Analyzed: Sony Xperia Ray

We've all heard the saying all good things come in small packages. It definitely holds true in the case of the Sony Xperia Ray. It is smaller than most of the other smartphones in the market but it packs all the features of the bigger phones. It is lighter than comparable phones and can also support Android's latest operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich. Here are some of the specs of the Xperia Ray:

1. 3.3" display at a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels
2. 1GHz single core processor
3. 512MB RAM
4. 300MB storage expandable to 32GB via microSD
5. 8.1MP rear camera with 16x digital zoom and 0.3MP front facing camera
6. 720P HD video recording at 30 frames per second
7. Operating system: Android Gingerbread Version 2.3.7
8. Weight: 100g
9. Battery capacity: 1500mAh

We enjoyed playing around with the Xperia Ray. The combination of a slim package that has a very good display for those photos and videos made it very enticing for us. It is equipped with the mobile BRAVIA engine and has very good pixel density (295PPI) which adds to the experience. Playing games is ok and at times we did feel the display might be a little too small for some games but it isn't something that turned us off to it. The speaker is also very good considering how small the phone is. Don't expect deep bass like the Beats audio equipped HTCs but it is good enough. The 8.1MP camera works well, as long as you don't try to take photos in low light. The camera app itself could use some more work (additional features) but it is possible this will be addressed in an update in the future. Battery life is much better than other smartphones due to the capacity and not so powerful components in the phone itself. Another plus is that should be able to upgrade the phone to ICS. At an affordable price, the Sony Xperia Ray makes itself quite a surprising and well equipped catch the in the market. Frankly we are surprised we haven't seen much marketing from Sony to promote this phone but one would think Sony needs to do a little soul searching considering the number of phones in its product line around the same price (Xperia Sola, Xperia U).

Our Rating: 

The Sony Xperia Ray is currently on sale in India for about Rs. 19,000 (~$360).