The Xperia Ray smartphone was announced by Sony Ericsson during June 2011 at CommunicAsia. The Xperia range of phones by Sony Ericsson has tasted success and Xperia Ray looks forward to carry that tradition. The company has tried every bit to ensure that it packs the phone with features and specifications to compete in the crowded Android smartphone market. Check out our exclusive Sony Ericsson Xperia ray review to know what the phone has in store for you.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Looks And Design

The phone is made entirely out of plastic and measures 111x53x9.4 mm. It is quite light weighing just 100 grams. Xperia ray feels like a smaller version of Xperia arc. But unlike Arc which has a curved back, Xperia ray does not have a curved back. The phone feels solid while being gripped and looks pretty good. The phone is very compact and easily slips into the pocket. Overall, the design team has done a fabulous job in designing the phone.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Display

The 3.3 inches Bravia mobile engines is one of the best LCD screens that we have seen in the market. The display is capable of displaying 16M colors of resolution measuring 480 x 854 pixels. The images displayed are sharp, crisp and vivid. However, since it is an LCD screen, viewing angles suffer when the screen is slightly tilted. On being tilted, the colors get washed out and the contrast is also slightly reduced.

Thanks to the non-reflexive surface coating, the screen boasts of great sunlight legibility. Because of the Bravia mobile engine, the quality of the images is improved manifold. The technology boosts contrasts and helps to reduce noise. The technology also sharpens image to a great extent. Above the screen lies the earpiece, proximity and the light sensors. Below the screen is the Home key, while on the left hand side you get microUSB port while the volume rocker button is on the right side of the phone. The power/lock key is in the middle which is pretty comfortable to press.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Features

One of the great features of the phone is its operating system. Xperia Ray runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS. The phone also boasts of several integrated applications like Google Search, Gmail, Youtube, Google Talk etc. Users can also download applications of their choice from the Android market. Xperia Ray also supports various games.

The phone has five pane home screens with four docked shortcuts. The internal memory of the phone offers storage of 1GB, which can be increased to 32GB with the help of the microSD card. A 4GB memory card is offered when you purchase the phone. The phone offers a virtual QWERTY keyboard for inputting text. The keys are well spread out and allow easy inputting of texts. The phone allows you to send all sort of messages which includes SMS, MMS and emails etc.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Specs

Let us take a look at some of the technical specifications of Xperia Ray

• Dimensions: 111 x 53 x 9.4 mm
• Weight: 100 grams
• Display Type: LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Display Size: 3.3 inches
• Internal Memory: 1GB
• Card Slot: 32GB
• OS: 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• CPU: 1GHz Scorpion Processor

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray PhoneBook

The phone book of the phone is capable of storing a large amount of information about your contact. The phone allows you to sync several accounts and you can redirect calls directly to your voicemail.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Camera

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray mobile is equipped with a 8MP camera which is capable of clicking pictures of resolution measuring 3264×2448 pixels. The auto focus camera has a single LED flash and is equipped with advanced features such as geo-tagging, face and smile detection, touch focus and image stabilization. Though the pictures clicked provided enough details, yet we felt that it could have been better. Noise levels are low and the photos have great contrast and colors.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Video Review

The phone is capable of recording 720p videos at 30fps which is fairly smooth. However in some areas we found that the sound is not that clear and noises were able to sneak in. The bit rate in the videos is a bit low and which did not allow keeping much details in the videos.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Connectivity

The phone offers a good set of connectivity options. It supports both 2G as well as 3G network. Connectivity is also enhanced by the presence of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 supporting A2DP and EDR profile. With DLNA support, you can connect the phone to DLNA enabled devices and the presence of a mini HDMI port allows you to connect the phone with a television having HDMI port. A standard 3.5 mm audio jack and microUSB 2.0 completes the connectivity options of the phone. The web browser of the phone is good and has full flash support. Because of flash support, the Youtube videos played were quite smooth. Higher resolution videos were a bit choppy to watch.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Multimedia

The onboard FM radio has a very clean interface and the music player is the same as you get in Arc and Neo. The video player in the phone supports only 3GP and MP4 videos. The audio quality of the phone is quite decent, though we felt that it could have been better.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Accessories

During Sony Ericsson Xperia ray unboxing we found the phone to be equipped with the following accessories

• Charger
• MicroUSB Cable
• Headset
• 4GB microSD card
• User manual

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Launch

The launch of the phone has taken place sometimes in August 2011.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Battery Life

The phone is equipped with a 1500mAh Li-Ion battery which provides a talk time of approximately 7 hours.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Price

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray price in USA is around $ 500 while price of the phone in India is approximately Rs 24,000.

Xperia Ray is a good smartphone which boasts of decent specifications and features. The nice screen coupled with its camera makes the phone a good purchase.