Sim Free Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray

I’ve had the ray for a few months, so I pretty much have an idea by now. I won't touch on android, which is not sony ericsson proprietary, so it wouldn't help evaluate the device. on the good side - it's slim and light, with a monolitic design. definitely premium. I like the sharp edges, the combination between shiny and matte, the way everything is put together. best looking phone I ever had. also, minimalist, with only few buttons and one single plug (mini USB). it's also powerful - it hosts a capable processor (1GHz) - not the best among smartphones, but works wonders in terms of speed, multitasking and animation. the camera is capable, with 8Mp and HD video. however, like in all phones I had so far, regardless of resolution, the photo/video quality does not match dedicated photo/videos cameras. the display is amazing - very sharp, contrast is a blast, with the blackest black I have seen so far. colors are brilliant too. the touch screen is really responsive, you get pinch zoom, hand scroll, auto-rotate and the sort. animations are great, even though they eat the battery, which otherwise has decent life. it's also easy to connect everywhere, it took 1 minute to connect it to my wireless router at home, even less to my bluetooth system in my car. for those into streaming, it's DLNA capable. the phone can work as a media streaming device. I connected it to my Bravia, and I can listen to music and watch mpeg movies seamlessly and wirelessly directly from the phone. on the bad side - keyboard. a true pain in the neck. too small for me, even though my thumbs aren't large. fingerprints, too. it's terrible. being shiny, the display is a magnet for grease, and there is actually no way you can keep the display clean - once you touched it, it's gone. the display is too small for browsing. sure, there is zoom and scroll, but it gets tiresome to read several webpages in a row. and... no near-field-communication capability (kinda geeky, I admit :)) - even though the OS is gingerbread 2.3.4, which in theory is NFC compatible, the ray does not come with this feature. a shame though, I was looking forward to testing it.

Really slim and stylish - great camera with lots of pixels. Can do nearly everything it's fruity rival can including voice searches on google, internet, mapping, finding nearby facilities etc. Small enough to feel like - guess what - a phone but can do everything else. Needs charging most days. Good, clear screen but if you seriously want a big screen for your graphics you might be better with a different model.