Sony Xperia Tipo Hands-on Preview: Initial Impressions
The Sony Xperia Tipo looks promising at the low-price range of INR 10,000. We went hands-on to let you know the initial impressions we had about this ICS powered device.
Introduction
The Sony Xperia Tipo attempts to do many things in a small package. First – it’s an Android 4.0 phone; then its design and much of multimedia features are inspired from the Walkman series, and last but not least – it costs less than 10k for the single SIM version. We will take a look at the Tipo and check out whether it impresses us upon the first play.
Design and built
The Xperia Tipo has a glossy front with a matte-finish back. The front is dominated by the 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen. The screen is glossy so you might want to keep your fingerprints away. The earpiece resides on the top, and below the screen are the three soft hot-keys – back, home and menu keys. The back has the 3.15MP camera with no LED, and the speaker. The left side of the phone has the microUSB port, the right side has the volume rocker and provision to tie a safety thread, the top has the 3.5mm jack and the power key. There’s nothing at the bottom except the hold to open the back flap. The dual-SIM variant gets a SIM swap hardkey on the right side just below the volume rocker.
The backflap is plastic but feels durable. The Tipo is nowhere near what you would call a thin phone, but the round edges and metallic shine give it a good hold and premium looks at the same time.
Our rating: 7.5/10
Display
The display is glossy although fortunately doesnot attract much fingerprint. The resolution is good but not very sharp. However at this price-range you can’t expect much anyway.
Our rating: 6.5/10
Interface
We are not 100% sure, but this could well be the only phone with ICS under 10,000. You won’t see much of a difference in the UI thanks to the usual Sony skin on top of the stock ICS. You have the usual slide to unlock key as well as the same set of themes. The app dock is customizable and supports folders.
There are the usual Sony apps like application installer, Liveware manager, Play now, TrackID etc. ; and some third party apps namely Astro, Bollywood hungama, cosmicNum, cricbuzz, desimartini, Facebook, jagran Hindi, Neoreader, Officesuite, PVR cinemas, romance with Kareena, romantic Salman, Satyamev Jayate, SRK with love, stumpd etc. You’ll also find the ever-usual Google apps that come with Android.
There will also be a dedicated Walkman app in the retail copy that will look like that on the Walkman series. Although our piece was not a retail edition, we found the interface to be pretty smooth with just a little lag – mainly could be because of the high no. of built-in 3rd party apps if they were running in background.
Our rating: 7/10
Impressions
So our initial impressions were that you will get more than what you’ve paid for, for sure, but don’t expect too much from this sub-10k phone, because it becomes easier to hate these phones when you’ve been playing with a top-notch monster. Remember the Xperia Tipo packs is really multimedia (especially Bollywood!) heavy alongwith the latest platforms.
Tuned in for the full review when it comes to our lab. Till the, enjoy the exclusive pictures below.
Pallab
