Secret War Journal[7 March 2013]
It has been a year since I changed to HTC Wildfire S (I just realised I did not post about this. I am so sorry about this.). Granted, it was a little premature to change a smartphone just a year after you changed phone (it can be really costly). In my defence, I needed to upgrade my mobile plan to include mobile data. I survived without mobile data for so long, so why the urgent need to acquire it? As it turns out, there is no wifi in my workplace (the horror! Hahas!) and I require the use of internet to utilise the application known as 'whatsapp'. My colleagues (and boss) uses whatsapp to disseminate information because of the useful chat function that legacy SMS seems to be lacking in. (Now you know how to kill whatsapp. Hahas!)
Since I was going to upgrade my mobile plan, I could get a new phone as well. However, since the original plan was to replace my phone next year, it was not within my budget to get a high-end phone. It did not make much sense to bring a high-end phone to my workplace anyways, until I am sure that there are no more thief cases in the compound (which is almost impossible to conclude, by the way). As a result, I chose a mid-range smartphone. In doing so, it is unlikely that I would be getting a high-end phone any time soon (judging by the amount of time required to allocate a sufficient amount of cash for it).
Specifications
It has been a year since I changed to HTC Wildfire S (I just realised I did not post about this. I am so sorry about this.). Granted, it was a little premature to change a smartphone just a year after you changed phone (it can be really costly). In my defence, I needed to upgrade my mobile plan to include mobile data. I survived without mobile data for so long, so why the urgent need to acquire it? As it turns out, there is no wifi in my workplace (the horror! Hahas!) and I require the use of internet to utilise the application known as 'whatsapp'. My colleagues (and boss) uses whatsapp to disseminate information because of the useful chat function that legacy SMS seems to be lacking in. (Now you know how to kill whatsapp. Hahas!)
Since I was going to upgrade my mobile plan, I could get a new phone as well. However, since the original plan was to replace my phone next year, it was not within my budget to get a high-end phone. It did not make much sense to bring a high-end phone to my workplace anyways, until I am sure that there are no more thief cases in the compound (which is almost impossible to conclude, by the way). As a result, I chose a mid-range smartphone. In doing so, it is unlikely that I would be getting a high-end phone any time soon (judging by the amount of time required to allocate a sufficient amount of cash for it).
Specifications
 |
| Xperia V |
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| 3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100 | |
| 4G Network | LTE 800 / 850 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 | |
| SIM | Micro-SIM | |
| Announced | 2012, August | |
| Status | Available. Released 2012, December |
| Body | Dimensions | 129 x 65 x 10.7 mm (5.08 x 2.56 x 0.42 in) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 120 g (4.23 oz) | |
| - IP57 certified - dust and water resistant - Water proof up to 1 meter and 30 minutes |
| Display | Type | TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.3 inches (~342 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes, up to 10 fingers | |
| Protection | Scratch-resistant glass | |
| - Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 - Timescape UI |
| Sound | Alert types | Vibration; MP3 ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| Memory | Card slot | microSD, up to 32 GB |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 8 GB, 1 GB RAM |
| Data | GPRS | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| EDGE | Up to 237 kbps | |
| Speed | HSPA+ (DL 42 Mbps/ UL 5.8 Mbps); LTE Cat3, (DL 100 Mbps/ UL 50 Mbps) | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v4.0 with A2DP | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL) |
| Camera | Primary | 13 MP, 4128x3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilization | |
| Video | Yes, 1080p@30fps, video stabilization | |
| Secondary | Yes, VGA |
| Features | OS | Android OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), upgradable to v4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon | |
| CPU | Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait | |
| GPU | Adreno 225 | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass | |
| Messaging | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM, Push Email | |
| Browser | HTML5 | |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS | |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | |
| Colors | Black, White, Pink | |
| - TV-out (via MHL A/V link) - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - Document viewer - Photo viewer/editor - Voice memo/dial - Predictive text input |
| Battery | Li-Ion 1750 mAh battery | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 300 h (2G) / Up to 400 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | Up to 7 h (2G) / Up to 7 h (3G) | |
| Music play | Up to 18 h |
| Misc | SAR US | 0.86 W/kg (head) 0.73 W/kg (body) |
|---|---|---|
| SAR EU | 0.95 W/kg (head) |
| Tests | Display | Contrast ratio: 1.792:1 (sunlight) |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Voice 65dB / Noise 61dB / Ring 66dB | |
| Audio quality | Noise -81.6dB / Crosstalk -81.9dB | |
Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.
First Impression
It was a last minute decision to change the back cover colour from white to black and despite what others may say about it, I did not regret it. The white back gave too great a contrast to the black front, making it look a bit too attention-seeking.
The overall design is sleek. I like how Sony refrained from making the phone looking too rigid. The round corners helped prevent the phone from appearing too squarish.
Performance-wise, the dual-core processor works like a charm on the Xperia V. Tasks are completed promptly and there is minimal waiting time for applications to load. The touchscreen is sufficiently sensitive, I do not have difficulty using the touchscreen.
The phone is also very light, weighing just 120g, sometimes it is hard to remember that you are actually holding something. In addition to that, the size of the phone is akin to a card, the phone is not very thick, measuring 10.7 mm. To me, it gives the phone a very stylish look.
However, the phone is a let-down in battery life. Using the phone, I can almost see the battery level decreasing by the minute. It might be the energy consumption from the usage of LTE network is too high. I would update you guys at a later date if that is the case.
Looking towards the future, I am quite worried about the dust covers for the USB ports and audio jacks. It is the rubber flap design which potentially suffers from wear-and-tear from excessive use. Eventually, it may break or tear off, damaging the overall design of the phone (and possibly it's waterproof feature)
--
In a glance
- Sleek Design
- Fast processor
- Responsive screen
- Lightweight
- Thin
- Poor Battlery Life
- Waterproof
- Dustproof
Full Review [17 April 2013]
It has been a month since I got this phone. While some things such as the specifications never change, a longer period of usage should reveal the phone's true nature.
Firstly, I am happy to note that the weak battery life initially observed was due to the fact that the battery stats file was not calibrated yet. (That is a lesson to all who owns an android phone, if you just updated the OS, flashed a new ROM or reset your phone, your battery stats file would need to be re-calibrated.) In addition to that, I realised Xperia's backlight consumes an enormous amount of battery. Reducing the screen's brightness to around 7% greatly improved the battery life. Now, the phone can survive normal usage (Mobile Data LTE, casual internet surfing, messaging) without requiring re-charging for a day. That is a pretty decent for a modern day smartphone.
However, I do wish to highlight that the drawback from using a screen at low brightness setting would be the glare from the sunlight. Unfortunately, Xperia V does not seem to come with a anti-glare screen. Thus, it suffers from glares from the sunlight when a low brightness setting is used, resulting in a drop in visibility of the screen. This can be rectified with a higher brightness in the display setting, at the cost of battery performance, of course. That said, if you have portable chargers handy at all times, feel free to set at a higher brightness setting to take full advantage of Xperia V's vibrant screen.
Secondly, while the Walkman application is good, it seems to drain a fair bit of my battery. This is interesting because, in general, you would associate listening to music as an activity that would not drink up a large portion of the phone's battery. Even though when compared to more CPU-intensive applications, it does not drain that much battery, it uses up battery significantly faster than its counterparts in other phones.
(This is fixed with the recent patch 9.1.A.1.1.40. Hooray! :)
