What does a modern Android smartphone look like? A huge body with a screen over 4 inches in a plastic or metal wrapper without a hint of any design. Smartphone Sony Ericsson Xperia ray is the exact opposite: thin, light with a 3.3 ”display, in a case that can fit even in a small female pen.
android smartphone
Dimensions, weight, body materials, photo quality, performance, battery life, display characteristics and behavior in the sun
Difficulty typing due to screen diagonal
Verdict
You can appreciate the graceful forms of a smartphone only by holding it in your hands. Neither photographs nor videos are able to convey even part of the sensations that you experience during tactile communication with Xperia ray. Taking it in hand, you understand how much effort and time the company spent in order to release such an attractive smartphone against the background of existing similar devices. The record low weight of 100 grams is successfully emphasized by a thickness of less than a centimeter.
The back side is made of soft-touch plastic. The inscriptions XPERIA and HD flaunt here, which indicates that the device belongs to the line of smartphones and records video in HD resolution, respectively. The front panel is completely covered with mineral glass. At the top of the panel, under a decorative bow, there is a loudspeaker, a little lower and to the left is a VGA-camera eye. To the right of it is the proximity and light sensor. The attractiveness of the phone is given by the “invisible” 3.3” screen in the standby mode. In order to see where the display is located, you need to find a certain angle. Under the screen, made in the same style as above it, but a little larger, there is a mechanical Home key, and on the sides of it, the Back and Properties touch keys.
Minimalism in design Xperia ray can be traced not only in its dimensions and weight, but also in a small number of additional control buttons. At the top end there is a power / lock key with a soft, but well-tangible move. The volume rocker, on the contrary, is almost imperceptible and has insufficient tactile feedback.
The standard audio jack is located to the right of the lock key, and you can connect the charger or micro-USB cable to the connector on the left side. Two microphone slots on the bottom and under the LED flash are used for voice transmission and noise reduction during calls, as well as stereo sound recording when shooting video. The multimedia speaker, like the speaker, is hidden under a decorative bow and is located on the rear panel near the manufacturer's logo.
Under the back cover is a 1500 mAh battery and slots for SIM and microSD cards, which can only be accessed after removing the battery.
As in other smartphones of the company, its own interface called Xperia UX is installed on top of the operating system. It's impossible to say that with its help the phone gets an increase in user friendliness, but we know one thing for sure, the boring look of bare Android is successfully disguised as an animated interface from Sony Ericsson. Userspace consists of five separate desktops with no option to change the number of desktops.
Features of the Xperia UX interface
The phone has the ability to change one of seven themes. True, one should not expect major changes, as in HTC smartphones. A theme should be understood as just a background screen saver and a lock screen pattern.
The phone's main menu is built in the form of a 4 by 4 grid and already out of the box offers the user a fairly large number of additional mini-applications or graphic fragments, so called "widgets" in Sony Ericsson. All installed programs can be sorted into several types: alphabetically, most used, recently installed, or custom order. It should be noted that you can change the location of programs in places only in the last of them. The icon in the lower right corner has two purposes - to remove installed programs and, if the Custom Order menu type is selected, to move them around.
The phone menu can be customized to your liking. Already out of the box in the phone installed
a fairly large number of additional programs
In our opinion, among the applications pre-installed by the manufacturer, the following can be considered interesting: "Music and Video", "Saving Mode" and "LiveWare Manager". The first widget searches for relevant content on the pages of your friends from the social network Facebook. Here you can read comments or leave your own, listen to a song or watch a video clip and, of course, click "Like". The second widget is intended for those users who care about the phone working as long as possible. In the settings of this mini-program, it is possible to set when and under what conditions Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, background data transfer and other services that “complicate” the life of the battery will be turned off. The last of the widgets is unique in its concept and involves setting up the launch of any of the applications when you connect a headset, headphones or charging cable. What are the ways to use it? For example, when you connect a headset to your phone, the music player or FM radio will automatically start, and when you put your phone on charge, the GPS navigator will start if you use your phone in a car.
Tracking the audio and video content of your Facebook friends' pages will become easier
using the Friends Music and Videos widget
This widget is designed for those users who care about the time of the smartphone.
With it, you can extend the "life" by 20-30%, but at the same time, some of the advantages of the Android system are lost.
Now you can launch applications not only with voice commands, but also with simple actions,
by connecting a headset, headphones or charger to the smartphone
Returning to the main workspace, we should start by describing the location of the shortcut icons. IN Xperia ray at the bottom of the screen are four large shortcuts with an icon for entering the main menu between them. The "Multimedia" shortcut is a kind of folder in which multimedia applications are collected. You can adjust the list of applications yourself, and you can add any shortcuts to Multimedia. There is no need to describe the other three shortcuts, they all have the functionality traditional for Android smartphones.
A proprietary Xperia UX interface is installed on top of the operating system, the main trump card of which is the Timescape widget. With it, the smartphone owner can track any changes and news in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, as well as display incoming text messages and emails. Those who find such a collective hodgepodge not convenient due to the large amount of information can track changes in the social life of friends separately for each of the applications.
The organization of the Timescape widget may not be to everyone's liking. In addition to the current
functionality, the user can add the section "Mail", "Music" and more
Another interesting widget is "Favorites and call log". It collects information about your favorite contacts, for each of which you can view detailed data (including Facebook), calls and messages. The only thing that the widget lacks is a one-touch call to a subscriber.
Find additional information about any contact from the phone book
via the Favorites and Calls widget
The new Sony Ericsson models use the same platform and are based on the Qualcomm MSM 8255 processor with a frequency of one gigahertz, the Adreno 205 video accelerator and have 512 megabytes of RAM. IN Xperia ray 300 megabytes of data storage is available to the user.
It is worth noting that such technical data make Sony Ericsson smartphones the most productive in the class, and the gap from competitors reaches 10-20%. Interestingly, in the tests you can observe the results of the ST18i overclocked to 1900 MHz. This speaks of good potential for those who "always have not enough."
Xperia ray has enough power to solve any task
Surprisingly, with such processing power, a smartphone is unable to play familiar video files with software capabilities. To do this, I had to install a video player from the Android Market.
To view the unconverted video, you will have to use
a special player from the Android market
The operating time of the phone, given its characteristics, is at least a day with active use. With the scheme of operation: synchronization of mail via Wi-Fi, work in a 3G network, calls, updating the data of the Timespape widget, it is quite possible to count on two days of work.
The smartphone uses an 8-megapixel camera with the ability to record video with a resolution of 720p at 30 FPS and stereo sound.
The picture quality is quite capable of satisfying the demands of demanding users, but the video quality is inferior to the top three Samsung Galaxy SII, Nokia N8 and Apple iPhone 4. The picture is spoiled by a noticeable moiré. But the pluses can be added to the recording of two-channel sound and frame refresh rate.
In the camera settings there are a large number of special modes,
but even in automatic mode, quite high-quality photos are obtained
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Examples of photos taken with an 8-megapixel camera in maximum quality
An example of HD video recording
The display has one of the smallest diagonals on the market, only less than 3.2”, while its resolution is 854x480 pixels, which is enough even for diagonals from 3.7”. In fact, only two devices on the market have a higher DPI: Apple iPhone 4 and Meizu M9, with their 3.5” screens. Of course, for the already traditional diagonal of 4 ″ for all devices starting from the middle class, 3.3 looks insufficient. A screen of this diagonal is not the most comfortable for web browsing or watching videos, but, given the cost factor, it is better to pay extra and get several times higher resolution than the traditional Android and 3.2-3.5 ”480x320. In terms of display quality, the Ray is on par with the best smartphones on the market. Viewing angles are maximum. Colors are not inverted, and the information remains readable even in bright sunlight. All this became possible thanks to the use of new technologies, namely, the absence of an air gap between the display and the sensor. In addition to improving performance, this made it possible to reduce the thickness of the smartphone.
The quality of communication and voice transmission is at a good level, partly due to the xLOUD software function, which allows you to significantly increase the volume level, compensating for a barely perceptible vibration call.
The smartphone has a lot of positive aspects. This is the thickness and weight, display, body material and photos, nice interface and good performance.
Perhaps, due to its dimensions, the phone is more suitable for the female half of society, which is also facilitated by the presence of three more case options: white, gold and red, but we are sure that everyone will want to own such a device, one has only to pick it up once.
Standards GSM 850/900/1800/1900/UMTS 2100, (GPRS/EDGE, HSDPA)
operating system Android 2.3 Gingerbread
CPU MSM 8255 1 GHz Adreno 205 GPU
Memory RAM 512 MB, ROM 300 MB
Screen TFT, 3.3" (480×854), touch, capacitive, mineral glass
Interfaces USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA
Integrated camera 8 MP, HD video (30 fps), flash
Supported formats MP3, AMR, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, 3GP, MP4
Battery, autonomy Li-Ion, 1500 mAh, 1-2 days
Internet browser Chrome Mobile
Additional features Xperia UX, Mobile Bravia Engine, Sony Exmor R
Dimensions and weight 111×53×9.4 mm, 100 g
Problem solved
Advantages: battery camera design speaker sound Disadvantages: after 3 years of use it began to work more slowly, the touch keyboard does not work on touch (rarely, but it happens), it reboots itself Comment: I have been using the phone for three years now. I bought it as soon as it went on sale for 17 thousand. Very happy with the phone! The first 2 years worked like clockwork, then there were not big glitches. From time to time it reboots itself, but this does not happen often. Very satisfied with the battery! My past phones, after being notified that the battery was low, immediately turned off. This phone makes it possible to still make calls, write SMS, warn people that the phone is dead. The energy-saving mode also helped out more than once. I didn’t see any sense from this mode on any phone, but I noticeably felt it on this one. The camera is good. The text photographs without problems, everything is read perfectly! (Students / schoolchildren relevant). In general, the photos come out of good quality, bright, clear. The screen is not large when compared with the "bricks" that are now sold at every corner. This is a comfortable, not big phone that will fit in your pocket and will not cause problems. Surfing the Internet, watching movies are quite enjoyable. Many times I noticed that the phone catches the connection almost everywhere. I even compared it with another phone of a friend who has the same operator. How many times I sent SMS, received calls and chatted on the subway. I have not read a single book from the phone screen. I dropped it many times, the back cover left the maximum and the battery flew out. Got everything back and all is well! It scratches only with very strong impacts. Even three years later, it still looks great! You can talk a lot. In general, the phone is very good! And for the price it's currently being sold, it's just great!
After the not very successful Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, the company slowly but surely found its niches in the Android market: this is the first Xperia mini / mini pro line that stood out from the rest, and then the calm X8 and Neo. Both smartphones lacked stars from the sky, but in terms of the combination of characteristics, design and price, they turned out to be attractive. And, more importantly, both devices at the start of sales had relatively stable software. With the flagship, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, the company was a little late, the model entered the market at a time when all other major players were already selling top-end smartphones. But the next announcement showed that when SE wants, she knows how to choose the right directions. Introduced in the summer of 2011, Sony Ericsson Ray and the renewal of the Xperia mini line are exactly what the Swedish-Japanese brand needs now.
In this article I want to talk about the Sony Ericsson Ray smartphone - the younger version of Arc, so to speak. A beautiful and pleasant device in a compact body with good multimedia capabilities and at an adequate price.
Sony Ericsson knows how to make beautiful things. And although there will certainly be those to whom the design of Ray for some reason will seem wrong, ugly or something like that, in my opinion, the device succeeded. Firstly, the SE signature style is guessed in Ray, and secondly, the smartphone turned out to be unlike most of the “robots” produced today.
The device comes on the market in four color options: white, pink, coffee and black. All colors are in a muted and unobtrusive range, that is, the pink device is not bright pink, but rather neutral pink, the rest of the options are even calmer. In my opinion, the selection of colors and their tone in SE Ray is successful, there are no flashy colors here.
The device is made of glossy plastic (we are talking about a smartphone in white, pink or coffee color). There are thin metal inserts on the left and right ribs. For a month of using SE Ray, it has not changed in any way in appearance, I did not notice that scuffs or any marks or scratches appeared on the case. Although I carried the device both in my jeans pocket and just in a backpack, sometimes I threw it along with other phones. The body coating is non-marking, traces and prints on the white model, if they remain, are completely invisible. The black device is made of matte plastic with soft-touch coating.
There are almost no complaints about the build quality, except for one thing: in my sample there was a small gap between the case and the lower left part of the battery cover. As for the body materials, of course, one can grumble that SE almost never use metal in their models or just materials more interesting than glossy plastic, like HTC, for example. But if we compare SE Ray in design with most similarly priced offers from Samsung, LG and HTC, then we can accept the use of simple plastic as a pattern, SE smartphones have their own interesting design, and with this the company compensates for the simplicity of case materials.
In terms of dimensions, Sony Ericsson Ray belongs to the "kids". The smartphone is thin and very narrow, so even its height seems noticeable, although in practice the SE Ray is compact in this parameter.
You can carry the device in any pocket, including a pocket in a jacket or a chest pocket on a shirt (I note that in South Korea I saw how people calmly carry even SGS II in their chest pockets). The device is almost not felt in the hands during a conversation, if you have used something relatively large before, it is light and compact. At first it is even unusual, but then you get used to it, and it becomes comfortable.
In SE, they are gradually starting to abandon the completely hardware block of keys under the screen, in my opinion, this is a bad trend, but it can be traced. In SE Ray, two keys under the screen are touch-sensitive ("Back" and "Menu") and one hardware - "House". The advantage is that by clicking on the "House" you can activate the screen, which is convenient - you do not need to reach for the power button, which is located on the upper end, every time, which owners of HTC smartphones, for example, are forced to do.
Around the “House” key, a backlight strip passes in a semicircle (hereinafter I will call it a ring for convenience), it lights up red when connected to a PC or charging and lights up green when the smartphone is fully charged. If the device is active and you are working with it, the ring is highlighted in white. If there are missed events, it flashes green. The location of the light indicator (ring), in my opinion, is unfortunate, although its location in the lower part of the case is already better than on the side on the SE Arc. The feeling that the SE developers used this element primarily for beauty and a little wow effect, forgetting about its original purpose. Finding the indicator at the top of the device would be more convenient.
On the right edge of the device there is a volume control button, for me this key turned out to be uncomfortable: small, thin, short and with a barely perceptible stroke. It is difficult to use it during a conversation, especially when you consider that a right-handed person has just a thumb on this small button. On the top left edge is a microUSB connector for charging and connecting to a PC.
At the top end there is the already mentioned power button and a 3.5 mm headphone or headset jack. Below is a microphone hole and an eyelet for attaching a lace or strap to your hand; in new smartphones it is becoming less and less common, although it has not lost its relevance for some users over the years.
On the front side of the smartphone, above the screen, there is a speaker, a front VGA camera lens, as well as a proximity sensor and a light sensor. The latter is not used in the device, at least in my sample with firmware 4.0.A.2.368 (official, PCT) it was impossible to set automatic adjustment of the screen brightness level, only manually.
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The mount for the SIM card and memory card is located above the battery, so that neither the SIM card nor the memory card can be removed without first removing the battery. For me personally, the lack of a hot-swap memory card is a drawback, I'm used to using a card reader. For those who use a cable to transfer information from a PC to a smartphone and vice versa, this moment will go unnoticed.
The Sony Ericsson Ray uses a capacitive LCD touch screen. The diagonal of the screen is 3.3”, the resolution is 854x480 pixels (FWVGA), the display shows up to 16 million colors. The physical dimensions of the screen are only 74x41 mm, the screen is elongated and very narrow. Due to the combination of small physical dimensions and high resolution, the SE Ray display has an impressive ppi value (dots per inch) - 297. For comparison, ppi in HTC Desire S is 252, HTC Sensation - 256, Apple iPhone 4 - 330.
The screen has an average margin of brightness, but it still behaves well in the sun, the picture remains readable. In terms of color reproduction, the display is good, the colors on it are close to natural, white looks like white, and black looks very black (sorry for the tautology), and not dark gray or something else. This is a plus of the screen in front of some competitors. Minus - like the SE Arc, there are not maximum viewing angles, when the screen is tilted, the picture on it starts to fade slightly.
As in the flagship, it uses proprietary technology Mobile BRAVIA Engine. As with Arc, I did not notice any difference in the picture on the screen with the option turned on and off, neither when simply using a smartphone, nor when viewing photos or videos.
The screen of Sony Ericsson Ray is covered with a protective film, as in Arc. In my opinion, there is no point in wearing a device with a film - the tempered glass that is used here also protects the screen well, and the film just gets in the way: it leaves a lot of marks, small scratches and abrasions literally in a matter of days after you start using your smartphone.
The SE Ray display is small, and this imposes its limitations on the usability of the device. To put it differently, how a smartphone with all the capabilities of SE Ray looks weak precisely because of the small physical size of the screen. It is expressed in the following things.
First, typing in portrait orientation with the standard on-screen keyboard is very difficult. Constant misses, hard to hit the thin keys. In landscape orientation, everything is better, but it was difficult for me personally in this mode, I could literally type one message and then “cool down” and calm my nerve endings, because after typing the text message, I wanted to throw Ray against the wall. The situation improves if you put an alternative keyboard, such as HTC IME MOD. Then typing becomes easier, especially in landscape orientation. But still, in terms of the convenience of typing, the smartphone does not even reach state employees with HVGA screens, but with more comfortable screen sizes and the usual aspect ratio.
Secondly, on the small screen of SE Ray it is not so convenient to read information from websites, news feeds, and so on. It's just that the font sizes on the screen are so small that any user who moves to Ray from something with a larger screen will have a hard time at first. Here I want to clarify that if a person was not, say, HTC HD2, before choosing SE Ray, then he is unlikely to experience the discomfort when reading information from the screen that I am talking about. So this point is subjective.
And finally, sometimes when browsing sites, there are difficulties with navigation, it is difficult to target the smallest menu items or controls, and zooming in as close as possible each time to navigate within the site is tiring. A simple conclusion follows from this shortcoming - if you are used to “sit” on different sites often and a lot on your smartphone and generally use it to access the network, then SE Ray will hardly be a reasonable choice for you.
The smartphone has an 8 MP camera with autofocus and flash, exactly the same as in the flagship - SE Arc. The camera eye is located in the upper part of the rear side of the case, it is slightly recessed inside the surface of the cover. Below the camera module is an LED flash, it cannot be used as a flashlight by standard means.
In the viewfinder mode, the display shows all the basic information, for a photo this is the number of possible shots, as well as settings icons, for videos - the possible recording time and also settings icons. When you select one of the icons, a pop-up menu opens from which you select the desired setting. It is pleasant to use the camera, the interface is simple and clear.
The following resolutions are available for photos:
You can adjust the white balance, shooting mode (landscape, night portrait and others), change the exposure value, select the shutter sound or just turn it off. There is an image stabilizer, but I did not notice a difference between the quality of shots with the stabilizer on and off. You can also enable geotagging of photos. The focus mode is selected from six available: spot focus, macro, infinity, face detection, focus by touching the screen and by multiple points.
In the macro focus mode, you can shoot close-up objects from a distance of 7-8 cm or more. The quality of these pictures, in my opinion, is good.
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The text is removed successfully almost always, out of ten frames with blurred text, I got only one.
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The smile recognition function works every other time: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Like the SE Arc, the Ray's camera is amazingly fast. According to this parameter, the smartphone leaves behind even the top models from Samsung and HTC. We are talking about both the speed of starting the camera (the time between pressing an icon or a key and the appearance of an interface with an image is about one and a half seconds, In HTC Sensation - about 3-4 seconds), and about the speed of shooting and the time of subsequent saving, on SE Ray these operations happen almost instantly.
The downside in terms of ease of use is that the smartphone does not have a hardware shooting key, which was in the SE Arc.
You can evaluate the quality of the photo yourself using the examples of pictures below. In my opinion, among Android-smartphones Sony Ericsson Ray and Arc now retain one of the leading positions. And if Samsung and HTC have flagships that shoot well, then SE has practically a budget device with a flagship photo component.
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Video
Video is recorded in mpeg4 or 3gp format (mp4v or h.264 codec) at an average of 30 frames per second. Audio is recorded using the aac codec.
The following resolutions are available for video:
The settings in video mode are the same as those in photo mode. Of the features, I note the inclusion / disabling of sound recording and the inclusion / disabling of the flash during recording.
You cannot change the focus manually during video recording, but it automatically adjusts to the picture and changes. I note that autofocus during video shooting in SE Ray is slow. For example, if I shoot a distant object and the camera is focused on it, and then move the lens to a near object, the camera needs an average of 4-6 seconds to refocus, and in some situations the camera does not change the focus point at all. You cannot scale the image during recording.
The Sony Ericsson Ray uses a 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery. The manufacturer provides the following data on the operating time of the smartphone:
My scenario for using the device looked like this: 40-60 minutes of calls per day, sending 10-15 text messages, configured Gmail and MS Exchange accounts with push-mail enabled, 1-2 hours of Internet via Wi-Fi or 2G / 3G. In this mode, Ray worked on average for about a day, that is, I removed the device from charging at 9 am and calmly used it until late at night, 23-24 hours. If you listen to music, the operating time is reduced and the device is discharged by about 19-20 hours.
The operating time indicators are typical for an Android device, they do not amaze the imagination, but they are not as mediocre as in some smartphones from HTC in the first half of the year, for example.
The smartphone has an energy-saving utility, it works according to the already familiar principle, as in models from Samsung and HTC: you can select different modules (wireless interfaces, types of notifications, screen brightness, etc.) that the program will turn off when the battery level is low battery to conserve it.
The smartphone is built on the Qualcomm QSD8255 (Snapdragon) platform with a 1 GHz processor. The device has 512 MB of RAM and 300 MB for storing data, programs and everything else. In terms of its platform and memory capacity, the smartphone is a complete copy of the SE Arc. The lack of internal memory for storing user data can be compensated by installing "heavy" programs on a memory card. The device comes with a 4 GB microSD card.
The phone is not equipped with additional codecs for video playback, so to play video recorded in divx / xvid or in the mkv container, you need to install third-party video players. By default, playing video files is limited by the capabilities of the Android platform: wmv, mp4 and 3gp. On a smartphone, you can easily watch videos in 480 and 720p resolutions, videos for screen resolution also run smoothly. Moreover, if you download 1080p video in the correct format (wmv is best) and quality, your smartphone will play it without problems. However, here the question arises - what is the point of playing video in 1080p and even 720p quality on a small 3.3 '' screen?
The overall speed of the SE Ray is excellent, there are no delays or slowdowns, the smartphone does not hesitate, even if you have a dozen or more programs open.
The smartphone works in GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and UMTS (900/2100) networks. Both high-speed data transfer standards, EDGE and HSDPA, are supported. Enabling and disabling wireless interfaces can be done in the settings menu, using the standard Android 2.3 interface widget or from a proprietary widget. As in SE Arc, the sizes of widgets for managing interfaces here are simply gigantic, but if in Arc it looked wild, then in Ray, due to its small screen, such widgets are quite useful.
For synchronization with a PC and data transfer, the included microUSB cable is used. USB 2.0 interface. When connected to a computer, you can turn on the data transfer mode (the memory of the microSD card is visible). Embedded module Bluetooth 2.1+EDR with support for all major profiles, including A2DP. The sound quality when listening to music through wireless headphones is not bad.
WiFi (802.11b/g/n). The work of the Wi-Fi module did not cause any complaints. You can set Wi-Fi sleep rules on your smartphone, use only a static IP address when connecting, and add security certificates. When using Wi-Fi, the smartphone heats up slightly.
Like any other device based on Android 2.2 and above, SE Ray can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot for other devices. The smartphone also supports the DLNA wireless device communication standard.
The Sony Ericsson Ray uses the gpsOne chip based on the Qualcomm platform. A cold start takes about 30 seconds, then it takes about 5-15 seconds to search for satellites (testing was carried out using the GPS Status program available in the Market).
For navigation, the device has Google Maps and Google Navigation programs. With the help of the first one, you can get directions, search for addresses by street names or places. With the help of the second - use navigation with route guidance and voice prompts.
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The SE Ray uses a proprietary keyboard. In terms of capabilities, it resembles the standard for Android. Switching the language is done by pressing one key. If you need to hide the keyboard, just hold the left key under the screen for a couple of seconds. We talked about the convenience of typing above.
Battery capacity: 1500 mAh Battery type: Li-polymer Talk time: 7 hours Standby time: 440 hours Music time: 36 hoursComparing the current lineup and the times of the legendary is not very correct, now smartphones offer much more features. However, it can be seen from the example of new models that the company has returned to the former principle of an adequate ratio of quality, cost and filling. At the same time, we should not forget about design. Devices from the Swedish-Japanese alliance are original, original and immediately allow you to identify yourself, which is also important.
Gallery
Photos and videos stored in the smartphone's memory are displayed here. The gallery works in both vertical and landscape orientations. Working with files is accompanied by nice animation effects. Working with files is fast, image previews are generated without delay. Pictures are displayed in a 2x3 or 3x2 grid, depending on the position of the device.
In the folders, the thumbnails of the pictures are smaller, thanks to which not 3, but 4 pictures are placed vertically. The image opens in full screen, scaling works with multitouch. Files can be sent via email, Bluetooth, SMS, or hosted on Picasa. You can assign images as desktop wallpaper or assign them to a contact. Rotation of pictures, reduction of their size is supported, as well as additional information about a specific file is displayed, the place where the picture was taken is also shown if geotagging works.
Images are shown both in folders (for example, received via Bluetooth, section with photos), and ordered by date. Thanks to this, it is very convenient to view photos - several sections are obtained in the same folder. You can scroll through either using the strip displayed at the bottom of the screen, or by simply touching the screen with your fingers anywhere in it.
The video is played from the gallery, where a separate folder is allocated for the videos. Nothing special can be said about the phone here. There is no support for DivX and XviD codecs in the smartphone, so the ability to play video out of the box is quite modest.
timescape
Timescape combines tabs that combine messages from various social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte. In addition, there is data on phone calls, SMS and MMS, e-mail. Displayed data is configured, unnecessary can be hidden. The update is also installed: manually or automatically. Additional applications are installed from the market. So, for example, you can supplement the set with the Foursquare program.
Messages are presented in the form of translucent panels, on which the name of the sender, the text of the message itself, as well as the source from which the message came are written. The ability to customize the background has disappeared, now it is a permanent blue color. The list scrolls very quickly, without a hint of delay. In general, the thing is beautiful and interesting, the main drawback is associated with a not very beautiful design - if the author of the message has an avatar, then this image will be displayed stretched to the full width of the transparent panel.
Player
To listen to music, you can select tracks sorted into several categories: artist, album, tracks, lists. In the latter case, there are automatic playlists (recently added, popular tracks, never played), and manual listening lists are also created. From the music list, you can add songs to a playlist or send them via MMS, Bluetooth, or email.
The screen displays the name of the artist, the name of the album and the song being played. In the music playback mode, a large album cover is displayed (if it was assigned earlier), there are playback control buttons on the screen. If desired, the song is set as a ringtone. Equalizer settings are also available. These presets are: Normal, Classical, Dance, Flat, Folk, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rock. There are no manual settings. Mixing mode is provided. While listening to music, you can find information about the artist - a list of videos available for viewing on YouTube is displayed.
When the screen is locked, additional music control buttons are not displayed, which is inconvenient, you have to perform unnecessary actions every time to move to another song. Other manufacturers (for example, Samsung, HTC) are more thoughtful. Only a widget on the desktop is available here, which to some extent smoothes this moment.
While listening to music, you can find additional information about the artist using tools from Google. The xLOUD function allows you to get very loud sound from the speaker. It is easy to notice the difference, this option allows you to hear your phone in any, even a very noisy place.
The sound quality for the Android segment is very good. There is a sufficient volume margin, the mids are well developed, and the lower range is not bad either. Deep bass lovers can try playing with the equalizer, which will help change the sound image, albeit not without some distortion.
Radio
The smartphone has a radio that has the function of automatic search for stations, you can switch the input manually. You can also save several dozen frequencies in the phone's memory. You can easily switch between your favorite stations by clicking on a small icon that will automatically move between saved waves.
TrackID allows you to identify the melody sounding on the radio in your smartphone or somewhere nearby. Not only the song title will be displayed, but also the album title, artist name and cover art.
Organizer
The calendar in the device is made in a traditional style, the display of information for a whole month, a week or a specific day is configured. You can set the type and alert tone for recorded events and appointments. There is a separation of information by storage location, each option has its own color label.
When creating a new record, it is given a name, a period, a place. It is indicated with which of the calendars it will be synchronized, you can send invitations to contacts from the notebook. The repeat period is set (every day, weekly, monthly, yearly). A reminder will help you not to lose sight of the recording - the signal will work in advance.
Alarm
The smartphone allows you to save several alarms in memory. The repetition is set both for 1 time and for every day, only on weekdays or weekly. You can also set specific days. The melody of the signal is set, you can add a vibrating alert and a text file to it. Sets the period for the re-triggering of the signal.
The phone screen can display the weather forecast, date and time in large characters.
The calculator works in both portrait and landscape orientations. There is a menu of additional arithmetic operations.
Android Market is required for every device. There, the user can evaluate thousands of applications and choose the necessary set of applications for himself. There is a convenient search function, as well as dividing programs into categories, which greatly simplifies browsing. You can look at the reviews, evaluate the rating and express your opinion about the software. Each application is provided with a brief description and images for greater clarity. Purchased applications are displayed in a separate list, which is convenient: if a new phone was purchased, you can immediately install the programs that were previously purchased.
The application, which is standard for most modern devices, allows you to view videos and search among them. Works in full screen mode.
Working with office documents is limited by the capabilities of the pre-installed software - Office Suite allows you to view Word, Excel, PDF, Power Point files, but there is no possibility of editing them. You need to buy the full version of the application, where a wider range of features is available.
Weather forecast and news are useful every day.
media server
DLNA support allows you to view photos and videos from compatible devices wirelessly.
The Facebook application will allow you to communicate in the network of the same name directly from your mobile device. So, you can mark your favorite song in the player while listening. Facebook albums are added to the gallery, and information about friends' birthdays is added to the calendar.
Browser
For Internet surfing, a convenient application is used. A navigation bar is displayed at the top of the screen, to the right of it there is a shortcut that allows you to bookmark the page. The phone remembers the most visited pages, there is a log of pages viewed.
Multi-window support, search for words on the page, text selection, as well as a practical function for changing the brightness of the screen directly from the browser. Thanks to multi-touch, pages are easily scaled (virtual keys also work to change the size of the displayed one).
The font size changes, password saving works, flash is supported. Excellent speed and large screen allow you to comfortably use your smartphone to view WEB pages.
GPS navigation
For navigation, Google Maps is used - the standard software for all Android backgrounds. The only drawback is that the program requires constant network activity, which affects the amount of traffic consumed by the device. Traffic jams are displayed, thus, the application has become full-featured and convenient not only for pedestrians, but also for car owners.
There is a function of determining the current location, calculating the route from the start to the end point, and the method of movement is set: by car, on foot or by public transport. The route is laid on the map, while key places are indicated in the form of text messages that are displayed on the screen in the form of a column, you can switch between them: view the route in advance or vice versa, go back and lay a different path. Zooming works with multitouch or virtual buttons.
Settings
There are standard settings that are present in any Android smartphone. This section allows you to manage the capabilities of your smartphone in terms of modifying the interface, as well as changing various phone settings. The smartphone offers a convenient branded application that will set up all the key parameters. If you do not use it immediately after purchase, you can return to it later. A power saving function has appeared, which allows you to configure the settings in such a way that the device consumes a minimum amount of charge.
Connections
The smartphone operates in the GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 900/1700/2100 bands. There is Bluetooth 2.1 with support for EDR and A2DP, in addition to support for other common profiles.
Wi-FI b\g\n work is implemented at the usual level. The smartphone remembers the entered passwords for networks, can automatically connect to them, being within their range.
Using the microUSB connector allows you to connect your phone to a computer for synchronization and battery charging.
Working hours
Used lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 1500 mAh. Official data on operating time are as follows: up to 6.5 hours of talk time, up to 430 hours of battery life in standby mode, up to 36 hours of music listening.
On average, the phone works for a day, sometimes one and a half to two days. With 20-30 minutes of calls per day, 10-20 photos, 2 hours of listening to the player, 30-60 minutes of using network applications (browser, twitter), as well as using continuous synchronization with Google services, by the evening there were about 20-30% of fully charged battery in the morning. In this case, the screen brightness was set to the maximum value. It is worth noting that the work of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the background, although not very much, but still affects the time of work, it is better to turn them off. In general, the autonomy of the phone looks attractive.
In the continuous movie playback mode with the following settings: the maximum level of display backlight, synchronization is on, Wi-Fi is working, the smartphone lasted 5 hours 21 minutes.
Conclusion
There are no complaints about the dynamics, it is loud and conveys the timbre of the voice well. It's hard to miss a call, especially if you turn on xLOUD. In this case, the call signal can be heard in any situation.
The model fits perfectly into the company's lineup, I really liked the smartphone. Excellent size, high speed, good autonomy, as well as pleasant media capabilities. There is a decent camera, nice sound in headphones, excellent integration of social networks and Facebook in particular. Now the price tag is about 16,000 rubles. In the case when the dimensions of the device do not play a special role, the range of possible candidates for purchase expands. The attractiveness of the tested smartphone lies in the successful combination of compact size and filling. The device turned out to be harmonious, convenient in everyday life. For the above cost, you can now find a sufficient number of devices. But there are no analogues so compact, stylish and at the same time functional.
© Alexander Pobyvanets, Test Lab
Date of publication of the article - August 31, 2011
