This is the opposite from there last screw up... With SE's first android phone, the Xperia X10, they had the hardware, but lacked the software (dated android 1.6 and it took them ages to update to 2.1)
Now they have it around the other way. The hardware is obsolete before it's even released but the software is up to date. Theres all these other phones appearing with dual core CPU's and far better GPU's. I would have atleast expected the see the Play have a much better GPU. Phones out right now have better GPU's, and you can get emulators for them that run Playstation games.
Samsung's Hummingbird with PowerVR SGX540 is expected to beat Adreno 205 by a small margin, however
And the Hummingbird shipped with the Samsung Galaxy-S six months ago.
We're on to dual-core A9's now, not single-core A8s. Yeah, the GPU half may be "nearly as fast" as six month old mobile GPUs, but the CPU is obsolete now, and the GPU will be obsolete soon after release - if not on day of release.
But, the iOS platform has been very popular for gaming, with slower CPU and GPU, so we'll see how well the PlayStation name does for Sony. That alone could make it a big seller. (See Nintendo Wii for more evidence of lesser specs selling well.)
Here's the thing though - the hardware is powerful enough to be a successful gaming platform, even if it's not the most powerful thing on the block. The Xperia Play is about the gaming content and being a vessel to bring the PlayStation Suite to the market. The SoC isn't a big deal, the hardware is no great shakes, it's probably the most rock solid platform they could find. The gamepad and PSP-phone rep are what will sell the Xperia Play, as well as the more extensive game library.
It's powerful enough to be a successful gaming platform now, but that's not going to last for long, which I think is the point.
Sony may release some great games, but games are being released on Android and IOS, no doubt WinMO7, too so they must be super dooper confident in the quality of their content if they think that people are going to buy into the xperia play, when games will be being written to run on more powerful handsets, which will probably look better.
Yes, visuals aren't everything, but they do play a big part, and anyone wanting to advertise the games available on their phones in the next 6 months will have a pretty open goal left by Sony's hardware decision.
Maybe developers will have the final say, but will they really want to be "constricted" by this hardware for the next couple of years? Maybe they will, and will be happy to draw a line in the sand. It seems that every week there is a more powerful phone out now, and an even more powerful one just around the corner.
My main concern is that if I wanted to play games on the move, and pay a premium to do so, I'll probably buy a 3DS and keep my phone, or even if I am a Sony Playstation loyalist, I might well be tempted to get a PSP2, else the free or cheap games that I can get on my Android phone now are sufficient for the small about of time that I play, and I think that I am probably typical, but maybe I'm not.
What sort of service and content Sony release is going to be a big part of this, and god knows they haven't exactly spent a lot of time on supporting their last/current generation xperia products, so from a glass half full point of view, maybe they've got something good planned.
it just goes to show how air-headed some AT readers are when just focused on raw power. this is a mobile device, it must be power efficient, and the 205 should offer graphic performance on par with the PSP Go.
power consumption/performance seem to have been well considered by Sony Ericsson.
As someone mentioned in the N8 thread, smartphones are content delivery mediums, not code execution devices (paraphrase).
We don't spend hours running Linpack on our smartphones. If the phone has the software library and the ability to run it, that's more important than e-penis.
There may be other reasons the particular configuration was chosen - power, heat, packaging, etc. Or it's also possible that the extra time and effort needed to test and certify these devices meant going with a less cutting edge solution. I'd prefer a stable and reliable device to one that was rushed out without adequate testing myself.
Well at the end of the day a lot more people would have been happy if these phones had something like the Tegra 2 SoC in them, or atleast with the Play. Even if most people dont know what a Tegra 2 is they would see a clear improvement visually and it more than easily run PS2 games, even at the higher native res of the phones screen.
nVidia's backing and developer relations could have helped the Play as well, and Google use the SoC as a reference system, so it cant be bad. If it meant delaying these phones by a couple of months or so, then i dont see that as a problem.
The only reason i can see SE using this obsolete tech is to keep the retail cost down for the Play.
Since when performance is the most important property of a phone please? What are we supposed to do with it (cough, multicore)? Do super duper computationaly expensive menu animations? Encode videos?
Well, if you got your X10 through AT&T USA, you are still on Android 1.6 - and probably won't be upgraded - they stopped selling it a little while ago... You can do it yourself though and clean out all those pesky AT&T specific restrictions and bloatware...
That's on par with previous experiences with getting Sony Ericsson phones from AT&T - they introduce them long after they have been globally released, full of restrictions and extra SW you cannot remove, and late or no future upgrades of SW...
When do we get a high end 4.x inch screen with qwerty... Again the large once's where perfectly a very nice qwerty keyboard fits under don't get it but the smaller once <4 do get.
I really hope that somebody makes a 4.x inch none qwerty and then the pro version that is exactly the same except that it has a qwerty keyboard
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B3an - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
This is the opposite from there last screw up... With SE's first android phone, the Xperia X10, they had the hardware, but lacked the software (dated android 1.6 and it took them ages to update to 2.1)Now they have it around the other way. The hardware is obsolete before it's even released but the software is up to date.
Theres all these other phones appearing with dual core CPU's and far better GPU's. I would have atleast expected the see the Play have a much better GPU. Phones out right now have better GPU's, and you can get emulators for them that run Playstation games.
fshaharyar - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
my friend before you comment take a look at this and then decide it SE has an obsolete hardware or not.http://smartphonebenchmarks.com/forum/index.php?/t...
CharonPDX - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Uh, yeah, I'd say it is:http://smartphonebenchmarks.com/forum/index.php?/t...">Link:
And the Hummingbird shipped with the Samsung Galaxy-S six months ago.
We're on to dual-core A9's now, not single-core A8s. Yeah, the GPU half may be "nearly as fast" as six month old mobile GPUs, but the CPU is obsolete now, and the GPU will be obsolete soon after release - if not on day of release.
But, the iOS platform has been very popular for gaming, with slower CPU and GPU, so we'll see how well the PlayStation name does for Sony. That alone could make it a big seller. (See Nintendo Wii for more evidence of lesser specs selling well.)
VivekGowri - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Here's the thing though - the hardware is powerful enough to be a successful gaming platform, even if it's not the most powerful thing on the block. The Xperia Play is about the gaming content and being a vessel to bring the PlayStation Suite to the market. The SoC isn't a big deal, the hardware is no great shakes, it's probably the most rock solid platform they could find. The gamepad and PSP-phone rep are what will sell the Xperia Play, as well as the more extensive game library.Aloonatic - Monday, February 21, 2011 - link
It's powerful enough to be a successful gaming platform now, but that's not going to last for long, which I think is the point.Sony may release some great games, but games are being released on Android and IOS, no doubt WinMO7, too so they must be super dooper confident in the quality of their content if they think that people are going to buy into the xperia play, when games will be being written to run on more powerful handsets, which will probably look better.
Yes, visuals aren't everything, but they do play a big part, and anyone wanting to advertise the games available on their phones in the next 6 months will have a pretty open goal left by Sony's hardware decision.
Maybe developers will have the final say, but will they really want to be "constricted" by this hardware for the next couple of years? Maybe they will, and will be happy to draw a line in the sand. It seems that every week there is a more powerful phone out now, and an even more powerful one just around the corner.
My main concern is that if I wanted to play games on the move, and pay a premium to do so, I'll probably buy a 3DS and keep my phone, or even if I am a Sony Playstation loyalist, I might well be tempted to get a PSP2, else the free or cheap games that I can get on my Android phone now are sufficient for the small about of time that I play, and I think that I am probably typical, but maybe I'm not.
What sort of service and content Sony release is going to be a big part of this, and god knows they haven't exactly spent a lot of time on supporting their last/current generation xperia products, so from a glass half full point of view, maybe they've got something good planned.
EclipsedAurora - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
Man, did u consider power consumption?The Qualcomm MSM8255 is one of the most power saving performance grade single core CPU currently in the market.
Samus - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
it just goes to show how air-headed some AT readers are when just focused on raw power. this is a mobile device, it must be power efficient, and the 205 should offer graphic performance on par with the PSP Go.power consumption/performance seem to have been well considered by Sony Ericsson.
Voldenuit - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
As someone mentioned in the N8 thread, smartphones are content delivery mediums, not code execution devices (paraphrase).We don't spend hours running Linpack on our smartphones. If the phone has the software library and the ability to run it, that's more important than e-penis.
There may be other reasons the particular configuration was chosen - power, heat, packaging, etc. Or it's also possible that the extra time and effort needed to test and certify these devices meant going with a less cutting edge solution. I'd prefer a stable and reliable device to one that was rushed out without adequate testing myself.
B3an - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
Well at the end of the day a lot more people would have been happy if these phones had something like the Tegra 2 SoC in them, or atleast with the Play. Even if most people dont know what a Tegra 2 is they would see a clear improvement visually and it more than easily run PS2 games, even at the higher native res of the phones screen.nVidia's backing and developer relations could have helped the Play as well, and Google use the SoC as a reference system, so it cant be bad. If it meant delaying these phones by a couple of months or so, then i dont see that as a problem.
The only reason i can see SE using this obsolete tech is to keep the retail cost down for the Play.
medi01 - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
Since when performance is the most important property of a phone please?What are we supposed to do with it (cough, multicore)? Do super duper computationaly expensive menu animations? Encode videos?
diverguy - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Well, if you got your X10 through AT&T USA, you are still on Android 1.6 - and probably won't be upgraded - they stopped selling it a little while ago... You can do it yourself though and clean out all those pesky AT&T specific restrictions and bloatware...That's on par with previous experiences with getting Sony Ericsson phones from AT&T - they introduce them long after they have been globally released, full of restrictions and extra SW you cannot remove, and late or no future upgrades of SW...
jcompagner - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
When do we get a high end 4.x inch screen with qwerty...Again the large once's where perfectly a very nice qwerty keyboard fits under don't get it but the smaller once <4 do get.
I really hope that somebody makes a 4.x inch none qwerty and then the pro version that is exactly the same except that it has a qwerty keyboard
VivekGowri - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Wait for the QWERTY version of the Galaxy S II (assuming there is one, I don't see why there wouldn't be after the Epic 4G did pretty well for them).The problem with a 4.x" phone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard is that it makes the phone really huge.
Belard - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
Throw in an AMOLED screen... and I'd be sold on these phones over the Galaxy S phones in a heart beat.R3MF - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
but a qHD 960x540 screen would have been better, as would a dual-core qualcom with the adreno 220.meike - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
www onseeking comdsafcx4544 - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
Man, did u consider power consumption?The Qualcomm MSM8255 is one of the most power saving performance grade single core CPU currently in the market.
(ｐｐｓｈｏｐｐｉｎｇ) - Wednesday, March 2, 2011 - link
welcome