Sony Xperia T vs Xperia Ion
Ever since, Google introduced Android operating system, the smartphone market was on a boom. Actually it was on a boom before as well but only for Apple. Once the open source Android was made popular as a smartphone operating system, a lot of opportunities sprang up for different manufacturing firms. Manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, and Sony Ericsson already had an existing market to address, and they only had to release innovative products. Less known manufacturers had to release innovative products as well as raise the brand awareness. While this was going, major firms like Samsung, HTC, and Sony Ericsson came head on with the predominant giant on the smartphone market, Apple.
The competition amongst Androids as well as between them and Apple was mutually beneficial. Everybody learnt things from each other, rectified their mistakes, and released brand new devices. This evolution is what we are witnessing today with such advanced handheld devices reaching Quad Core CPUs as their generic benchmark. At the start of this year, Sony Ericsson decided to dissociate from Ericsson, to become Sony as a new brand name in smartphone market. They didn’t have much problem in retaining the attention to themselves with their flagship product line Xperia. It used to be Xperia Ion back in those days, and now with the introduction of Sony Xperia T in Berlin at IFA 2012, the ball might be passed to Xperia T. Let us observe and compare these two handsets to find out which can hold the title.
Sony Xperia T Review
Sony Xperia T is the new flagship product of Sony after been dissociated with former Sony Ericsson. It isn’t the first smartphone Sony has produced, but after the Sony Xperia flagship was introduced, Sony Xperia T is by far the best smartphone introduced by Sony. It is powered by 1.5GHz Krait dual core processor on top of Qualcomm 8260A Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It runs on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS, and Sony will probably provide the upgrade to Jelly Bean soon.
Xperia T comes in Black, White, and Silver in color and has a slightly different form factor compared to Xperia Ion. It is slightly wedged and has a curvy shape at the bottom while Sony has replaced the shiny metal cover with a plastic cover that looks almost the same and provides a better grip. It slips right in to your palm with the dimensions of 129.4 x 67.3mm and a thickness of 9.4mm. The TFT capacitive touchscreen measures 4.55 inches featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 323ppi. This type of pixel density would qualify the display panel of Xperia T for unofficial retina display title. Since Sony has been generous enough to include the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine in Xperia T, enjoying 720p HD videos would be an absolute pleasure. The dual core processor would ensure the seamless multitasking ability as usual.
Sony has not included the 4G LTE connectivity to their new flagship which may be a turnoff for some of the people out there. Fortunately, it has HSDPA connectivity that can score up to 42.2Mbps and optimistically speaking, Sony might even think of releasing a LTE version of the same handset. Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n ensures the continuous connectivity for this device and Xperia T can also host Wi-Fi hotspots to share your internet connection with your friends. Xperia T comes with 16GB of internal storage with the option to expand using microSD card. If you analyze the smartphone market, the trend is to stuff it with a 8MP camera, but Sony has contradicted the trend and made the camera in Xperia T 13MP. It can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per seconds and has continuous autofocus, video light and video stabilizer. The 1.3MP camera on the front would be instrumental in making video calls. Xperia isn’t known for its battery life, but with 1850mAh battery, Sony promises 7 hours talk time, which is decent for a battery of that capacity.
Sony Xperia Ion Review
Xperia Ion is a smartphone that is intended to succeed against all odds for it is of too much value to Sony. Been the first of Ericsson less smartphones, it has the ardent responsibility of carrying Sony’s flag high and been the first LTE smartphone, the responsibility of impressing the reviewers about LTE connectivity is entrusted upon it, as well. Let us see how well Ion handles this pressure by looking at what it’s got.
Xperia Ion comes with 1.5GHz Scorpion dual-core processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and Adreno 220 GPU. It has 1GB of RAM and runs on Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread. We expect Sony to come up with an upgrade to IceCreamSandwich soon, as well. Ion is also reinforced with the super-fast LTE connectivity that delivers unbelievable browsing speeds at all times. The beauty of the system can be seen by the macro level when you’re multi-tasking and switching between a lot of applications and network connections. The performance of the processor can be seen with the seamless transitions from one to another which speaks for itself. Ion comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity, and Sony has enabled it to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot and share the super-fast internet while DLNA functionality ensures that the user can wirelessly stream rich media content to a smart TV.
Xperia Ion has 4.55 inches LED backlit LCD Capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 323ppi. It also boasts superior image clarity with the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine. Interestingly, it recognizes multi touch gestures from up to 4 fingers, which would give us some new gestures to practice. Sony has also made sure that Xperia Ion excels in optics. The 12MP camera with autofocus and LED flash is an unbeatable state of the art. It can also record 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second and the 1.3MP front camera can be used for video conferences. The camera has some advanced features like geo-tagging, 3D sweep panorama and image stabilization. It comes with accelerometer, proximity sensor and gyro meter and this fancy handset come in flavors of Black and White. The 1900mAh battery promises a talk time of 10 hours, which certainly is impressive.
A Brief Comparison Between Sony Xperia T and Xperia Ion
• Sony Xperia T is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Dual Core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260A Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM while Sony Xperia Ion is powered by 1.5GHz dual core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 220 GPU and 1GB of RAM.
• Sony Xperia T runs on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS while Sony Xperia Ion runs on Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with the planned upgrade to v4.0.4 ICS.
• Sony Xperia T has 4.55 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 323ppi while Sony Xperia Ion has 4.55 inches LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 323ppi.
• Sony Xperia T is smaller, thinner and lighter (129.4 x 67.3mm / 9.4mm / 139g) than Sony Xperia Ion (133 x 68mm / 10.8mm / 144g).
• Sony Xperia T has 13MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @30 fps while Sony Xperia Ion has 12MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30fps.
• Sony Xperia T has 1850mAh battery while Sony Xperia Ion has 1900mAh battery.
Conclusion
Looking at the comparison above carefully, you would understand that Sony Xperia T isn’t much different from the Sony Xperia Ion at all. In terms of performance, there are only few differences. For instance, Sony Xperia T features a better version of the same Adreno GPU. Both have identical display panels with the same size. The form factor of Xperia T is somewhat different to that of Xperia Ion, and the layout of the touch buttons is different too. The difference in the optics is negligible since it’s a difference of 1MP only. Besides these less significant differences, the price tag may differ substantially given Sony Xperia T would be branded as a flagship product and priced accordingly. Hence your decision would mainly depend on the price for the value for price ratio for both of these handsets are virtually the same.