Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review

Since the Xperia Play, we've yet to see Sony Ericsson really wow us with its originality. Once the home of music phones in the form of the Walkman series, it seems most of its smartphones are much of a muchness, which isn't a bad thing as they are usually good value for money but it's not great in such a competitive market.

Branching out from Sony Ericsson Walkman heritage of old is the Xperia Neo. It's a sleek smartphone, which attempts to make up for its slightly plasticky feel with a blue-to-black gradient paint job that makes it stand out amongst a crowd of HTC greys, iPhone whites and Samsung blacks.

It's also an attractive shape, with an ergonomic chassis you could hold all day long if there wasn't a risk of your ears falling off.

Bucking the trend of over 4-inch displays, the Neo sticks with 3.7-inches, which is ample for the average smartphone task. The colours are good and it's responsive to the touch - we're just a little bored of the blue user interface colouring, if brutally honest, but that's just nitpicking.

The Neo can be upgraded to Android Gingerbread 2.3.4, which is just one behind the latest version - and we would imagine it won't stay like that for too long. Google is keen to push ahead with a fairer update system.

Until then, though, we must settle with a very, very slightly behind-the-times operating system that works well. Android is perfect for fans of phone customisation as there are a ton of apps available, many of which are free. Granted, it takes a little more time to get used to than iOS or Windows Phone but not a lot longer.

Thanks to the 1GHz processor, of the single core variety, the Neo is a remarkably slick phone that eats most tasks for breakfast. Occasional pauses and stutters are to be expected and infrequent enough to not ruin the experience.

On top of Android is Sony Ericsson's array of user interface (UI) improvements, including its social network stream known as Timescape. We've said it before and we will say it again: Android 2.3 doesn't really need any enhancements and there are apps available on the Market that do a more capable job of the ones you get pre-loaded.

Also, Timescape is ugly, but in its defence, functional. It puts all your social networking correspondence in one place, which is useful, but we usually always remove it for the sake of our eyes.

For photography enthusiasts, the Neo enjoys a Sony Exmor R camera, which helps with taking images in low-light. Apart from making it more useful in less favourable lighting conditions, the quality is also excellent. It's easy to boast about numbers but the 8-megapixel snapper does an admirable job. Colour representation is accurate and movement can be captured up to a reasonable point.

The camera's functionality is also very easy to use, thanks to the interface, and the 720p quality helps ensure it's great for videos, too. It's up there with the Samsung Galaxy S2 for sheer quality, because of its ability to deal with movement and the ability to focus quickly.

Although music playback is great with most modern-day smartphones, Sony Ericsson continues the trend with the Neo. The player isn't as attractive to look at as the Zune player on Windows Phone 7 but the sound quality is a lot better. Throw in a 3.5mm jack and 8GB of memory via an included microSD card and music-lovers are well catered for.

The Neo includes a front-facing camera for video calls, as well as an HDMI connection for watching media through an HDMI television or monitor. Oddly, Sony Ericsson neglected to add one to the gaming-centric Xperia Play but avoided making the same mistake twice. It's not an essential feature for every day us but it's not common at this price range.

Onto the negatives, then. The attractive paint job does attract smeary finger prints and we wish Sony Ericsson would up the quality on the buttons - they feel as plasticky as the handset itself. It's not that we think the construction is flimsy - far from it, in fact - but they come across as a bit cheap and the camera button needs to be pressed quite hard to work.

We also didn't get that wow-factor from Sony Ericsson. The Neo is a very capable phone and can be yours for as little as £240, which makes it a bit of a bargain if you want all the features of Android 2.3 with a good camera.

But we can't help but feel a unique paint job and its overall good looks deserve some premium materials. Let's face it, it's not exactly the slimmest phone around, even if it is pretty light. Just a little excitement would've gone down a treat - not just for the Neo but all current Sony Ericsson smartphones.

Still, aesthetics aside, anyone in the market for a smartphone with a reasonably sized screen and a great camera could do a hell of a lot worse than the Neo.