The Perfect Active Lifestyle Companion

The Good + Nippy responses + Mobile Bravia Engine sharpens and enhances images + Clever concepts make using the small screen easy + Dust proof and water resistant + Wet finger tracking technology works + Decent indoor and outdoor shots + Generous serving of bundled accessories

The Bad - Small screen - No option to switch screen’s auto brightness adjustment feature off - Low internal memory

The perennial race to create the most powerful smartphone in the slimmest profile has produced several impressive devices in recent memory but few could brave the splashes and tumbles of Mother Nature. Sony Ericsson marks a bold departure from this commercially successful, if rote formula with the Xperia Active – an active lifestyle companion which remarkably resists both dust and water. Small screen aside, the Xperia Active packs all the smart sensibilities of a top end phone. If you are looking for a weathered smartphone in a polished package, this is it.

Many of these smart sensibilities can be founded on its chubby frame which houses a 1 GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. The comparison is paled when the Xperia Active is measured against recent dual core powerhouses like the Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S2 but responses are noticeably nippy. This is due in part to the lesser demands of the smaller screen which is spread over a resolution of only 320 X 480. The low pixel count is for most parts a blasé decision, if thankfully excusable in the context of a 3-inch display. This is helped by the fact that the Xperia Active features the Mobile Bravia Engine which sharpens and enhances the vividness of images, lending the screen great colour balance and decent quality.

The Xperia Active comes with the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box – which translates into a more intuitive soft keyboard and improved gaming performances. The small screen suffers from a few limitations which are fortunately addressed with some clever concepts. For instance, the Xperia Active uses a default alphanumeric keypad but you have the option to switch to the more conventional qwerty keyboard. More noteworthy is the inclusion of the ability for you to pin application shortcuts to any of the corners of the screen in addition to the capability to expand them onto the 5 home screens. It is a creative approach that provides more real estate than the screen probably deserves and allows you more rapid access to the applications you often use.

The handset truly comes into its own when you uncover the features which are orientated towards an active lifestyle. Sony Ericsson claims that the Xperia Active is dust proof and water resistant – and it has the coveted IP67 certification which means that the phone will remain intact even if it is immersed in 1m of water. The Xperia Active is able to achieve this by means of a multi-layered protection which consists of a second cover beneath the sturdy rubberised back which hermetically seals the interior of the phone. The mini-USB and headphone ports at the bottom sport flaps that the phone will helpfully remind you to close after you unplug your cables. To test Sony Ericsson’s claims, I held the Xperia Active under running tap water for about a few minutes. Indeed, it was still brimming with life after the ordeal.

According to Sony Ericsson, the Xperia Active is also able to track your wet fingers on the screen. When I administered a huge concentration of moisture on the sliding unlock bar, I only managed to unlock the phone after a few attempts. But after an even distribution of moisture around the screen, I was able to navigate the menus with ease. In other words, the wet finger tracking technology works with reasonable success. Besides functioning under moisture, the brightness of the screen adjusts accordingly to the environment as well. It is handy for outdoor adventure junkies but less useful when viewing content indoors. Unfortunately, I could not find a switch to turn this feature off despite my best efforts to locate one. The result is a dim and dull screen when viewing content in a dark room – if you are someone like me who likes to surf the web in bed before sleep, it could only mean a risk to the eyes.

Like most phones these days, the Xperia Active is a 5 megapixel shooter. The camera delivers decent indoor and outdoor shots although the colours could be livelier. It is accompanied by a host of bonus features like timer, smile and face detection, autofocus, the ability to take panoramic shots, as well as a powerful LED flash. The capability to record videos in 720p HD is grist to the mill.

A purchase of the Xperia Active would net you a generous serving of bundled accessories, including an exchangeable cover, armband, a phone strap and a sleek and expensive looking pair of house-branded in-ear earphones that produces clean bass enhancing audio. As a phone for the more adventurous, the Xperia Active also comes pre-loaded with several fitness apps and functionalities like WalkMate and iMapMyFitness+, and built-in GPS, barometer and compass respectively. My only gripe is that the phone comes with just over 300MB of internal memory. There’s an included 2GB micro SD card but the slot can accept cards of capacity up to 32GB. Despite being positioned as an active lifestyle companion, the battery life is on par with other less-sporty phones which probably means you will have to recharge within the day if you are using the multiple fitness monitoring apps and web browsing intensively.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is now available at all major telcos and authorised retailers for $498 (without contract).

If you prefer a lifestyle-centric phone, don't forget to check out our review of the more powerful Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S HERE.

Review by Loh Yong Jian