The Playstation phone, 'Xperia Play' by Sony Ericsson

Between the 14th and 17th of february, the Mobile World Congress 2011 was held in Barcelona. It is one of the largest  conventions in the area of mobile telecommunication technologies. At this congress, the Xperia Play, by Sony Ericsson, was announced.

With the Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson hopes to regain lost terrain in the worldwide telephony market. The Xperia Play was developed to cover the two fastest growing segments in the electronics industry: gaming and Android smartphones. The controls were taken off the screen to provide a distinct gaming experience. According to the development team this is much more comfortable, since it leaves more of the screen available for the actual game.

Features of the Xperia Play

• Operates on Android 2.3, the latest version
• Available in black and white
• Comes with a 5.1 megapixel camera
• A multi-touch screen of well over 4 inches
• Slider gamepad with the familiar PlayStation buttons
• Two analogue touchpads and shoulder buttons.
  

Games

The Xperia Play is PlayStation certified and comes with the Playstation Pocket Android app. This app contains games that are suitable for the Xperia Play, amongst which several old PS1-games.

The Xperia Play doesnt use UMD-discs, so it doesn't have a UMD-slot. Users can download new games from the Android Market, but they can also download through the Playstation Suite, which allows access to Playstation-I games. A downside is that games already owned by the users must be bought again for the Xperia Play.

The game studios that brought you 'Need for Speed', 'The Sims' and 'FIFA' have worked hard to make their games suitable for the Xperia Play.

Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro

Sony Ericsson also announced the Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro at the congress.

The Xperia Neo and the Xperia Pro are smartphones equipped with a camera which can take pictures with a resolution up to a whopping eight megapixels. These phones come with the same Bravia Engine Technology Sony uses in its television line. This allows for a much sharper and clearer display, significantly increasing the user's photo-, video and gaming experience. The Xperia Neo and the Xperia Pro are much alike. The Pro, however, is less slim, because of the slide-out keyboard. 

The Xperia Play and the Xperia Neo will be available in stores by March. The Play will cost about $700 and the Neo will be about $470. The Xperia Pro won't be available just yet. It is expected in June.

Sources: www.todio.nl