topic Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not? in Other/General

Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

LukaLuxXD — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:55:12 GMT

Please answer i'm not sure if I should buy the phone

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

androidmaster — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:05:11 GMT

Xperia Sp is the best phone in the price tag. It is about 22,500. But is has a problem, frankly speak, it hangs a lot of times even if you are playing games.

So think about it at the time of buying.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

Amey — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:46:35 GMT

Only if you're fond of illumination bar. It is the coolest thing which you won't get on any other phone. Otherwise go for ZR or any other model. SP got lots of bugs and problems.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

LukaLuxXD — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 12:48:04 GMT

actually I can't buy Xperia ZR because it's not coming to Croatia 😕

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

sameer2 — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 16:37:14 GMT

Do not buy....not worth !I sufferred after spending 22k..service also **bleep**!!

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

prometej-zg — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 18:56:34 GMT

Here is a long answer to this question.

If you bought it like me, because you love Sony products and was using some of their older models from Sony (Ericsson), then you should ask yourself what do you expect from this model or any other? What do you intend to use it for? Texting, calling, gaming, etc...

For one thing it's a great phone from aspect of:

- Great hardware (for mid-to-higher end phone)

- Great battery - If you are a mid-heavy user 1 day is no issue, if not then 3-4 days with STAMINA ON is feasible.

- Enough RAM (1GB) for normal everyday usage

- (Not too) big 720p screen with Bravia Engine (nice!) solid quality and solid outdoor visibility (solid if you are not perfectionist that want to see detailed Milky way picture at 178 degrees in a 4.7" instead of using telescope)

- LTE support (which in Croatia is still more a commercial gimmck than real service - I live in Zagreb btw.)

- Sturdy build aluminium frame (which have to say is prone to damage if dropped - trust me, I know :-()

- LED notification light (Nice feature, but ... read further my post or read some forum posts)

- GPS / GLONASS support - (which works good!)

The not so good aspects of:

- Very Basic front camera (VGA only - so no longh night Skype talking with dearest - enough said)

- Main camera (is not what would you expect from a Sony 8Mpix shooter - and this is my only real complaint. It's not bad but I've expected more from it)

EDIT: see my profile for picture samples (after they are approved by admins)

- Heavy - (well it is, but I've emptied my pocket to leverage this weight difference 🙂

- Wi-Fi has very short range - max 1-2 walls (If you are like me and live in a bigger apartment - move to something smaller untill this is solved by Sony and if it can be solved 🙂

- In awaiting of better firmware (hopfully Android 4.3), latest versions have some issues which also can be seen on this forum.

- Potentialy small internal storage 8GB, and no easy way to install apps to SD Card (which for me is not really issue, because I'm very curious to whom should I sell my laptop if this should become my main computer

So... shoud you by this phone? Well this is the question that I could answerd different than I just did, but it's very hard to say to someone YES or NO as an definite and only anwser. I gave you my pros and cons, and yours is to decide.

I can say it from my point of view... Yes it has its bad sides, yes it has its good sides, but I would not change it for nothing!

(And I was balancing between Galaxy S4, Xperia Z and this phone!) There is just something special about this phone that I can't described... Wasn't so excited about any phone since the arrival of an old Sony Ericsson W800i and that is very long time 😉

Not sure if this helps you, but at least now you have another user opinion.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

LukaLuxXD — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:13:15 GMT

wow.. thanks, now I'm going to buy it

I believe SP is awesome.
btw. you could have speaked Croatian lol xD

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

prometej-zg — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:36:46 GMT

Btw... do look at other forum posts, because many users don't share my opinion about this phone, at least as I can see their opinion is based on problems caused mainly by firmware problems (which doubtless exist!), but which I don't see as something nonsolvable by people at Sony.

From this perspective decision could be duable... But as an user (and software developer) I understand how hard is to please everyone

I did mention some potential phones flaws, but generally speaking from my perspective this is great phone. If you can, sure do try phone before you make a final decision about buying it. Different people certainly have different perspectives of product satisfaction.

P.S. Yes, I could write this in Croatian if this would be Croatian forum 🙂

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

Maney — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 20:56:39 GMT

Yes man .... buy this phone, it's awesome !!!

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

agustapa — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:19:57 GMT

I bought Xperia SP 2 months ago. And now I am having problem with this phone. The Screen is not responding. I cannot unlock my phone. I don't know how to restart it, since the battery cannot be opened. My another problem with Xperia Sp is very difficult to connect to a Wifi network, especially when the signal is not that strong. Very Not recommended.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

prometej-zg — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 18:43:10 GMT

Did you try to turn on glove mode and try if sensitivity of the screen changes?

About problems with restarting, there is a way to turn off the phone when it freezes.
See this post Xperia SP frozen

Wi-Fi problem is not so easy to solve, for better solution we'll have to wait for people at Sony to solve it.

But one thing I did try, and that was to change my Wi-Fi settings. Was searching for better signal reception, and found that i got better reception when changing default Wi-Fi channel on my router and setting network mode from mixed 802.11b/g to just 802.11g.
For some reason, no one of my neighbours didn't change their "most popular" default values of their Wi-Fi channels so most of traffic in my building is on the same network frequency on channels 6 and 11. So I've changed my Wi-Fi to channel 1 (which is in +/-5 channel range, meaning less interference), and gain some "free air". For now is holding quite well, much less problems with network disconnection.
Maybe you can find some "free air" in your Wi-Fi space.

If you wan't to try; I was using android app Wifi Analyzer on my XSP and inSSIDer app on my laptop.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

asifa — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 06:03:55 GMT

Would strongly recommend to not to buy this phone. I am using this phone for past 8 months and have little to tell you abou it. It fares pretty average in battery life and has a buggy code. Now my speaker is not working.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

stealthfighter — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 10:14:55 GMT

Don't buy this phone. The bugs can render some of the basic functionalities annoyingly useless. Wifi and walkman glitch in particular. Worse, the software updates are constantly adding new bugs. Sony really took for granted a great hardware.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

McFazzler — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 14:56:26 GMT

Regarding the restart - if you lift the back cover off, there is a tiny hold in the back with the word "OFF" written by it - if you put a pen in there, it restarts it. There is also an option in the settings somewhere that restricts the phone from connecting to a WiFi network if the signal is weak. It might be that box is selected.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

IanKnox — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 17:54:52 GMT

I would not recommend this phone purely because the Bluetooth handsfree volume during call is so very low and it is unusable. Many people have had the same problem and we do not seem to be getting any help from Sony.

There are lots of other issues reported on this forum but I not had any of those myself.

If you want a phone with usable Bluetooth handsfree and support from the manufacturer then this is not the phone to get. It is a real shame as I think it is a nice looking phone.

Re: Should i buy Sony Xperia SP or not?

rogermontane — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 06:22:01 GMT

i don't know if you have buy the phone but my opinion is definitely no. wifi, camera and screen bugs, i dont know whick other bug can the sp have.