Sony Ericsson's Ray of light

Even the name is pretty: Xperia Ray. One of the new phones released by Sony Ericsson in the fourth quarter of 2011, Xperia Ray stands out for both what’s outside and what’s inside.

Sony Ericsson has been very busy this year, launching Android phones designed for just about every lifestyle — from the fit and healthy to gamers and texters. Xperia Ray, though they never say it outright, seems to have been designed for women.

In fact, you can almost say it is like today’s modern woman: feminine and fun (one color option apart from black, white and gold is pink); elegant in its minimalist form (there is just one button in front, the “home” key, and everything else is touchscreen); and so slim that you wonder how they packed it with all the features that you also find in the bigger and more manly Xperia Arc. If Xperia Arc with its look and slew of features screams CEO Phone, this one is no different, except it screams Woman CEO.

The problem with using a new phone is getting used to actually using it. Xperia Ray is a touchscreen phone. Before December last year, I was using a touchscreen keypad phone, lost it, and got a new one. All throughout this year, I’ve gotten used to a non-touchscreen, qwerty phone, so it was something of a new thing again for me to be using a touchscreen (please don’t use the it’s-like-riding-a-bike analogy because I can’t ride a bike). If you really can’t do qwerty Xperia Ray gives you the option to switch to keypad mode.   

If you’re looking to upgrade your phone or stuffing someone’s stocking with a special gift, go for the beautiful, sexy and smart Xperia Ray.

I had trouble at first texting and then I realized this is a touchscreen, so I flipped it to horizontal view and the keypad spread out, which was so much easier than texting with the phone upright. Like other smartphones, the texts are displayed as conversation. But unlike another phone with its green and white bubbles, Xperia Ray’s text bubbles are displayed in blue (dark blue for sent text, lighter blue for received, with the text in white font). Another difference is that timestamps are inside the bubbles, which is more convenient and not confusing at all, and this makes for a tighter look when viewing a long thread.

When you switch from the conversation to the text inbox, each item sort of flips down, like those airport boards announcing departing and arriving flights. The only word I can think of to describe this is aliw.

I’m just saying, Xperia Ray designers took a wholistic approach to this minimalist look and feel, down to how the texts and messages are displayed. And I’m a woman — little things like these are important to me.

The cascading style is also used in Xperia Ray’s Timescape, the social application for all your communication. It notifies you of new e-mail, text messages, missed calls, tweets, Facebook activities. In fact, Facebook is integrated into the Xperia Ray, so that you don’t have to go to the FB site to look at your newsreel. The statuses, photo updates and shared links of all your friends are on Timescape, and all you need to do is swipe the screen with your finger and each box flips up or done, like digital pages of a book. And when you want to go into that person’s profile, just tap it and it takes you to his or her wall. Timescape also allows you to see all your conversations with a personWith the Google services, as well as access to over 200,000 apps on the Android Market your phone can keep you entertained for hours on end.

Xperia Ray combines a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB RAM and Android 2.3 Gingerbread in its compact form. The high-resolution screen, powered by Bravia, is 3.3 inches, a good size for viewing pictures taken with thei eight-megapixel camera or 720p video recordings. I’ve taken pictures with it inside the office and from the office to the printing press below where the lighting is not that good, but the pictures still came out great, thanks to the Exmor R sensor, which boasts improved low-light performance. You can also geotag your pictures!

Santa baby, stuff my stocking with an Xperia Ray of sunshine

Xperia Ray comes with all the standards, such as Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth, microSd slot (32 GB supported, 4GB card included), audio jack, microUSB port for charging and connecting to a laptop, Adobe Flash support and voice dialing. 

So if you’re looking to upgrade your phone or stuffing someone’s stocking with a special gift, go for the beautiful, sexy and smart Xperia Ray.

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Buyers of Sony Ericsson handsets from concept shops and participating dealers from now until Dec. 31 will have a chance to win over P1 million worth of prizes in three Sony 3D showcases. Buyers get a number of raffle tickets depending on their purchased handset model. Purchase of the Xperia Arc, Xperia Ray, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo V, Xperia Pro and Xperia Arc S entitles the buyer to as much as three raffle tickets. For more details on promos and products, join the Sony Ericsson PH community on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sonyericssonph.