Sony Xperia S – Goodbye Sony Ericsson

This guest post was written by Simon from Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website.

Recently Sony and Ericsson announced that they would be ending their ten year partnership in the mobile phone industry. The two companies had originally joined forces in 2001 after they were both experiencing difficulties in the industry – Sony had very little market share and Ericsson had seen their overall market share drop due to problems with suppliers.

The partnership worked well for many years, relying on the two companies’ expertise in both the world of phones and electronic devices. Sony Ericsson were the first manufacturers to produce phones that included cameras, music and video playback capabilities, originally seen as gimmicks but now considered essential features of even the most basic handsets.

Unfortunately the partnership took a turn for the worse in 2007 when Apple unveiled the groundbreaking iPhone. Like Motorola, Sony Ericsson were one of the key players that failed to adapt quickly to the change in consumer demand, and rival Asian firms,HTC and Samsung rose to prominence at their expense. Sony Ericsson had enjoyed some success in recent years, with their Xperia line of Android phones, but not to the level that each partner would have liked.

Sony purchased the remaining 50% share of Sony Ericsson owned by Ericsson back in October, resulting in the Japanese giant having full control over its smartphone design and production. The first handset to be released under the Sony brand , the Xperia S was recently unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  Keeping the Xperia brand previously used, Sony has brought a distinctive look and feel to its flagship line.

Perhaps part of the reason that Sony Ericsson had been struggling was the fact that its phone designs had not changed in recent years. Since the launch of the Xperia X1 in 2008, their range of phones had all looked pretty similar – particularly since the launch of the Xperia X10. The Xperia S marks a fresh new look and feel that should throw a bit of life back into the Xperia range.

The most unique design feature of the Xperia S is the transparent band around the bottom  of the handset, containing the stock Android buttons – Back, Home and Menu. Gone are the slim plastic buttons that had featured on earlier Xperia phones.

The Xperia S also packs an impressive4.3 inch LED-backlit LCD screen with 720p HD resolution. It also supports multi-touch features with up to ten different fingers – although this probably won’t really be necessary for a smartphone sized device, it is still a pretty cool ability. Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine is also included for improved picture quality and real-time video enhancements.

Also interesting about this phone is that it is the first phone from Sony to come with a dual core processor. The dual core 1.5GHz chip is faster than processors currently on the market, but with dual core smartphones first hitting the market almost a year ago, this may be a little too late. Still, with 1GB RAM this is probably the best phone suited for running Android Gingerbread smoothly and seamlessly.

Sony’s customised Timescape interface is also included with the Xperia S, although it appears to have had a major revamp compared to former versions. Readers might remember that Timescape was a big source of sluggishness on its predecessor, the Arc S, and it will be interesting to see whether the performance has been improved along with the aesthetics.

The phone comes with the usual Sony software additions for music and video lovers, and is capable of HD video playback which should make it an ideal entertainment device. A 12 megapixel camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording and a 1.3mp front facing camera, all with BRAVIA support, make this a pretty decent phone for photography as well.

The Xperia S appears to mark a new start for Sony in the smartphone industry, although it remains to be seen what will happen to the Ericsson brand. With February likely to be a big month for phone releases with Mobile World Congress, we will also have to wait and see how much of an uphill struggle Sony is going to have pushing itself back to the cutting edge end of the industry. With the Xperia S as their first effort though, 2012 may be a comeback year for Sony’s smartphone business.