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Sony Xperia Sola in the flesh, first impressions

Launched in the Philippines around the 3rd week of April along with the Xperia S, P and U, the Sony Xperia Sola deviated from the line-up and introduced some nifty features we’ve only seen on this smartphone.

The “Floating Touch” feature on the Xperia Sola allows you to hover your finger on the screen when using the browser (also acts as a cursor when you hover over links on a web page).

We’ve tried this feature and it works but really could not figure the importance or practical use until we discovered it will still work even if you’re using gloves or touching the screen with cloth.

Short of calling it magic, Sony promises to expand this feature to other apps in the future.

Since the Sola came with built-in NFC, there were NFC tags included in the box that allows you to customized commands when you touch it with the handset.

The handset design and construction closely resembles the Xperia S, P, U line-up but with some minor design changes.

It’s noticeably thinner with a more boxy figure and less curved back panel. The semi-translucent border at the bottom is gone.

The display panel is raised a few millimeters above the body leaving a small depressed surface at the bottom end.

The normal Gingerbread soft bottoms are situated at the bottom of the black bezel.

There’s also a dedicated camera button on the side, along with the volume rocker and the micro-USB port along the right side.

The hardware configuration of the Sola is pretty close to the Xperia U.

Sony Xperia Sola specs:
3.7-inch display @ 480×854 pixels, 265 ppi
NovaThor U8500 1.0GHz dual-core
512MB RAM
8GB internal storage (5GB usable)
up to 32GB via microSD card
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA< WIFI hotspot Bluetooth 2.1 w/ EDR NFC 5MP rear autofocus camera with LED flash 720p video recording FM radio tuner GPS with aGPS support Android 2.3 Gingerbread 1320mAH Li-Ion battery 116 x 59 x 9.9mm 107 grams What is sorely missing is the front-facing camera and though it's now on Gingerbread, Sony promises an ICS update later this year.

The Xperia Sola has a suggested retail price of Php16,990 but the unit we got from Widget City was selling for just Php15,800 (see here).

Watch out for our full review of the Sony Xperia Sola in a week or two.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

11 Responses

  1. Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

    Paano yung battery nito if namatay? Paano siya papalitan? :O

  2. Avatar for Monj Monj says:

    Safe ba bumili ng gadget sa widgetcity? Nabiktima na kasi ako minsan sa sulit eh.

  3. Avatar for Greg Greg says:

    Beautiful design! Reminds me of the monolithic design of their Bravia LCD tv. Art purists would certainly appreciate this clean industrial look. Downside is the 512mb memory. ICS is optimized for 1gb memory so the performance might be affected when you upgrade.

  4. Avatar for Bip Bip says:

    Not interested at all.

  5. Avatar for el toro bumingo el toro bumingo says:

    I hope I could get a Sony Experia soon.

  6. Avatar for steelicon steelicon says:

    Sony Mobile Xperia ION LT28i.

  7. Avatar for E E says:

    Sony kelangan niyo na mag isip ng magandang design… lalong pumanget.

    • Avatar for Lover. Lover. says:

      LoL then what do you call the design of Samsung S3? Sobrang sobrang panget?

      I think sony has the best phone designs. Esp their new lineup.

    • Avatar for E E says:

      @Lover – I agree, di rin maganda design ng samsung lalo na ang S2 but I can say na nag improve ng kahit kapiranggot and design ng S3 kesa sa S2… For Sony, I like their SE Xperia design pero itong Sony Xeperia pumanget. Mas ok design ng HTC One X and Nokia Lumia 800 and 900…

  8. Avatar for Noir Noir says:

    Noticed that this is the only Sony Phone with a SD Card Slot….

    Kindly check the battery Life on the unit since it has a Dual COre on a 1320 Battery which I consider to be small

  9. Avatar for seraphica seraphica says:

    ,i also want this but.. I might buy the ray after two weeks..

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