The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is out in the market with both carrier based plans and with unlocked handset. Though, Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is not something worth locking with any carrier as the price is $300 under contract and retail version costs in between $500$-$700.
Carrier based plans usually offer phone insurance with most of the Sony handsets with that yearly contract.
So If you don’t want to get locked out with any carrier nearby then only option is to get unlocked handset. In my opinion purchasing retail version is much better option If the carrier plans are expensive for your usage.
The Xperia Ray has an impressive design and the modified UI look from Sony makes it more glossy. It has several different color options – Black, Gold, White and Pink, and all these designs look good if you compare this phone with any other glossy Android phones out there.
It is also very light weight with 100gms at 9.4” mm thick design. It doesn’t have much bigger display though, 3.3 inch is the display size of this phone, which is low if you’re used to handle bigger size touch displays.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Specs
Hardware Specs of Xperia Ray are – 1ghz scorpion single core processor, 512gb RAM, 1GB internal storage and 4gb extended storage with purchase (can be extended upto 32 gb).
It has an excellent 8 MP rear camera with flash and autofocus features. It lets you record videos at resolution 720p and has much better quality of picture compared to Android phones in this price range.
The front camera is relatively low end VGA camera which is sort of average in my opinion. Other hardware specs include – microUSB, LAN, Wifi, Bluetoon and DLNA features.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Battery Performance
Battery performance is improved a lot in this Sony handset and you get 2 full days in between the charges. If you’re not using too much browser and Camera then surely it’ll go on for a few more hours.
Overall performance wise, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray has a few glitches as the RAM is relatively low and the Android OS is not yet upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich.
It’s current UI is called Timescape and runs on the Android 2.3.4 version. There isn’t much addition into the UI and apps are also generic so you have to download more apps from official app store.
I find it a bit odd from Sony to have less apps on their Android phones as their non-Android devices have enough apps loaded by default.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is still a fairly good phone if you are interested in an Android mobile phone.