Sony Xperia J - A Simple Review

For those of you who are looking at a mid range mobile phone, you might want to check out a mobile phone from Sony which is called Sony Xperia J. From my personal point of view, the Xperia J is very similar to the predecessor, Xperia U but with a twist - lower SAR. Initially I was thinking of giving the Xperia U a try but decided against it later after finding out that the Xperia U had a SAR value of 1.62.

The Xperia J on the other hand is a beautiful mobile phone. The whole chasis is slightly curvy which is similar to the Xperia Arc. While the specifications of the device itself is not too spectacular, the mobile phone is quite value for money. First of all, the mobile device has a 4" capacitive screen which is coated with Corning's Gorilla Glass. Secondly, it is equipped with a 5MP autofocus digital camera at the back with a VGA camera at the front for video calling. The heart of the device is powered by a single core 1Ghz cpu from Qualcomm. It has GPS, bluetooth and many other 2012 mobile phone specification apart from the noticeable lack of NFC. I don't really expect Sony to include NFC for a mobile device to cost around £170 SIM Free which you can obtain from carphonewarehouse and phones4u.

If one were to have a look at the content of the box, he/she will definitely be disappointed. This is quite true as I was disappointed that Sony did not include a headset! The box only came with the mobile device, a battery, three back covers (black/white and pink) and a charger. It also came with some basic instructions but that is all.

Certainly one will notice that the phone is quite light even with the battery fitted. This will be quite handy for someone who does not want to hold on to a brick like the Nokia E90 (It is still one of my favourite phones) as it weights in at a mere 124g. Sony has done well over at the hardware department especially it comes with a big 1500mAh battery!

While I don't have any problems with the hardware department, the software department of the Xperia J is another matter. I have one major issue with the Xperia J which is the sheer sluggishness while trying to execute a command by pressing on the screen. I'm surprised at the performance of the Xperia J which the device came pre-installed with Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4) which is pretty slow.

Apart from the sluggishness while operating the mobile device, there is a limitation on how many programmes can a user install on the Xperia J due to the 2GB limitation on the OS itself. It will useful if someone could overcome that limitation by rooting the Xperia J and then install a custom ROM to bypass the limitation. Unless the user is technologically savvy, it will be quite a challenge for him/her to do the above.

Overall, if you are looking for a simple smartphone, the Xperia J will be for you. However, if you are an avid smartphone user, you might be disappointed with the menu speed especially with the constant lag while trying to execute a command. On the other hand, you might want to try out the Nokia Lumia 800 instead for £150 SIM Free which I will conduct a simple review very soon.

Update:
02/02/2013 - Personally, I am still disappointed as there is no updates to the Android OS. I feel that Sony should be able to provide a better solution to its software development as the menu does not feel smooth as compared to a Samsung Galaxy Ace II. What a shame!