Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo review: More than a sequel

Introduction

It’s a sequel. Same cast and the same story but with a new lead and a new director. Shot in HD. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo is to settle some unfinished business at the box office. A year stands between the Vivaz and the Neo and Android does make all the difference.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo official photos

The XPERIA Neo is part of Sony Ericsson’s new droid lineup and takes advantage of all the new features – the LED-backlit Reality display with Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine, an 8 megapixel Exmor R camera sensor, 720p video with continuous autofocus and the latest Android – 2.3 Gingerbread.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 3.7" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of FWVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixels) on Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine
• Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
• 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
• 512 MB RAM
• 8 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geotagging
• 720p video @ 30fps, continuous autofocus
• Front facing VGA camera, video calls
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• microSD slot (32GB supported, 8GB card included)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Voice dialing
• Adobe Flash 10.2 support
• microHDMI port

Main disadvantages

• Display has poor viewing angles
• The competition has dual-core CPUs, 1080p video
• No smart dialing
• Loudspeaker has below average performance
• No DivX/XviD support
• Memory card slot under the battery cover

The Neo benefits from new technology but it does well to focus on the important stuff: imaging. It’s not the 3.7 touchscreen that makes this phone, nor is it the 1 GHz CPU or the latest Android Gingerbread. And hey, these are all fine features to have. But in the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo the HD-enabled cameraphone comes before the all-round droid smartphone.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo at ours

The short list of downsides gives away a well-focused device. The XPERIA Neo is spared the predicament of a flagship too. While the Arc might be unsettled by the new dual-core beasts – the Neo doesn’t need top specs to be good at its main job. The previous generation hardware is less of a disadvantage.

Having met the Neo, this review doesn’t look as such a tough challenge. All it needs to do is cement the good impression it already made. Such kind of safety can be deceptive though. Let’s hope the Neo didn’t let its muscles soften. You’re welcome to follow us as we try to find out.