Sony Xperia ion Really Is Available from AT&T Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

AT&T's latest smartphone with 4G LTE is the Sony Xperia ion. This Android-based device also has a very high-res camera a large display, and a comparatively low price, but it's somewhat hidden on AT&T's web site.

Read the full content of this Article: Sony Xperia ion Really Is Available from AT&T

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[Adama D. Brown]

Considering the features, that is a pretty nice price point.

[Mitlov]

Gingerbread? Really?

And several reviews have commented that the buttons at the bottom are poorly executed in multiple respects.

I'd love to see a Sony resurgence--I own a Vaio and PS2--but I don't see devices like this making that happen.

[Adama D. Brown]

With over the air updates, I would say that Gingerbread isn't really that big a deal, at least not if you're bargain hunting for an HD screen and features for less than bleeding edge price.

[weegie]

IMO, gingerbread to ICS isn't a big deal anyway, and it's been said it will get that update, my SII is laggier now than it's ever been and it wasn't to start with post ICS update....dunno what's going on there.
This Sony is pretty nice imo, it just doesn't have the very latest chip and lacks ICS out of the box, nice aluminium body, nice screen, nice camera....I hadn't heard about the buttons though, reviewers aren't immune to trends either, currently
if something doesn't have Samsung stamped on it, I get the feeling it's judged to be a downside just for that.

[Mitlov]

I hadn't heard about the buttons though

The Verge said:

The physical buttons are small but easy to find and press, but the same can't be said of the soft buttons on the front. Unfortunately, the touch targets for the menu, home, back, and search buttons are very small, situated between small horizontal lights and the screen. This makes for very small targets and, what's worse, you need to tap above the smal horizontal lights instead of directly on them. The buttons are also not backlit, so you will need to memorize their positions to hit them in the dark.

Ars Technica said:

The way the soft buttons respond to human touch is strange, unlike any Android phone I've ever used–that is, they seem unresponsive. When I first used the phone at CES, I guessed in my hands-on that I was just hitting them on the wrong spot, and should have been aiming for the lights, not the icons. As I used the phone more I found the problem wasn't where I was tapping, but how. The Xperia Ion needs, not taps, but real presses, where your finger gets a good square centimeter of contact for maybe a quarter of a second.

This seems like an picky distinction, but it really did have an effect on my experience–I would tap, tap, tap, still nothing, tap the light, tap the icon, tap the light, and then finally remember to press, and the phone would do as I commanded. Being that I've never experienced this before, I assume it's a software tweak from Sony, perhaps to mitigate the effect of accidental brushes against the buttons. But again in my experience, that's never been an issue, so it's solving a problem that doesn't need solving. At best, this will take a practiced user of any other smartphone a bit of time to get used to.

They do sound a bit finnicky--it's not something I normally see mentioned in reviews.

if something doesn't have Samsung stamped on it, I get the feeling it's judged to be a downside just for that.

I wouldn't agree with that. The HTC One X got no shortage of glowing reviews.

[weegie]

Not as glowing as Mr crappy screen though ;-)

Shame about the buttons then, I have similar problems with the SII's capacitive buttons not registering, I wonder if it's a balancing act of sensitivity against accidental brushes done on purpose.

[Drillbit]

Its only a matter of time the Xperia Ion gets ICS, though that is dependent on AT&T's approval. For the international Ions, they probably get it as soon as the current round for the Xperia S sweeps around the world. Yes, the ICS updates for the Xperia S has already begun.