Sony Xperia GX SO-04D

Today we’ll be taking a look at the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a really powerful phone, or at the very least “decent” for all of you power freaks out there, as are the latest phones from the GX series. However, just like those other phones, the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is said to only be available in the Japanese Market. Now there has been a lot of protest on forums and stuff for Sony to release these phones world-wide. However, since not much info was released about these phones as far as release dates go, we may still be in for a surprise.

Enough with the intros, let’s begin this little review now.

GENERAL

We’ll begin by taking a look at the more general aspects of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit info about the networks of the device, the announcement and the release dates. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D supports both 2G and 3G networks, however, what makes it really special is the fact that it also has support for the non-standard GSM networks – the CDMA ones. The supported networks of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D are : GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 ( the 2G ones ) and HSDPA 850, HSDPA 2100, CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO ( the 3G ones ). The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D was announced in May 2012 and there isn’t yet any solid information as to when this phone will actually come out. We do know, however, that it will most likely hit the market in Q3 of 2012. Due to lack of specifics, I can’t provide much reliable info about the release date. Since there’s nothing left to say here, let’s move on.

BODY

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the body of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of information about the size and weight of the device as well as find out whether or not the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D has any more particularities which are body-related. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is around 126 x 66 x 11.9 mm big and weighs somewhere around 149 grams. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D also has Touch-Sensitive Controls instead of buttons. This phone is quite spectacular since it is also Water Resistant. However, I can’t tell for sure at what depth it can go or for how long. Usually it is specified, but since it isn’t for this phone, I’ll go ahead and assume it’s just like the rest : up to 1 meter depth or for 30 minutes of submersion. That’s about it for the body, let’s move on now.

DISPLAY

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the display of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of info about the type of screen  of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D, the screen size, the screen’s resolution and pixel density, as well as find out whether or not this device has any screen protection and any display-related particularities that we should be aware of. The screen of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is an LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen with approximately 16 million colors. The screen of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is around 4.3 inches big and can easily house a resolution of approximately 720 x 1280 pixels. The pixel density of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is approximately 342 ppi, which is a beet excessive by ANY man’s standards, considering that the human eye can only perceive up to 300. It’s good that it has this much, but one may be right when one calls anything above 300 – Overkill. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D also has Multitouch, one so advanced that it can support up to 10 fingers simultaneously on it. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D also has a Scratch-Resistant Glass display as its screen protection. This phone has the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine on it and the Timescape UI, should you choose to activate it. That’s about enough said about the display, so let’s move on now.

SOUND

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the sound of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit about the the Alert types, the speaker and audio jack as well as see whether or not the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D has any sound enhancement whatsoever on it, be it software based or othersie.. The Alert Types of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D are as following : Vibration and MP3 Ringtones. This phone also has a Loudspeaker and a 3.5 mm jack. Unfortunately, the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D has no sound enhancement whatsoever on it, so since there is nothing left to say, let’s move on.

MEMORY

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the memory of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of info about the RAM memory, the internal storage space and ways of expanding said storage space. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D has 1 GB of RAM, which is pretty darn good considering this is the current maximum. The internal storage space of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is around 11 GB, and if by some unholy reason you require more, feel free to use the Micro SD card slot of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D to upgrade it since this phone has a Micro SD card slot which can use any card of up to 32 GB. That’s about it for the memory, so let’s move on now.

DATA CONNECTION

Next up we’ll take a brief look at the connectivity of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of information about the GPRS and  EDGE of the device, the Speed and WLAN as well as the Bluetooth, USB and other, if any, connections. This phone has both GPRS and EDGE, however, it isn’t mentioned what Class or Speed they are and can reach. The Speed of this device is : Rev. A+ up to 9.2 MB/s, HSDPA and HSUPA. The WLAN of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot. The Bluetooth of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a v2.1 one with A2DP and EDR. This phone also has an Infrared Port, something which is extraordinarily rare among new phones. The USB port of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a Micro USB v2.0 one. That’s enough for the connectivity, so let’s move on now.

CAMERA

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the camera of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of info about the main and secondary cameras of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D, as well as info about their features and capabilities. The main camera of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a 12 MP one which is capable of photographing at resolutions of around 4000 x 3000 pixels. The features of this camera are : autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama and image stabilization. The video recorder of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D can record in 1080p full HD at around 30 frames per second. The features of the video recorder are : continuous autofocus, video light and video stabilization. The secondary camera of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a 1.3 MP one and it capable of recording in 720p at around 30 frames per second. That’s about it for the camera, so let’s move now to the next part.

BATTERY LIFE

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the battery of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit about the battery type and how long it can function. Since this phone supports two modes, normal and CDMA, it has two different survival times for each one. The battery of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a Standard Li-Ion 1900 mAh battery. In the normal mode it can stay in stand-by up to 440 hours in 2G and 410 hours in 3G. Also in normal mode, it can stay powered during talk-time for up to 8 hours and 10 minutes in 2G and 8 hours and 50 minutes in 3G. In CDMA mode, this phone can stay powered up to 330 hours of stand-by and up to 9 hours and 30 minutes of talk-time. Also, no matter the mode you keep your Sony Xperia GX SO-04D in, its battery can only survive for up to 26 hours of music play. That’s about it for this part, so let’s move on.

HARDWARE

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the hardware of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of info about the device’s main hardware components : processor, motherboard and graphics card. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D has a Dual-Core 1.5 GHz processor, which is pretty good. Not among the best, since those are Quad-Cores, but sufficient. The chipset of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is a Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon and the GPU of this device is an Adreno 220 one. All and all it has a pretty decent configuration. Since there’s no more to be said about the hardware of this phone, I’d say we move on.

SOFTWARE

Next up we’ll be taking a look at the software of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. Here you can find out a bit of info about the OS version of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D and whether or not it can be upgraded to a better one. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D has Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread. To my deepest disappointment, there is no news of any future upgrade to v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for this phone. We know not if it will even receive one. Only time will tell. Since we’ve nothing left to discuss here, let’s move on.

FEATURES

Last but not least, let’s take a look at the features and capabilities of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. The sensors of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D are as following : Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity and Compass. The messaging on this phone can be done via : SMS ( with Threaded View ), MMS, E-Mail, IM and Push Mail. The browser of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D uses HTML5 and has integrated support for Adobe Flash. This phone also has a Radio and its GPS has integrated support for A-GPS and GLONASS. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D also has Java via Java MIDP emulation. The Sony Xperia GX SO-04D is available in the following colors : White, Black and Rouge.

Here is a brief list of what the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D can do :

• Mobile FeliCa client
• MicroSIM card support only
• Digital TV and TV launcher
• SNS integration
• HDMI port
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
• MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
• TrackID music recognition
• Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk
• Document viewer
• Voice memo/dial/commands
• Predictive text input

This concludes our little review of the Sony Xperia GX SO-04D. If you feel that anything is lacking from this review feel free to leave your suggestions in the comment section below for things which should be added and I will be sure to take them into consideration when writing my future projects. In the meantime, I sincerely hope you had as much fun reading my little review as I had writing it.