In April 2013, Sony had added the Xperia SP to its portfolio of smartphones. The SP weighs 155 g (5.47 oz), having dimensions of 130.6 x 67.1 x 10 mm (5.14 x 2.64 x 0.39 inches). With a screen size of 4.6 inches, it has a larger screen than the Xperia S and Xperia SL, which have a screen size of 4.3 inches. However it is smaller than Sony’s current flagship, the Xperia Z. The built quality on the Xperia SP is actually very good.
Sony produced the Xperia SP with the intention of competing with other mid-range smartphones. As a matter of fact, it runs a dual-core 1.7 GHz Krait processor. The chipset is Qualcomm MSM8960T Snapdragon and the graphics processing unit is Adreno 320. The amount of RAM is 1 GB in size and the operating system installed is Android version 4.1 Jelly Bean. The SP fared fairly well in benchmark tests when compared to some of today’s flagship smartphones. As a matter of fact, according to GSM Arena, it beats the Sony Xperia Z in some of the benchmark tests, even though Sony’s flagship runs on a quad-core processor and 2 GB of RAM.
The internal memory is 8 GB, of which just 5.8 GB are available for the user. This is a bit disappointing considering the fact the Xperia S, which was released a year before, has 32 GB of internal memory. Having said this, one can easily increase the available internal memory space by installing a 32 GB or smaller sized microSD card.
The smartphone comes with a TFT screen that has gorilla glass protection. The HD display resolution is 720 x 1280 pixels with a pixel density of 319 pixels per inch. According to Sony, the non-replaceable 2370 mAh Lithium-Ion battery provides standby times of up to 635 hours when using 2G and up to 734 hours of standby time when using 3G. Talk time is almost 10 and a half hours in 2G and up to 19 hours in 3G, while it is supposed to provide up to 39 hours of music play. The Xperia SP includes a stereo FM radio as well as proximity, accelerometer and gyro sensors.
The 8 megapixel rear camera supports resolutions of 3264 x 2448 pixels and it includes autofocus and LED flash. Video recording is carried out at 30 frames per second and 1080 pixels. The Sony Xperia SP is currently selling at £367.18 at Amazon.co.uk and $424.99 at Amazon.com. It is currently available in black, white or red colours.
The Xperia SP is a nice addition to Sony’s mid-range of smartphones and it is an excellent choice for anyone who gives a lot of importance to performance. However, if I were to choose a Sony phone in this price range, I would prefer opt for the Xperia V instead. While the performance of the Xperia V is not quite as good as that of the Xperia SP, the Xperia V is water and dust resistant and it has a removable battery.
