Sony Xperia Sola Review

Camera

The Sola is strapped with a five megapixel camera with an LED flash. Outdoor shots are pretty well captured but we required flash for indoor shots with low lighting. Quite a bit of noise was observed as well. These photos are best suited for casual usage and uploading to sites like Facebook et al. As far as the quality of the shots is concerned, this one still doesn’t manage to beat the One V. 

Camera interface

As far as video is concerned, the Xperia can shoot 720p videos at 30fps. We noticed quite a bit of colour banding though. It’s also worthy enough to mention that the cheaper Xperia U comes with a front camera whereas the Sola doesn’t come with one. 

Battery Life

Powering a dual core Android with a battery that doesn’t stack up on mAhs (1320 mAh battery) isn’t an easy job. In our Tech2 loop test, the phone ran for one whole loop that is two hours of calling, two hours of video, two hours of audio and one and a half hour of streaming via Wi-Fi, which is pretty average. We’d advise you to carry a charger at all times if you have even moderate to heavy usage. It’s also important to note that the phone doesn’t have too much standy time in real life and we reckon that is because the processor doesn’t switch to an effective low power state upon standby. We had noticed this in the earlier phone we reviewed as well, the Xperia U.

The Sola

Verdict and Price in India

The Sony Xperia Sola is priced at Rs. 19,800 (MOP). This price keeps it in the category of the One V, the Huawei Honor U8860 along with a few phones from the previous generation, like the Xperia Pro. Though the One V is slightly underpowered than this one, it boasts of a better build, Android 4.0, a better camera and last but definitely not the least, a better battery life - which makes us still recommend the V over the Sola. We’re still awaiting a worthy dual core smartphone under the 20K category. Anyone?