone users would like to see more notification functionality, but for now that's unlikely to come anytime soon. Windows 8 handles notifications the same way.

For me it works really well. I can easily see all the notifications I care about and I don't have to manage a stack of notifications in a notification manager. Makes the UE less complex, too.
However, I'd be okay with Android-style notifications, too.

 

[Blackhead]

Edit: beat

 

[Nicktendo86]

Sounds like pre ios 5 iPhone days. That would be a rather large annoyance for me personally.

Makes you realise how elegant the android solution is. I'm sure they could come up with something good for wp, it looks like such an impressive os I can't belelieve the notifications won't be fixed at some point.

 

[Milchjon]

Sounds like pre ios 5 iPhone days. That would be a rather large annoyance for me personally.

Well, some of it is alleviated by the larger flexibility of live tiles compared to the red dots with numbers. And the lock screen on WP8 can show notifications of a lot of (third party) apps too, which improves the situation slightly.

But yeah, us WP users are still holding out hope that it's one of the un-announced features of WP8 ;-)

Makes you realise how elegant the android solution is. I'm sure they could come up with something good for wp, it looks like such an impressive os I can't belelieve the notifications won't be fixed at some point.

I actually think that's by design. MS argues that it goes against the philosophy of live tiles.
Obviously users disagree slightly. A swipe to the left to the left of the homescreen to mirror the app list on the right would probably be superior.

 

[soundahfekz]

I'm done with life if there's an xperia nexus coming out.

To get away from Samsungs cheap feeling phones would be amazing!

 

[Souldriver]

As others have said you can disable them in the ICS but I know they're still kinda there. I like stuff like Life contacts, timescape widget and such. What Xperia do you have? If you've got S then you'll probably will be soon able to get vanilla Android without even rooting your phone.

Im on an xperia ray as i type this. With ICS btw. Im running apex launcher so im able to hide all the unnecessary icons from sony. But it still annoys me theyre on my phone since they take up precious space which is scarce in a ray. Plus i like my electronic devices orderly and clean anyway.

What do you guys mean by disabling the apps?

 

[Ghost]

In theory live tiles are notification centres, they receive push data and can display anything you want. Problem is that developers really haven't exploited them very well. Probably because you actually need to push the toast pop-up and the tile separately, it's a bit of a pain in the ass.


But adding a notification centre to WP would just be confusing really, it just needs more apps from devs who are really thinking about the platform.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

What do you guys mean by disabling the apps?

Just pull the app to the homescreen but instead of placing it on the screen drag it do the top where it says "App info". there you can disable it on vanilla ICS.

 

[Mario007]

Im on an xperia ray as i type this. With ICS btw. Im running apex launcher so im able to hide all the unnecessary icons from sony. But it still annoys me theyre on my phone since they take up precious space which is scarce in a ray. Plus i like my electronic devices orderly and clean anyway.

What do you guys mean by disabling the apps?

When you install the ICS on the 2011 Xperia device there should be a launcher that allows you to disable the apps and software you don't want (like facebook inside xperia). Also if you go the 'Manage Apps' menu, you can tap on the app and if it is a software that's baked in to the software you can press 'Disable' where the usual 'Uninstall' icon would be.

 

[Nicktendo86]

Im on an xperia ray as i type this. With ICS btw. Im running apex launcher so im able to hide all the unnecessary icons from sony. But it still annoys me theyre on my phone since they take up precious space which is scarce in a ray. Plus i like my electronic devices orderly and clean anyway.

What do you guys mean by disabling the apps?

Go to manage apps, there should be an option to disavlr. This takes the app off so you can't see it and it doesn't do anything but it is still on the phone unfortunately.

Edit: beaten.

 

[Nicktendo86]

In theory live tiles are notification centres, they receive push data and can display anything you want. Problem is that developers really haven't exploited them very well. Probably because you actually need to push the toast pop-up and the tile separately, it's a bit of a pain in the ass.


But adding a notification centre to WP would just be confusing really, it just needs more apps from devs who are really thinking about the platform.

There must be a better solution. Perhaps they could put a button on there and when you press it all the tiles with no noitificactions drop away leaving you with all apps that have a notification or something like that?

 

[bedlamite]

IIRC MS has come out and said having a notification center goes against their live tiles UI, so they're not doing it.

WP8 is supposed to improve on lockscreen notifications though. In WP7 only primary phone functions like missed calls, text messages and mail show up on the lockscreen but MS is opening up that space for 3rd party apps in WP8.

 

[Nicktendo86]

I like that lock screen design, very sleek. Only problem is of course you have to remember what apps have notifications when you unlock!

 

[Anton Sugar]

It does look nice, but I'd prefer slightly more rounded edges.

I'm actually a fan of the hard edges. The 820 has rounded edges, though:

 

[maeh2k]

I like that lock screen design, very sleek. Only problem is of course you have to remember what apps have notifications when you unlock!

If you don't place hundreds of tiles on the start screen, all it takes it to scroll all the way down once. The changes in the live tiles are usually easily visible. And I think you can only choose five apps for the lockscreen notifications anyway, so you will surely know which ones those are and can easily check the respective tiles.

I think I don't really need more than five apps for notification, anyways. Calls, messages, mails, skype. The other apps I use don't have any urgent information. At some point I notice their tiles.

 

[flippedb]

I really like Nokia's new phones. I really disliked Android and iOS really doesn't really appeal to me.

I might get the Lumia 920, although I'd be also happy with a Lumia 820.

 

[kharma45]

I really like Nokia's new phones. I really disliked Android and iOS really doesn't really appeal to me.

I might get the Lumia 920, although I'd be also happy with a Lumia 808.

Why the 808? Apart from the camera there is little else to recommend, plus it's running Symbian.

 

[flippedb]

Why the 808? Apart from the camera there is little else to recommend, plus it's running Symbian.

Messed that code up, thanks.

Spoiler

TBH, I like Symbian

 

[maeh2k]

I really like Nokia's new phones. I really disliked Android and iOS really doesn't really appeal to me.

I might get the Lumia 920, although I'd be also happy with a Lumia 820.

If you don't care that much for the camera and for having the best screen, the 820 is probably ideal. It should be significantly cheaper and the replaceable shells are really amazing. With the 820 you don't really need any other protective cases and if you want to change the color at some point, that easily possible.

 

[venne]

Why the 808? Apart from the camera there is little else to recommend, plus it's running Symbian.

I think you answered your own question.