My 18 month phone contract has just come to an end so I'm pondering the possibility of updating to something that is slightly more internet friendly than my current model. Seems a lot of today's smartphone manufacturers are intent on cramming the biggest possible screen into their devices, which looks great if you're playing games or watching films, etc but if you want to carry it round in your jeans then it's like having a paving slab in your pocket.

One of the ones I've been eyeing up is the Sony Xperia Ray as it seems to be a well spec'd phone but isn't enormous. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience of using this? Is it any good? A lot of online reviews say it's a very nice piece of kit but it's good to hear of first-hand experience.

I've got its sibling, the Xperia Arc.

Very happy with it really. Not an issue having it in my pocket at all (I tend to wear lose jeans though, so maybe an issue if you're into skinny jeans or other fashion disasters! :p).

Not too sure how similar it is to the Ray, so not going to go into any real detail incase it's all wasted! If you want to know any more though, feel free too ask.

Thanks for that Triggerfish - I did have a very quick look at the Arc in a phoneshop the other day and it does look nice and it's certainly not a problem in the thickness department...it's uber thin! Functionally the Ray seems to be almost identical, with the exception of an HDMI port which the Ray doesn't have. The only other thing I'm wondering about is typing on the Ray's smaller screen...need to have more of a play with one.

My fashion sense is somewhere between a dustbin and a cave man so it's not necessarily the most fashionable clothing I'm worried about it fitting in It's more that if I had it in my pocket and was doing whatever that it would get bashed...or that it would be uncomfortable to be sat down with it in my pocket, which would mean I'd end up taking it out of my pocket and would then undoubtedly forget about it and forever be leaving it behind or losing it.

What kind of battery life do you get? I know with smartphones these days if you can get more than a day or so out of one (with average use) then you're probably doing pretty well!

Just taken delivery of a Xperia Play today. Android 2.3.3 and 1ghz CPU. £200 outright purchase sim free. Comes with 7 free Playstation games too... Perhaps a little on the bulky side in terms of thickness. Very quick compared to my old phone though. HD Video in next update...

Just taken delivery of a Xperia Play today. Android 2.3.3 and 1ghz CPU. £200 outright purchase sim free. Comes with 7 free Playstation games too... Perhaps a little on the bulky side in terms of thickness. Very quick compared to my old phone though. HD Video in next update...

Sounds nice!

I think the Play is pretty similar innards to the Arc/Ray but with the addition of the slide out PS keypad thingy...is that right?

I've just abandoned Blackberry and now have an i-phone 4s. What a piece of kit

" Where have I been for the last 5 years? "

" Where have I been for the last 5 years? "

Why don't you ask Siri where you've been for the last 5 years? Although I don't suppose that's much use in the UK is it?! :p

Thanks for that Triggerfish - I did have a very quick look at the Arc in a phoneshop the other day and it does look nice and it's certainly not a problem in the thickness department...it's uber thin! Functionally the Ray seems to be almost identical, with the exception of an HDMI port which the Ray doesn't have. The only other thing I'm wondering about is typing on the Ray's smaller screen...need to have more of a play with one.

My fashion sense is somewhere between a dustbin and a cave man so it's not necessarily the most fashionable clothing I'm worried about it fitting in It's more that if I had it in my pocket and was doing whatever that it would get bashed...or that it would be uncomfortable to be sat down with it in my pocket, which would mean I'd end up taking it out of my pocket and would then undoubtedly forget about it and forever be leaving it behind or losing it.

What kind of battery life do you get? I know with smartphones these days if you can get more than a day or so out of one (with average use) then you're probably doing pretty well!

The HDMI is just a gimmic IMO, not really any use for it (I only just got the lead out at the weekend after a month or two of ownership!)

I've just come from an HTC Hero (3.2inch screen vs 3.3 on the Ray) and it's defiantly a slower process to type on the HTC too the Xperia Arc, and I have quite slim finger tips too.

In terms of bashing it, that's something that's always bothered me, even with smaller slide phones and iPods etc. In terms of being uncomfy, it seems only be an issue if it's across the top of your leg, and is pulling the trousers tight, otherwise I don't really find it an issue.

Battery life - with 3G on syncing email, and a couple of other things I get 1 day (24 hours, including overnight with no use) out of it, including maybe an hours worth of angry birds and some web use. I'm sure I could get it to need charging by the evening after starting with a full battery in the morning with some heavy use.

If I don't use it much, but just use the 3G syncing, it gets about 2 days or so.

I think the Play is pretty similar innards to the Arc/Ray but with the addition of the slide out PS keypad thingy...is that right?

I think so. Having had the thing running for a day now, I am really impressed with it. In terms of battery life, it was on since I got it yesterday morning on about 70% charge, I downloaded about 2gb over my home LAN wifi (all the free games, files on my media server etc) and played games for about an hour and by 11pm it started complaining the battery was at 15%.

Unfortunately no way to root it without doing a boot loader flash as it runs Android 2.3.3 but found on my previous 2.1 based phone that Advanced Task Killer, set to Autokill every hour, yielded a 30% improvement in battery life.

Great phone. I think the Ray is slightly more up spec and thinner but was another £80, sim free.