A nicely spec'd screen and an adequately powered chipset come together in a beautiful and well-built package, giving the Sony Xperia SP the right tools to survive in the cutthroat battle in this price bracket. The transparent LED strip, which now has even richer functionality, will definitely add character too to help it fight the last generation of flagships, fresh from relegation to the midrange.
Key features
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
3G with 42Mbps HSDPA and 5.8 Mbps HSUPA; 100Mbps LTE
4.6" 16M-color 720p TFT capacitive touchscreen with Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 and Corning Gorilla Glass protection
Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean
Dual-core 1.7 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU; Qualcomm S4 Pro MSM8960T chipset
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash
1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
VGA front-facing camera
Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
8GB of built-in storage
MHL-enabled microUSB port
Bluetooth v4.0
NFC
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Solid build quality
Ample 2370 mAh battery
Dedicated camera key
Main disadvantages
Screen has mediocre viewing angles
Not particularly slim and quite heavy
Non user-replaceable battery
Will compete with a number of quad-core smartphones
The Sony Xperia SP is a well-rounded package that's making very few compromises, considering its standing in the pecking order. A 1080p screen is certainly a nice thing to have, but we can live with 720p at this size and, while the two extra CPU cores that today's flagships offer give a definite productivity boost, the 1.7GHz Krait should do just fine in day-to-day tasks. Not to mention that the Xperia SP GPU is of the class-leading Adreno 320 variety, so gaming performance should be as good as it gets.
It seems then that Sony is ready to produce yet another gem in the midrange that offers a loud bang for your buck. The company has made this their specialty and we are certainly liking Sony's chances here. Besides, the Japanese are clearly fast learners - addressing the major issues of the Xperia P with its successor. The Xperia SP has the right-sounding battery backup (more than an Xperia Z, actually) and none of the WhiteMagic display trickery that compromised indoor performance to boost outdoor visibility.
