Sony Xperia T (renamed Sony Xperia TL in the United States) is an Android

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...

manufactured by

Sony Mobile Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. ...

. Introduced on 29 August 2012, it is Sony Mobile's last device ever introduced to feature the Sony Ericsson liquid energy logo after

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

acquired

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in inform ...

's stake in Sony Ericsson in January 2012. It was released in October 2012.

Specifications

Design

The design of the Xperia T represents an evolution of the Xperia Ion, with a curved, matte anodized aluminum body, side-mounted buttons, a recessed camera lens, and a circular contact point for

near-field communications Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be ...

below the camera. Xperia T features a 4.6-inch display with a "scratch-resistant" coating. There is an "Xperia" logo on the lower bezel of the display while there is a front-facing camera, a "Sony" logo, an earpiece, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor on the upper bezel of the display. The device does not feature any physical navigation buttons as the buttons are integrated into the software. On the side frame; Xperia T has a microphone at the bottom, a secondary microphone and a 3.5 mm headphone jack at the top, a microUSB port at the left side and a microSIM card/microSD card tray and three buttons (that are the power button, the volume rocker and the shutter key from top to bottom, respectively) at the right side. The rear camera, the LED flash and the speaker are located at the back panel alongside the "Xperia" logo and the liquid energy logo of Ericsson. Xperia T measures 129.4 x 67.3 x 9.35 mm and weighs 139 grams.

Hardware

The Xperia T features a 4.55-inch

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcas ...

(720x1280 pixels resolution) LCD display with Mobile

BRAVIA Bravia (stylized as BRAVIA) is a brand of Sony Visual Products Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, and used for its television products. Its backronym is "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture". All Sony high-defi ...

Engine and 323 ppi pixel density,

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, ...

Snapdragon S4 This is a list of Qualcomm Snapdragon systems on chips (SoC) made by Qualcomm for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, smartwatches, and smartbooks devices. Before Snapdragon SoC made by Qualcomm before it was renamed to Snapdr ...

SoC with a 1.5 GHz dual-core (Krait)

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...

, 1 GB of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

, and 16 GB of internal storage that can be expanded by using a microSD card. The device also features a 13

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

rear-facing camera capable of Full HD (

1080p 1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen ve ...

) video recording at 30 fps and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera capable of HD (

) video recording at 30 fps. It has a 1850 mAh battery and MHL support.

Software

The Xperia T is shipped with Android 4.0.4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" with Sony's custom user interface and software, and integrates with in-house services such as

Sony Entertainment Network Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) was a digital media delivery service operated by Sony. SEN provided access to services, including PlayStation Network for games, Video Unlimited for film and television, Music Unlimited for music, and PlayMemor ...

. The Smart Connect app allows actions to be triggered when specific events occur, such as scanning an NFC "SmartTag". The user interface also allows the use of pop-up "small apps". An update to Android 4.1.2 "Jelly Bean" was released 8 July 2013. An update to Android 4.3 was released in February 2014, introducing a refreshed user interface. The Xperia T was not officially upgraded to Android 4.4 "KitKat".

Release

The Xperia T was released in three models; the LT30P is the main international

HSPA+ Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...

version. Two LTE models were released, the LT30A, and the Sony Xperia TL—an

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

-branded model for the United States. The Xperia T was cross-promoted with the then-latest installment in the ''

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

'' film franchise, ''

Skyfall ''Skyfall'' is a 2012 spy film and the twenty-third in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. The film is the third to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond and features Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the vill ...

'' (released by Sony subsidiary

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

), which features

product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...

of the device being used by the

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

. The AT&T,

O2 (United Kingdom) O₂ UK (legally incorporated as Telefonica UK Limited, stylized as O₂) is a British telecommunications services provider, headquartered in Slough, England. It operates under the O2 brand. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

, and Canadian models of the Xperia T were bundled with ''James Bond''-themed content, including a

Gun barrel sequence The gun barrel sequence is a signature device featured in nearly every List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' film.Cork, John & Scivally, Bruce (2002). ''James Bond: The Legacy''. Boxtree, 46. Shot from the point of view of a presumed assassin, ...

wallpaper, special ringtones, behind-the-scenes footage, and geotagged photos from the filming of ''Skyfall''.

Reception

The Xperia T received mixed but mostly positive reviews. ''Ars Technica'' praised the screen's "crisp" and legible appearance, but found that the Xperia T's performance was underwhelming in comparison to competitors such as the

LG Optimus G The LG Optimus G (retrospectively referred to unofficially as the LG Optimus G1, or LG G1) is a smartphone designed and manufactured by LG Electronics. It was announced on September 19, 2012; On January 18, 2013, LG announced that the device reac ...

and

iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the 6th generation iPhone, succeeding both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and preceding both the iPhone 5S and 5C. It was formally unveiled as part of a press ...

. While the camera software was panned for not containing as many additional features, the camera itself was described as having a "decent" quality and adequate low-light performance, but did not handle scenes with bright lights well. Although outperforming Sony's estimates for battery life in regards to video playback (lasting for 6 hours and 15 minutes of video as opposed to estimates of 5 hours), the Xperia T's battery was also considered "insufficient", lasting eight to nine hours in regular use. In conclusion, ''Ars Technica'' felt that the Xperia T did not meet their expectations for a product associated with the ''James Bond'' franchise, arguing that "given how the phone is calibrated relative to other offerings, the Bond association is at best nonsensical, at worst an insult to the Bond-quality technology legacy." GSMArena described the Xperia T as "a package that is very well put together". However, GSMArena stated that Xperia T was too expensive and they also criticized the poor viewing angles of the display and low speakerphone loudness, and stated that video recording could be better. ''CNET'' felt that the Xperia TL was a major improvement over the Xperia Ion, citing its newer Android platform (albeit not using the latest version on-launch), better CPU, "snapping quality" camera, and fast LTE data speeds, but felt that the design of the T lacked "style" in comparison to devices such as the

HTC One X The HTC One X is a touchscreen-based, slate-sized smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC. It was released running Android 4.0.3, (upgradeable to 4.2.2) with the HTC Sense 4.0 skin (later upgradeable to 5.0). The One X is powered by the NVID ...

, and that the display had low contrast and poor viewing angles in comparison to

AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matrix ...

displays such as the

Samsung Galaxy S III The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. ...

References

External links

*
Xperia T (LT30p) whitepaper from Sony Mobile

Xperia T LTE (LT30a) whitepaper from Sony Mobile

Xperia TL (LT30at) whitepaper from Sony Mobile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sony Xperia T Android (operating system) devices Mobile phones introduced in 2012 Discontinued smartphones T