Sony Xperia J Review

Introduction:

Sony has a good track record for delivering decent mid-range Android smartphones at very competitive price points, and the Xperia J is the latest handset to join the party. Its 4-inch display and beefy battery are among the features that make it stand out, at least when comparing specs sheets with alternative offerings. A 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera, and a VGA front-facing snapper are also in stock, meaning that the Sony Xperia J could be a bargain hunter's dream handset. But how does the smartphone perform in reality? Well, there's only one way to find out so let's fire it up and put the J through its paces.

The box contains:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Wired stereo headset (model MH410c)
• Micro-SIM card adapter
• Quick start guide and other documentation

Design:

As one would expect from a smartphone situated in the lower mid-range category, plastic is the predominant material that the Sony Xperia J is made of. The device's front side looks quite plain and boring, but its curved back side is a lot funkier and easily makes the handset stand out. With its matte finish, the smartphone's battery cover is extremely resistant to fingerprints, all the while providing enough grip, thus allowing us to comfortably hold and operate the device with a single hand.

The Sony Xperia J is comfortable to hold and operate with a single hand

With the Sony Xperia J you get a pair of notification lights. One of them is located right next to the earpiece and indicates when the smartphone is charging, but the one you'll probably find a lot more useful is at the bottom. It is of the RGB kind, so depending on what kind of notification you have pending – be it a new text, a new Facebook message, or a “Low battery” warning, the light glows in a different color. The light is hidden under the phone's plastic panel, so you won't see it unless it is on.

	Android buttons	Front camera

microUSB port (left)	Right edge	3.5mm jack (top)
The sides of the Sony Xperia J

Underneath the display are situated three capacitive buttons, all of which are very responsive and situated well enough to avoid accidental taps. The physical keys, however, are a lot more annoying. On the right side of the device we have a volume rocker and a lock key, both of which are way tinier than they should be and provide insufficient feedback when pressed.

Back	Battery compartment	Rear camera

Display:

The 4-inch LCD display on the Sony Xperia J is actually quite good. At 480 by 854 pixels, it may not be worthy of having an “HD” tag attached to it, yet with its 245 pixels per inch, the amount of detail it treats our eyes to is sufficient for the device's class. Moreover, the panel has a pretty neutral color representation, so colors look neither too dull, nor too saturated. We were also pleased to see that the display exhibits very wide viewing angles, and it shines bright enough to be usable in broad daylight. It is a bit annoying, however, that due to the lack of an ambient light sensor, you'll have to adjust the screen's brightness yourself, either by going to the Settings menu or with the help of a widget.

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Interface: 

The Sony Xperia J runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, which is far from the platform's latest version. However, Sony has promised that an update to Jelly Bean should come in 2013, as soon as the maker's flagship devices get the newer software. 

The Android interface has been heavily customized with new themes, additional widgets and social networking integration. There are widgets that aggregate your Facebook and Twitter feeds and notify you when a Facebook friend of yours has a new post. Another widget informs the user when a friend has recommended a cool app, a song, or a video for you to check out. And in case your cellular plan comes bundled with a number of free text messages, there is a widget that can count them for you. All in all, the interface is okay, and the features that Sony has thrown in could be quite useful, especially if you wish to stay constantly connected to your favorite social networks. 

The Sony Xperia J runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

For the most part, the on-screen virtual keyboard is comfortable to use, but in some rare cases, it lags so your taps don't get registered instantly. It comes with a built-in spell checker and can correct mistakes as you type, which can be quite useful.

Dialer	Contacts	Virtual keyboard

Processor and memory:

Nothing impressive to see here, folks. The Sony Xperia J comes with a modest Snapdragon S1 system-on-a-chip – the MSM7227A, with a single-core CPU maxing out at 1GHz and enhanced Adreno 200 graphics. There are512MB of RAM available, which is more than expected considering the smartphone's tier. Sadly, the handset feels underpowered: lags are common, especially if you have an app doing its thing in the background, and we often notice frames being dropped while navigating through the interface. Many of the popular video games are playable, but some of the titles featuring complex 3D graphics and special effects are sometimes too choppy to enjoy.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Sony Xperia J	1769	3484	19,6
LG Optimus L7	1886	2842	19,2
HTC Desire X	2361	4932	33,6
Sony Xperia sola	2294	5415	27,7

The Sony Xperia J has only 4 gigabytes of on-board storage, out of which less than 3 gigs are available to the user. Chances are you'll have to get a microSD card in order to expand the smartphone's capacity as you'll run out of space sooner or later. 


Web browser and connectivity:

The processor's lack of computational power can be felt when surfing the web as well, regardless of whether the stock browser is being used, or an alternative such as Chrome. When a relatively heavy web page is being displayed, zooming in and out is very choppy, and it takes a while before the section you are viewing gets rendered. Disabling the plug-ins from the browser's settings menu does not improve its performance by much.

Surfing the web

As far as connectivity is concerned, all the mandatory features are supported, including Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS. You also get an FM Radio with RDS functionality. As the case is with all Android handsets, files from a computer can be loaded onto the Sony Xperia J with the use of the microUSB cable, which comes included in the set.

Camera: 

As much as it hurts us to say it, the photos taken with the Sony Xperia J and its 5-megapixel camera look pathetic. In fact, our sample shots turned out so horrible that we assumed we had messed up the settings somehow. Alas, it wasn't our fault, as further testing proved. For some reason, pictures are totally out of focus, unless you are shooting from up close. At least one more independent review on the internet mentions an identical flaw, so this isn't an isolated issue. Something tells us that a software glitch might be causing all the problems, but that is only a guess of ours. We have contacted Sony Mobile for comment on the matter.

Camera interface

Sony Xperia J Sample images

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16. Darkness with flash

The Sony Xperia J can record videos too, but their quality isn't good either. The maximum supported resoluiton is 640 by 480 pixels, which is underwhelming considering that even some of Sony's 2011 mid-rangers could capture 720p. At least the continuous auto-focus works fine, we'll give it that.

Sony Xperia J Sample Video:

Multimedia:

Just like all of Sony's recent Android smartphones, the Xperia J comes with the very capable and feature-rich WALKMAN-branded music player. Lock-screen controls and a home screen widget come standard, in addition to the 5-band equalizer, the XLOUD feature that boosts the built-in loudspeaker's volume, and the “Clear Bass” function that lets you tweak the lower audio frequency spectrum. Another handy feature is the player's ability to pull album information from the internet, in case your audio collection isn't organized well.

The WALKMAN-branded music player of the Sony Xperia J

The stock video player can handle any popular video formats, with the exception of QuickTime videos. On several occasions, however, we noticed a few dropped frames when playing some of our video samples, and one time the audio was lagging behind the video. Therefore, you probably won't be spending much time watching movies on the Sony Xperia J. 720p videos are not supported.

Call quality:

Sony has equipped the Xperia J with an excellent earpiece that delivers clear, undistorted voice tones even when the volume is turned all the way up. The microphone, however, leaves something to be desired. On the other side of the line, our voice is fairly easy to make out, but quite a lot of background noise gets picked up.


Battery life:

Behind the back cover of the Sony Xperia J is tucked a 1,750 battery, which is actually quite a lot of charge considering that mid-rangers rarely pass the 1,500mAh mark. You can expect getting some very good mileage with it as the handset is rated for 7.5 hours of 3G talk time. In stand-by mode, the smartphone will last for well over two weeks on a single charge.

Conclusion:

Don't even bother, guys. We know that the Sony Xperia J seems like a worthy pick, especially since it carries a very reasonable price tag, but chances are you'll be disappointed by what you'll get in exchange. For a lower mid-range smartphone, the device has a decent battery life and a good-looking display, but that's pretty much it. The sub-par performance is really the deal breaker in this case, so our advise is to start looking for an alternative.

For example, give the Sony Xperia sola a try if you are looking for an affordable Android device from Sony, or just add a few bucks more and pick the Sony Xperia P. Both of them have better chips ticking inside them and can take photos that are actually pleasant to look at. The HTC Desire X is also a well-made mid-range handset with satisfactory performance thanks to its dual-core 1GHz processor.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android 4.0.4, Build number: 11.0.A.3.18

Sony Xperia J Video Review:

PROS

• Good display
• Relatively decent battery life
• Cheap

CONS

• Performance is below par
• Horrible camera
• The lack of light sensor means you have to adjust the screen brightness manually
• Annoying physical buttons