Sony Mobile

Amazon Echo Show takes 7 year old Sony Dash design

by Sohrab Osati | May 9, 2017 | 2 comments

Hey, does the Amazon Echo Show look sorta familiar to you? No, it’s not just a chubby tablet but a near identical product to the Sony Dash which debuted at CES 2010 and ran Chumby OS. For those unaware, the Dash was a touchscreen and portable device which was meant to sit on your nightstand or kitchen counter and play music and videos for you via various apps like iHeartRadio and YouTube.

Of course voice wasn’t really a thing back then and the device, which I actually quite liked despite its numerous problems, sure seems like what would have been the first iteration to an eventual product that the Echo Show is now.

Another sign Sony was smart to exit wearables early

by Sohrab Osati | May 8, 2017 | 5 comments

Many Sony fans, including yours truly, thought Sony was uniquely positioned to create a smartwatch unlike others. While any device running Android Wear is mostly tied to an identical OS experience, making differentiating one from another in that aspect near impossible, hardware and design is open season.

This meant that Sony could design their hardware, the aesthetics, and the bands however way they saw fit which played into the company’s strength. Even with a stellar product, there still would have been numerous obstacles standing in front of Sony and any form of large market success, but the seeds for it were there. Unfortunately this vision never came to be with Sony quietly ceasing any development of future wearables that fell under SmartWatch and SmartBand as well as SmartTalk products.

Sony Mobile swings from massive losses to a profit, but it’s a dead division

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 28, 2017 | 2 comments

Sony_Mobile_FY16_Q4_2

It’s earnings time again, which means good and bad news for Sony. The good news is that Mobile is profitable. From Android Authority, according to Sony:

Mobile Communications division had generated an operating income of 10.2 billion yen, or about $91 million. This was compared to an operating loss of 61.4 billion yen, or about $550 million, in the previous fiscal year.

And that’s really the extent of the good news, which, at first, isn’t bad at all. Reversing your fortunes and going from a $550 million loss to a $91 million profit is most certainly noteworthy. But, and here’s the big but:

Sony’s sales revenue for the last fiscal year came in at 759.1 billion yen, or $6.778 billion, which was down over 32 percent from the previous year.

Why the steep drop in revenue? Because Sony hasn’t been able to convince anyone to buy their phones, which means the financial recovery has actually very little to do with Xperia phones sold.

Sony Open Device Program comes to Xperia XZs

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 27, 2017 | 0 comments

Looking to flash your own version of Android N on Xperia XZs? Lucky for you, Sony is making the process a bit easier and safer by enrolling the Xperia XZs in their Open Device Program. According to the Xperia maker:

Android 7.1.1 arrives for Xperia XZ and X Performance

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 27, 2017 | 0 comments

Android 7.1 has been out since October and

only 0.4 percent of active Android devices are currently powered by platform iteration 7.1

according to PocketNow, which is frankly pathetic. Luckily for Xperia fans, Sony hasn’t been a culprit of this and has beaten nearly every other manufacturer in putting out the newest Android builds. The latest phones to join the Android 7.1.1 Nougat build are the Xperia XZ and X Performance. Adrian Diaconescu writes:

Xperia Actions inject a bit of automation and machine learning into Sony phones

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 26, 2017 | 0 comments

Here’s a tidbit I’d missed – in their 2017 fleet of phones which consist of Xperia XA1, XA1 Ultra, XZs, and XZ Premium, Sony is incorporating something called Xperia Actions. According to their official description,

Xperia Actions work to make life easier—just when you need them to.

But I think there’s a bit more to it than that, as this video shows.

iPhone 7 Plus destroys Galaxy S8 in speed comparison, but where is the Xperia XZ Premium?

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 25, 2017 | 6 comments

There’s a video roaming the internets, as it were, that’s all about speed! Whenever a Samsung product is launched, we tend to hear a lot about specs as if it were 2003, the golden age of PCs. We hear the number of cores, the amount of RAM, how many warp drive coils, and the megapixel count the product offers as if each of those specs define the product. But as you and I know, a higher megapixel counts doesn’t always translate to better photos and more cores don’t mean a faster phone.

As for the speed test, it pits the Samsung Galaxy S8 against the LG G6, Google Pixel, OnePlus 3T, and the iPhone 7 Plus.

Bronze Pink comes to Xperia XZ Premium

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 24, 2017 | 6 comments

Have you been drooling over the upcoming flagship Xperia XZ Premium but haven’t been all that pleased with Deepsea Black and Luminous Chrome? Well you’re in luck, as Sony introduces another color: Bronze Pink! From the official press release:

Sony Mobile Communications (“Sony Mobile”) today announced that its hotly anticipated Xperia XZ Premium will now be available in Bronze Pink, adding to the Deepsea Black and Luminous Chrome colour hues.

Interview with team behind Xperia Touch

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 13, 2017 | 0 comments

I haven’t been shy about my feelings towards the Xperia Touch, a short throw projector that can turn any surface into an Android touch-based device. Highly cool in video and concept form, but I’m not sure what the real world use of it would be, especially at its $1,500 price tag.

So what went into making the Xperia Touch? Arinobu Ueda (left) and Yuichiro Saito (right) are the lead designer and engineer on the project and did a short interview and shared their thoughts on the product.

Does the Sony Xperia XZ Premium look dated already?

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 12, 2017 | 7 comments

I’m not sure I fully buy into this premise yet, but I see where Thomas Ricker from The Verge is going with this.

How’s it possible that Sony’s lovely $700 Xperia XZs, a phone that’s going on sale today, already looks dated? That’s the question I was asking myself yesterday while staring at the image above. Then it dawned on me: the sensor-laden forehead and chubby chin of the XZs already looks retro.

In April of 2017 we’ve seen very modern edge-to-edge displays on the Galaxy S8, LG’s G6, and even on the teaser pic for the Essential phone from Andy Rubin’s new venture. And those all came after Xiaomi released the Mi Mix back in October. Here, have a look at these beauties and try not to swoon:

And what is it that they have in common? A bezel-free phone.

Sony CEO admits defeat in mobile

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 11, 2017 | 7 comments

Before I dive into this topic, we should get a few facts out of the way.

Sony makes premium smartphones
Those smartphones tend to be out of the reach for a majority of Android owners who typically spend no more than $200 on a phone
Sony was late to the smartphone game
Sony lacks retail and carrier partners
Sony has also never been able to mount a marketing and go to market strategy for their mobile devices
Sony accounts for around 1% of the mobile industry profits
Sony ships less phones in a year, despite having more models available than Apple does in a quarter (Samsung is not a good example as their sales figures include very low-end handsets as well, a market that both Apple and Sony don’t operate in)

Those facts should serve as a backdrop to the following news when Sony CEO Kaz Hirai spoke with AFR:

Samsung software is still a gimmick, even on Galaxy S8

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 7, 2017 | 0 comments

For all their faults in mobile, Sony can at least never take home the award for most gimmicky software. That honor instead goes to Samsung, makers of such amazing technology as Smart Control which

uses the front camera to sense when you are looking at your device and it scrolls through content such as lists, webpages and messages based on the angle you hold the device or your head.

Wait. What? You forgot about this amazing tech they’d introduced? No worries, as so did everyone else. Not to keep a good man down, with the introduction of the Galaxy S8, Samsung has yet another new feature they’d like the world to know about: Facial Recognition, which is meant to unlock your device.

Sony Motion Sonic wristband, I don’t get you

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 6, 2017 | 0 comments

Typically air guitar works in two ways: you’re either home by yourself and get a tune stuck in your head so you start jamming in the air. Or there’s a song blaring around you and you think “yea, I could play that” and off you go with your best knee slide.

Sony would like to introduce a 3rd option, their Motion Sonic wristband which is part of their Motion Sonic Project.

Big discounts on Sony Xperia XA & XA Ultra via Amazon

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 5, 2017 | 0 comments

Sony is slowly beginning to release their 2017 lineup of phones with the Xperia XZs going on sale today on places like Amazon. Perhaps to clear room, the mega online retailer has put together a nice sale on previous models which include the Xperia XA and the ever-so-big Xperia XA Ultra.

If you don’t need the latest tech possible and for some reason have a need for a secondary phone, these are some pretty fantastic prices. They are as follows:

Xperia XZs Dual gets price and release date for US

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 3, 2017 | 3 comments

We always knew the Sony Xperia XZs would be coming to the US but it wasn’t quite clear in what capacity, when, and perhaps more importantly, the exact pricing of it. Now with a near imminent release date, all those details have come to light. Come April 5th, those eager for the Xperia XZs, an upgraded variant of the 2016 XZ will be able to get their hands on the new phone for $699.99 via Amazon. With no carrier support, you won’t be finding the XZs in typical stores though there is a chance the phone might pop up at Best Buy in the future. Even then, it will likely be limited to their online store.