Xperia Play review: The "PlayStation phone" with a slide-out gamepad and PS controls.
The PlayStation phone.
The Xperia Play realised the long-rumoured "PlayStation phone" — a slide-out gamepad with a D-pad, face buttons and touchpads, plus a library of PlayStation Pocket titles. The optimised-game catalogue stayed small, but as a gaming-phone landmark it is unforgettable.
01Display
54/10054/100 is one of the weaker display results among mid-range phones of 2011 — 6 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
50/10050/100 trails the 54-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2011.
03Performance
50/10050/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2011.
04Battery
54/10054/100 trails the 56-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2011.
05Build
60/10060/100 trails the 66-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2011.
06Value
56/10056/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2011.
- Slide-out PlayStation gamepad with D-pad and dual touchpads.
- PlayStation Pocket game library.
- Stereo speakers.
- microSD + jack.
- Thick 16 mm gaming slider.
- Only 5 MP camera, FWVGA screen.
- Limited optimised game library.
- Heavy 175 g.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 10-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .