Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray ST18i

Visibility.
The clarity is eye popping 300ppi Sony Bravia Engine rocks. For general usage I recommend to set the screen to 50% brightness. 60% in sunlight. 100% if you are sitting up close to a cricket flood light tower. 50% gives the best value for power. There is a brightness half-er widget that reduces the brightness to about 30%. Extremely useful for saving battery. 30% is good enough for diffused home lighting environments.

Responsiveness

The cell is totally snappy and has very little latency. Everything works as expected. At times the capacitive buttons need an extra tapping, but totally acceptable. Pulling the notification area down from the top is a tad difficult at times specially when sleepy :P.

Customizability

5 fixed home screens are totally customizable is an easy drag drop fashion, much like the widgets in Windows. I have divided the 5 screens into Settings, Contacts, Social, Multimedia, Planner screens. Would be happier if the widgets were resizable in some way, and/or more screens could be added

Battery Life

Tested this to the maximum. 3 Hrs of gaming [Raging Thunder 2, Angry Birds Rio and Strip Poker :P ], 3 hrs of Web[WIFI], 45 mins of talking, 1 hr 50 mins of Videos [Yes I watched the whole movie ‘GAMER’ @ office ;)], atleast 1 Hr of Customizing [4 Hrs of sleeping ;)] total around 14 Hrs of what I would call heavy usage, with the meter showing 40% remaining. Screen brightness in that time would be around 40% at an average.

Camera

Have still not used it to the fullest, but some test snaps showed results on the better side though there were grains in extra dark/no light except flash situations[but I guess the camera modes need tweaking in those cases]. HD recording completely untested. Absence of a dedicated camera button hurts though.

Network

Was afraid to use GPRS, being scared of waking in the morning to find my balance drained to Zero. General clarity while talking is great, tested the noise cancellation, works great, did not have to scream like I expected even in moderately noisy environments. However the default network mode, GSM/Preferred WCDMA led to disconnections and poor connectivity. After changing to GSM only no problem faced what so ever.

UI and Web integration

Sony’s TimeScape UI totally rocks. All the notifications right from missed calls to facebook updates all under a smooth scrawling interface is cool. Pinch any of the home screens and all the apps start dancing in a preview mode, give the phone a little shake and they fly around COOL. Facebook is deeply embedded into the UI. The contact screen comes up with the last status update from the contact photos interests. There is an app/widget that informs about the recent media files uploaded by my facebook contacts and can be ordered and viewed in terms of popularity. The music player comes with a like button so that the song I am listening appears on my wall. Can update my status directly from TimeScape Widget. The Sony’s default player is cool and Song Details from Wikipedia/SkyLyrics/Youtub​e can be viewed via infinity button. While calling an option of calling using Skype/Phone comes up directly. And cherry on top is that the screen goes out with a TV switch off animation :D.

Browsing [tested WIFI only]

Is not as good when it comes to the 4” ones, but nothing much difficult. The screen reflows beautifully and 3 types of zooming options [Pinch/double click/ article view] The videos play without lag [Provided the connection is good enough].

Keyboard

Well, I don’t understand what the reviewers were cribbing about the Portrait keyboard being difficult to use. Well I have average sized fingers and don’t have much difficulty using it, but of course the ‘getting used to’ time is a little more than other cells. The landscape keyboard is nice and easy to use, no qualms there.

WhatsUnCool?

No Live headsets in the Indian pack. The home button could be a little softer. Manual option to rearrange icons in the menu. No HotSwap of memory cards, 320 Mb User internal memory [Though I haven’t faced any problems so far], single Led Light instead of a dual camera flash.

Whats Cool?

Display, TimeSpace UI, Widgets for GPRS/Brightness half-er/ Vibration Mode/GPS/WIFI/Airplane mode/Bluetooth ON/OFF, FB Integration, Battery life, Lock/Unlock Animation, Widgets preview/ Responsiveness/ Free cloth [4X2 CM] for cleaning the screen [I have put it in between the battery and back cover for easy access and availability] The semicircular backlit[Green/red/orange/w​hite] home button, Xloud Speakers. Awesome dimensions and Styling was able to turn a few heads around for a long, strong, brand determining stare.

Flipkart delivered as promised and the packaging was cool!

Major Features:
- This phone shares the same camera as the iphone 4s
- Apt size, ideal for females and one travelling through public transport.
- As per android 4.0 specification. (Note: not all android phones are upgradeable to android 4.0 icecream sandwich. Prospective buyers make a note of it before buying any damn android phone)

Likes:
- This phone is as per specification of android 4.0 and is upgradeable to android 4.0
- Excellent camera, The same camera is used in iPhone 4s.
- The touch is sensetive and snappy
- excellent UI. Love the carousel given for logs/images/videos etc.
- Styling very attractive. Weight is least among all smart phones 100 gms. sceen size(3.3") may sound small but it feels good when you hold it.
- Screen resolution is amazing almost 300 dpi best after iphone 4s which id 330 dpi.
- Battery life is cool - almost stays for two days with a decent usage(talk approx 4 hrs, browse 2 hrs, gps navigation 3 hrs, few sms). I used GPS for navigation and was on for almost 3 hrs still the battery charge still very good.
- Notification light - when fully charged it turns green. Looks beautiful while the unit is getting charged.


Dislikes:
- Processor is just 1ghz. I've seen many reviews stating many touch input getting unregistered, the issue is not with touch screen or its sensitivity, it is because of the processor. A dual core would have definitely killed the market of iphone 4s.
- HDMI port is missing. Though it has dlna
- No auto flash for taking pictures
- mediocre headset as per sony standards, though better compared to other brands like samsung/lg/nokia/motorola. Wish SE had given livesound headsets.

verdict: All phone have pros and cons be it iphone 4s, nokia lumia 800 or samsung galaxy s2. So at less than half the price of iphone 4s, it is more value for money and sleeker than iphone 4s.
This phone is ideal for you if,
- You are looking for a decent, classy smart phone with rich features and status symbol, be it your first smartphone.
- You dont like bulky handsets. Remember even iphone is 3.5" and lumia 800 is 3.7" something that can be held in hand and not hands.

Finally i would like to thank flipkart for delivering this phone promptly and with prudent packaging.

thanks,
arun

This is a slim, cool looking smartphone with good features like 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 8.1 MP camera, and front facing camera which is a VGA camera, even then it does the work, though it is only for video chatting and NOT video calling. It has a semi-circular home button which goes red when kept for charging and goes green when it is completely charged. That's something new and cool. Because it's xpected price is 17,000 to 22,000 Rs non-availability of HDMI port can be ignored. Overall it's a good smartphone which everybody would want to have one! :)

The phone is loaded with features...and internal memory is not an issue at all.....and also read in a blog..all Xperia phones released in 2011 will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice cream sandwich..which is the smartphone version of Android tablet OS Honeycomb...so definitely this phone is worth buying...
the price is little on the higher side..but if LiveSound Hi-Fi headset is offered in the box..it will be definitely a god deal...

iam using this phone for the last 20 days,i didn't find any problems with this cool gadget,it's a great looking phone with it's slim design and light weight,and the screen size is not a problem for me with my big hands. while typing in portrait mode i found some problems ,but when u turned to the landscape mode its good to use.
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withsome heavy using the battery lacks for more than a day.the screen is not an oLED one bt with the mobile bravia engine on top of SLCD screen,it's cristal clear and too sharp,it's joy to watch the vedios on the high resolution small screen.

my gprs experience is also too gd,and the vedios playing with out any lag,and with the sony XLOUD effect the sound on loudspeekar is good.

CAMERA clarty is gd ,bt lacking of automatic flash is a little disappointing ,i like the hd vedio recording with its great features like sports mode,beach mode..etc.

call quality is excelent,the noise cancelation mic on the back done a great job,i heared excelent call quality even in high traffic and at functions ,

overall its a great phone with negligable problems,...............if anybody want to buy it then defnetly go for it ,it will defnitly satisfy ur need