Sony Xperia V Review- The Almost Perfect Army Phone

If you are currently or about to serve your National Service in an army camp that permits camera phones, and you are looking for a new handset, the Sony Xperia V should be at the top of your list.

Even though MINDEF recently removed the 4.3 inch diagonal screen size restriction (Straits Times, 24 August 2013, Home Section, B2), the Xperia V offers great specifications and performance at an affordable price, making it a competitive offering for anyone looking for a military camera phone.

Pros:

1280X720, 4.3 inch LCD Screen (342 PPI)

13 megapixel camera performs reasonably well

User replaceable battery

Good build quality and handsome design

Microsd card slot

LTE

Fantastic Gallery App

Affordable

Water resistant and dust proof (IP55/57)

Cons:

Mediocre battery life

Several quirks (no speed dial, soft speakerphone , need to set-up Access Point Network (APN) to access mobile data/LTE)

Front-facing VGA camera is terrible

Unlikely to receive future updates to its Operating System

Third party accessory support not as strong as Samsung

An oldie but a goodie

 

2013 is the year that mid-range smartphones are hitting their stride. Unlike last year, this year’s mid-range market offers several phones with great user experiences. Nokia’s Windows Phone offerings are extremely competitive, and Apple’s rumoured ‘low cost’ iPhone will definitely heat things up.

On the Android front, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC’s One Mini both fast, fluid and fun to use. Gone are the days when only high-end phones offer great experiences.

The Xperia V is older than the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini and the HTC One Mini, but its plastic build, removable battery,  water resistance and dust-proof features make it almost perfect  for military use. All it is missing is shock-proofing.

Its handsome design also means that it won’t look out-of-place when you book out of camp for a night out with friends.

A handsome design that could be smaller and more ergonomic

The Xperia V is the smaller,  ruggedized version of the Xperia T – “The James Bond Phone”. Even though the Xperia V is a mid-range device, it features a handsome design and good build quality. It feels sturdy in the hand, and honestly, if it’s good enough for James Bond, it is good enough for most NSFs.

It features a slight vertical curve that makes it easy to hold when making calls. The gentle curve should fit most pockets nicely.

But  while the vertical curve makes the phone easy to hold when making calls, the phone’s overall length and button placement makes usage slightly awkward when you are trying to do anything else. The placement of the lock button and the volume rocker felt slightly strange for my hands. If both were placed about 3 cm lower, closer to the middle of the device, it would have been perfectly ergonomic for me.

Speaking or ergonomics, the Xperia V uses on-screen buttons which creates a  barren chin that looks like a vestigial organ that has yet to be eliminated through evolution. Why is it there? It is totally unnecessary and makes one-handed use slightly awkward. Once again, Sony missed the opportunity to make the phone more ergonomic. By comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Mini is much more compact and easier to use with one hand.

Both issues aren’t terribly irritating or deal-breakers, but it’s frustrating to see a phone that comes so close to ergonomic perfection, only to miss the mark.

One great App, several strange quirks

This needs to be said: Sony has the best Album App in the smart phone market, bar none. It is fast, fluid, and its pinch to adjust the overview is a killer feature. I’m shocked that Samsung and Apple haven’t implemented this feature in their own phones.

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That being said, the Xperia V has some strange quirks including the lack of speed dialling, the need to input APN settings before using your telco’s data network and the speakerphone is ridiculously soft when used for calls – put-the-phone-to-your-ear kind of soft which defeats the purpose of having a speakerphone in the first place, which is strange because the speakerphone is much louder when used for music playback.

The rest of Sony’s software is ‘ok’. The Walkman player is pretty to look at, but overly simplistic and the lock screen allows quick access to music controls and the camera, but isn’t as customisable as Samsung or HTC’s lock screens. The notification shade also provides some quick toggles, but it doesn’t offer as many options or the same level of customizability as Samsung.

Gorgeous 4.3 inch LCD screen

 

The Xperia V’s 4.3 inch, 1280X720 screen is one of the main reasons why you would buy this phone.  It is a really good screen. Details are crisp and colours are realistic and vivid. But viewing angles are poor, and the screen quickly becomes washed out when viewing it from an angle, but as long as you look on it dead-on, it looks great. Perfect for watching videos in your bunk.

Dust-proofing and water resistance – the other reason why you’d buy this phone

Having recently ‘battle-tested’ my Xperia V during my annual In-Camp-Training, I can testify to how useful it is to have a phone that is dust-proof and water-resistant. But this comes with a catch. In order to achieve this, Sony had to cover the audio jack and microusb data/charging slot with flaps. It’s not a big deal, and I quickly got used to removing and replacing the flaps when I needed to access the ports.

The phone is IP55 and IP57 certified, which means that it can be submerged underwater of depths up to 1 metre for 30 minutes and can withstand sustained blasts from water jets. It’s an incredibly useful feature to have and you come to appreciate it when you need to wash sand, camouflage cream, insect repellent or gun oil off of your phone.

When my phone got dirty I simply took it to the sink and washed it with anti-bacterial soap and it was as good as new.

It should be mentioned that this phone is not shock-proof. So while it may be able to endure a soak in the rain, it was not designed to withstand shocks and impact. So if you are carrying this phone on your person during combat training, you’d want to be careful not landing on it or drop it.

An otherwise good camera let down by occasional noise and soft-focus

The Xperia V has the capability of taking great photos. The macro mode is excellent, and under the right conditions, it can capture a fair amount of detail. That being said, the 13-megapixel shooter  occasionally produces noisy images that lack detail.

Occasionally, the focus can be rather soft, which is annoying when taking photos of people. The Xperia V’s camera felt bipolar at times. Sometimes it would produce great photos, and sometimes it would produce ‘ok’ photos. It definitely isn’t bad, and I would be satisfied using it as my primary camera phone, but the inconsistent performance is rather odd.

The Perfect Army Phone for 2013

MINDEF has been relaxing its policies towards camera phones in military camps. And even though the restriction on screen size has recently been lifted, the Xperia V still deserves a long look, especially if you are a full-time National Serviceman (NSF) serving in a camp that allows camera phones. At $400 at some retail outlets (like MobileSquare), or $0 with a contract, the Xperia V is affordable while offering a number of army-friendly features.

The ability to change the internal battery can be a huge convenience. and the inclusion of LTE gives servicemen who stay in camp the access to fast data speeds. The impressive screen also makes surfing the web or watching videos an enjoyable experience.

The Xperia V truly is the James Bond of Android phones It doesn’t matter if you use it in a warzone or a posh casino; it is equally comfortable in both scenarios.

But like the controversial selection of Daniel Craig as James Bond, Sony made some ‘interesting’ compromises to reach this price point. The ergonomics could be better, the phone could be smaller and the overall experience should be more consistent – particularly for the software, camera (front and rear) and the speakerphone.

Using and reviewing the Sony Xperia V not only made me think of James Bond, but it brought to mind another action series – “Universal Soldier”. Like the Universal Soldiers in the movie, the Xperia V isn’t perfect, but it seems purposefully built and designed for a very specific criteria. In fact, it almost feels like Sony preempted MINDEF’s laxing of camera phones and built the Xperia V with this in mind. Therefore, despite its flaws, the Xperia V is my definitive pick for an army phone in 2013.