Sony Xperia S Review

OP
randomuser111

randomuser111

Technomancer
^
I know. Wish it just a tiny bit louder though. But having listened for quite a long time now, I feel the volume is more than adequate and I am very easily lost in the music ;)

Anyways will post a sound quality shootout tomorrow between Sony Xperia S, Sony Walkman A series and Sony Walkman S series. That should help RedDragon too I guess.

And by the end of the month will update my review after the ICS update. Lots of exciting stuff on the way with ICS. Improved audio, walkman player, amazing new gallery app, much better battery life and improved performance and super smooth UI.

Xperia S audio quality review vs Sony Walkman

Finally done comparing my Xperia S with my Sony Walkman players :wink:
To be frank, when I first bought the Xperia S I didn't plan to transfer any songs to it as I knew the sound quality would not please me and I would continue to use my Walkman.

After getting it though, I did transfer a few songs to it just to check the audio quality. My first impressions were quite positive but I wasn't blown away to be frank. The volume was quite low compared to my Walkman and the bass was a little over powering on flat EQ.

Now its almost close to a month now since Ive had the S, and in the past 1 month I have listened to my Walkman for only 2 hours at max.

Of course the XS doesn't sound as good as my walkman but it still isn't bad at all and is excellent for a smartphone.

Let me start with the comparo without writing anything more which you are probably not interested to read anyway.

Sony Xperia S vs Sony Walkman A/S Flat EQ

With a flat EQ, the Xperia S does not sound significantly worse than the Walkman. The low frequencies are a tad bit more pronounced on the XS compared to Walkman and the highs are a little bright as well.

Overall presentation is good and I would even say the XS sounds more "enjoyable" than the Walkman with flat EQ.

Xperia S - 7.5/10
Walkman - 8/10

Sony Xperia S vs Sony Walkman A/S Custom EQ

With custom EQ on both, the difference between the two becomes apparent instantly. The bass is much tighter and powerful on the Walkman devices compared to Xperia S. XS is also much less loud ( XS max volume is equal to Volume level 19/30 on the Walkman devices)

The highs and mids are also much better on Walkman and the Xperia S seems more distant whereas the Walkman sound is more "in your ear" in a good way. Soundstage is also wider on the Walkmans by quite some margin.

Vocals are also nowhere as clear. Though I would say separation is quite good on the Xperia S, almost close to the Walkman devices.

Reading this you might be thinking the Xperia S is a crappy MP3 player, but no it isn't. It's a very good music player, just not in the same league as a Sony Walkman.

One good thing about the XS is that the audio quality grows on you the more you listen to it.

And it sounds very "fun" and "enjoyable".

One thing that I have to mention is the lack of hiss on the Xperia S. It has virtually no hiss, both of my Walkmans do have a slight hiss though. So in this respect the XS beats the Walkmans ;)

Overall sound quality rating

Sony Xperia S 6.5/10 ( Relative to other phones 9/10)
Sony Walkman S 8.5/10
Sony Walkman A 9/10

Do keep in mind though the 6.5 score is relative to the Walkman devices, which have the best sound quality among all MP3 players except a few others from Cowon and some niche players. So compared to an Apple Ipod, the Xperia S is excellent and has almost as good sound quality.


Also there are mods available now for the Xperia S that improve the already excellent sound quality. The mods increase the volume and also improve the sound quality across the board, with tighter bass.

NOTE: You would need to unlock your bootloader and use a custom ROM to use the mods.
 
OP
randomuser111

randomuser111

Technomancer
Anybody curious what Xperia S can manage when overclocked ;) Mind you, this is still with Gingerbread. Come ICS the scores would go even higher.

Quadrant
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Antutu - Higher than Htc One S
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Vellamo - Higher than Asus Transformer Prime Tegra 3 Tablet
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Passmark Performance benchmark - Higher than GS3, Htc One X, and Asus transformer prime
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Nenamark 2 - One X gets 47.5, with ICS Xperia S should manage 46-47
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Browsermark - Close to what One X scores WITH Ics !!
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LinPack Single and Multithread - Very close to One X score in multi threaded, higher than One X in Single threaded
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Peacekeeper HTML5 benchmark test - much higher than One X even with Gingerbread, close to Apple Ipad 2nd/3rd Gen
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RON28

Cyborg Agent
nice review, can you just post the original high quality pics, just want to see the pics in high resolution :D you know I LOVE SONY :razz:
 

RON28

Cyborg Agent
^^thanks a lot :D seriously no one can beat sony's quality of camera, music, and clarity of screen :hyper:
 
OP
randomuser111

randomuser111

Technomancer
^

Speaking of music, I installed Beats Mod 3.0 for Xperia and RockBox today, and I have to really change the ratings now that I had given to the XS in my earlier post comparing SQ vs Walkman. The volume is MUCH louder now, the bass now has a lot of body and the highs have also improved so much so that I wouldn't mind living without the Walkman now.

Very impressed with the SQ now. So for those looking for a smartphone with SQ to replace your ipod/ipod touch or other similar players should seriously consider it. ;)
 
OP
randomuser111

randomuser111

Technomancer
Xperia S ICS 4.04

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Will post more later if anyone here wants me to. :)

Overall feels very fluid and snappy. Benchmark scores are also slightly higher than earlier. Loving the face unlock and Walkman/Films/Album apps :D
 

Kalyan

Journeyman
^

Speaking of music, I installed Beats Mod 3.0 for Xperia and RockBox today, and I have to really change the ratings now that I had given to the XS in my earlier post comparing SQ vs Walkman. The volume is MUCH louder now, the bass now has a lot of body and the highs have also improved so much so that I wouldn't mind living without the Walkman now.

Very impressed with the SQ now. So for those looking for a smartphone with SQ to replace your ipod/ipod touch or other similar players should seriously consider it. ;)

Can you please tell what this "Beats Mod 3.0" is and where can I find it and install? Will this be compatible with Xperia Sola? Is it a ROM?
 
OP
randomuser111

randomuser111

Technomancer
Can you please tell what this "Beats Mod 3.0" is and where can I find it and install? Will this be compatible with Xperia Sola? Is it a ROM?

Yes it works on Sola as well. Its just a flashable mod. Go to Xperia S themes and apps forum on XDA. You will find beatsmod 3.0 there.
 

amjath

Human Spambot
Nice review

The design is in one word - GORGEOUS !. The transparent bar at the bottom gives it a unique look

I like the transparent bar too, good concept by placing those capacitive keys on top, but does it glow???
 
OP
randomuser111

randomuser111

Technomancer
Been a long time since I updated this review. Will post a few updates over the next few days but first a shootout between the cheapest Quad Core phone LG Optimus 4X HD and Xperia S. :p

Note:- I took figures for the LG Optimus 4X HD from Anandtech

1. GL Benchmark 2.5 Egypt HD (Offscreen 1080p)

LG Optimus 4X HD - 8.7 fps
Sony Xperia S - 8.4 fps

2. GL Benchmark Classic (Offscreen 1080p)

LG Optimus 4X HD - 34 fps
Sony Xperia S - 21 fps

3. Linpack Single Threaded

LG Optimus 4X HD -48.665
Sony Xperia S - 52.892

4. Linpack Multi Threaded

LG Optimus 4X HD - 115.222
Sony Xperia S - 89.786

5. Sunspider Javascript 0.9.1

LG Optimus 4X HD - 2209.2
Sony Xperia S - 1548.9

6. Basemark ES 2.0 V1 Taiji

LG Optimus 4X HD - 30.89 fps
Sony Xperia S - 21.37 fps



7. Vellamo

LG Optimus 4X HD - 1539
Sony Xperia S - 1774

8. BrowserMark

LG Optimus 4X HD - 91918
Sony Xperia S - 108726

The above benchmarks are what anandtech uses in its smartphone reviews and I have not selectively chosen benchmarks to benefit the XS. Two more benchmarks are used by Anandtech - Basemark ES Hoverjet and Basemark OS but I haven't included these two as these two benchmarks are not available to the public.

So as you can see, 4 cores doesn't always mean better than 2. The Xperia S won in 4 out the 8 benchmarks here and Optimus 4X won in 4 as well.

Anyway, hope it clears some confusion that some people have about the Xperia S and those who think that it lacks power :D
 
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dashing.sujay

Moving
Staff member
I had a hands on a friend's Xperia S. Everything was good but I have to say that the speaker is crap enough to ditch the phone (at least for me). I mean, c'mon Sony, at ~28k, the speaker sounds like shite. At least give some volume. :|
 

hawx

Broken In
guys any problem with the xperia s,i hear from friend of random call dropping and call reception not of good quality plus random hangs...or its it just with one off case...cause i have tried the phone and faced no problem what so ever,but now after hearing it i'm confused on whether to advice people to buy it or not...
 
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