Sony Xperia U Pro Reviews

We admit that we've spent a lot of time talking about what this phone is not. So, now we'll sum up exactly what it is. The Sony Xperia U is a good phone, if you are looking for something a little smaller. It is perfectly capable for most daily-use situations. It plays your media well, and snaps photos and videos that will be fine for most pedestrian users. The Xperia U is perfectly nice to look at, and serviceable in almost every respect. However, it is also a little short on the internal memory front, and with no option to fix that up at your own expense. It is also a fiddle to get working with your Mac if you want to free up some of that memory in batches (which you likely will).

The Sony Xperia U surpasses the similarly-priced competition in many ways. A 3.5-inch screen definitely isn't for everyone — at least at this aspect ratio — but apart from its size it's a premium display. In fact, virtually every area of the phone is endowed with features and finish that belong on a far more expensive device. It's not all perfect though — for one, its slightly-awkward, gimmicky design holds it back; Sony's NXT series ID doesn't quite translate to the U's tiny footprint, and its LED band is likely to annoy far more people than it will amuse. There's also the matter of Android 2.3. We're told that an update to Android 4.0 is imminent, but owners of recent HTC and Samsung devices are already looking forward to Android 4.1. This is a great budget phone, but the One V offers a good all-around package and already has Android 4.0, so where does the Xperia U stand? Well, it's available for £149.99 ($235) on Three prepaid or £198 ($311) SIM-free, making it significantly cheaper than the One V, which is around £199.99 prepaid, and the current market leader at this price point. Once Sony sees fit to update the Xperia U to ICS, you’ll find its skin far more palatable than Sense. It's very difficult to recommend an Android 2.3 handset over a more up-to-date contemporary, but at around 25 percent cheaper, it's impossible to ignore the Xperia U.

So, Sony know what they're doing in the midrange. The Xperia U is so comfortably ahead of similarly priced smartphones that it's one of the easiest to recommend. Few would've believed last year that a solid dual-core experience and a display of very good quality would be available at this price point. Screen size aside, the Xperia U is better than the Xperia Arc S in almost every way and that one passed for a flagship device mere 9 months ago. And as if that's not enough, the Xperia U is perhaps the most affordable dual-core droid. It's the cheapest way to get a FWVGA display too, and the build and finish are worthy of a flagship. You wouldn't normally expect to get anything else on this kind of budget, but you are in for another surprise. The changeable color of the transparent strip is a nice little twist giving personality and character, which are hard to come by in the crowded smartphone midrange.

A satisfying phone to hold and use, which is particularly good value SIM-free

The Xperia U is a great little smartphone, and especially so when considering its price. And it will only get better once Android 4.0 arrives. What would make this handset just about perfect for many is more memory or a microSD card slot for expansion. A larger screen also wouldn't hurt, but generally, the phone packs a punch that's well above its weight class.

If you're not caught up in today's obsession with enormous display sizes, the Sony Xperia U is a great choice of smartphone. It has all the speed, power and features of the larger Android models that cost two or three times as much - your only compromise here is seeing it all through a smaller display. The only noticeable weaknesses here are the phone's video performance, which is terrible despite the 720p claim, and the lack of onboard storage space. If you can live with those niggles, this does everything else just as well as the high-end Android flagship handsets. And the battery will last longer, too.

The Xperia U is decent, but we can’t look past the two glaring issues. The first is the screen: maybe we’re nitpicking, but we wouldn’t be able to live with it for an extended period of time without becoming extremely irritated. Secondly, the omission of a microSD card slot, especially with the limited internal storage space, is a crying shame. Everyone may be quick to promote the cloud for content storage, but high-speed internet isn’t as ubiquitous as some may think.

Sony has cut a few corners to achieve the very affordable price of the Xperia U, like the lack of oleophobic coating and microSD slot, but these are still overshadowed by the cool design and the contemporary specs like a dual-core processor and screen with good pixel density. Where it really dropped the ball, however, is the camera module - we’ve seen better 5MP shooters in Sony handsets dating back to 2010, especially in the video capture department. Yet something had to give, otherwise we’d have the perfect phone for the price, considering the very good call quality, strong and clear loudspeaker, and the removable battery with decent endurance. Still, you’d be hard pressed to find more phone for the price. You either have to go back to Sony’s single-cores of last year, like the Xperia ray with its slimmer design and better camera, or open your wallet wider, and pony up for an HTC One V, which has a better camera and Android ICS. The Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 is also a good choice one price level up - it has uninspiring design, but is fast and takes very good pictures. If we venture outside the Android universe, we might consider the Nokia Lumia 710 a better offer in terms of camera capabilities, albeit with a single-core processor.