Buying the "PlayStation Phone" in 2024
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
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The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play was Sony's attempt at making a PlayStation-esque gaming smartphone. Over a decade later, how does it hold up?
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:42 - Unboxing
4:07 - Sponsor
6:09 - A Smartphone of the Time
8:19 - How "PlayStation" really is it?
11:42 - PS1 Emulation (& more)
Team Credits:
Host & Writer
/ kenbolido
Executive Producer
@austinevans
Editor
@LukePollack
Denki is an Overclock Media production.
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Smartphones and emulation have certainly come a long way over the past decade, but even still! The Xperia Play is a fascinating device to look back at in 2024 😊
Hey, you forgot to put the resources into the description ;) Great video!
I recall a video about a special version of Minecraft made specifically for the Xperia Play.
Yo I recommend dropping better help as a sponsor, look into the issues with data privacy and stuff, very well documented on RUclips. Love the content tho!
He need that money
They had about millions of user. With that amount of users they surely didn't even care about one single data.
@@renofumi28 it's not about betterhelp themselves wanting to misuse the data, it's the people they share that data with (Facebook (meta), etc), it promotes advertising to ppl based on their mental health problems (aka. taking advantage of their vulnerability)
@@renofumi28that’s not the point. Dude’s talking about personal information being hacked from the company, not necessarily just Denki’s but potentially everyone who used the service. Hence them possibly being a bad company to go to therapy with
@@renofumi28The issue isn't about them using the data, it's about them selling access to it to others. Some people say "Well, even fast food places sell your data these days", but there's a difference between selling a profile based on how you going to McD's twice a week and selling a profile based on mental health
this was my first ever android smartphone. Today, with my fold 5 and a clip-on controller I'm living the emulation dream that this phone gave me all those years ago.
Ah, this takes me back! This was my first smartphone and honestly, it was the best for running emulators. I had it for two solid years until the sliding mechanism gave out, and I couldn’t use the controller functions anymore. The touch analogs were top-notch, seriously perfect for emulation, and it definitely holds a special place in my heart among gaming handhelds. I really wish they’d make something similar today. I'd snap it up in a heartbeat, especially with how much mobile gaming has evolved since my high school days. It was a one-of-a-kind phone console that actually delivered on its promises. Thanks for making this video; it really stirred up some good old nostalgia!.
same! its my first phone too, i went to the ATT store and gave my money to my dad to purchase it for me.
BetterHelp Placement is a big L
Loved my Xperia Play but it there were a lot of reasons it failed. For starters the specs were dated even when it was first released. CPU was okish but it only had 512mb of ram and only that amount of storage as well. Might not sound that bad but back then you couldn't even save apps on an SD card and it was such a pain to keep that tiny storage room empty.
Remember having to root the phone and mess with a lot of software just to be able to add stuff to it without constantly deleting other stuff to make space.
Also the damn thing was way too expensive when it launched. It was iphone levels of pricing without the performance, screen or popularity. It got price dropped almost instantly but it was already too late. It was charging flagship levels of money for a niche dated device only a handful of people would want.
Still I really liked it. Gameloft supported it quite a bit and even if their games were cheap imitations of known IPs (from Uncharted and Halo to Starcraft and CoD) they were still fun and Xperia Play was the best way to enjoy them. PS1 games also for the most part played perfectly.
They should’ve just put the vita chipset in there and let it dual boot android and vitaOS. Would’ve helped both the vita platform and this phone.
@@battman505It probably wasn't possible in that small chassis, vita had a bigger battery and even then it didn't have the best battery life
That microSD slot is actually an M2 slot. A lot harder to come by the 16GB versions of those... but tbh, you might be able to use one of the adapters meant for the PSP Go on that thing.
definitely gunna watch this when i get home, thanks for being the best ken
You got the dream job man! You're doing great with your life!
It's impressive how somebody created an actual PlayStation smartphone!
I remember back when I first got Minecraft on Android that its controls were better optimized for this PlayStation Phone than for touchscreen. XD
loving the retro tech videos in the modern day. Would love to see more old tech, especially those that people still somehow use today like the ipod video. Also might wanna rethink that sponsor.
For anyone looking for this kind of form factor I would recommend the PSP go instead... Especially for EDC emulation device...
It has the same form factor, extremely easy to mod, and fit in ur pocket perfectly.. The charging cable also USB compatible so you can just plug it on your power bank or ur smartphone power brick... and it can run old game up to PS1 beautifully... 👍👍👍
The problem with touch input panels may be due to the fact that the phone is on charge. Unplug the cable and recheck
Nope, never worked for me period
@@DNKI sad :(
Omg Ken please drop the background you had in the intro here in the comments :O
There was a number of android games from the play store that worked great with the Xplay controls. Shadow Gun comes to mind that ran/played really well and the Asphalt series up to a point in time. I also (I don't remember why) bought a doom emulator and played through all the Dos dooms on it. I just had to import the WAD files for what ever game. I think the touch joy sticks got a bad rap because people didn't use them properly or maybe I just got used to them, IDK, but they did work just fine for some games. The aging OS and newer options really make this phone more of a collectible then anything. I used it as a music player just outside my house while grilling for a while due to the better then average speakers (for the time).
I still have mine, but it hasn't aged well. The touchscreen no longer registers, the plastic volume buttons on the side keep popping off, and the coating on the thumb controls has started to scratch off. Interestingly enough the battery seems to hold a charge better then the one in this video.
I ALMOST bought one of these years ago. I went to a pawn shop and they had it. I was on iPhone with AT&T at the time but I stopped by Verizon and checked out their prices. It was roughly the same as AT&T so I told them I would come back with the phone to make the switch. Went back to the pawn shop and they had sold it.
That’s crazy, I was JUST looking to buy one of these after I saw your PSP vid.
I had one back in 2013. Great phone for emulation and nothing else. By the time I got it mobile gaming was looking even better so this phone wasn't able to even run newer games properly. The best feature of the Xperia Play was no doubt the physical buttons, they were responsive and felt great to press. Mine broke bc of that ribbon cable and never bothered to fix it.
This was my first smartphone and it was freaking amazing!!! Legendary phone, still miss it today...
I wanted this so badly back in the day, such a unique gadget.
To me This is definitely one of those looks cool devices but in reality I found it way too bulky and heavy to use as an everyday phone and sold it soon after to get the much thinner and lighter Samsung galaxy s2
I use this phone to play NES and SNES, as well as a couple of games from PS1, the setup is really very painful, but you know for sure that this device will not call you when you play (after all, the SIM card is in your modern phone) but if If your phone runs out of power or is broken, you can insert a SIM card and make a call or send an SMS.
I still have mine. I went from the X10 Mini, to this one. And I loved the keyboard on the X10 for SNES emulators. But way more on this one. I still used that phone as an emulator for a bit after I upgraded. And yes... it took some getting to work. I had to root mine to make it easier. Tho I've not booted mine for a while. So no idea how the battery is doing. But today? Heck even a PSP is a better option for SNES on the go with the firmware that has now.
My dad got me this phone for Christmas, it was incredible! I loved playing Crash Bandicoot, Minecraft & GBA games such Pokémon all utilising the gamepad.
The pekora plush in the background lmfao 🤣
I remember when this phone came out! I sold it here in Canada under the rogers network! Back then all phones was locked to there networks!
What portable charger are you using there?
Mind blowing no one else has attempted this form factor.
PSP Go: am i a joke to you
@@LouisianaBurnsna but in like a phone. The psp go was a dedicated handheld
Sony owns the patent for "slide up gaming controller on a phone" unfortunately :( They renewed it recently as well.
I hope those retro handheld company can try this kind of form factor.
Bro the bruce lee game i used to play on mine was sick af. The only thing that was stupid was the notification indicator was on the very top of the phone on the power button.
Quick feedback :
please spend the extra time to do small things. Like getting a sim adapter.
Shows commitment. Important to earn long term subscribers. 🙂
You can root the phone and update the software with a cyanogen android or some other modded android version for a better experience and can still be used today.
They could easily revive this idea with modern insides.. it would be great
At this time I had a Samsung Galaxy Epic 4G. It slid out and had a full keypad with arrow keys. I LOVED that phone so much. I wish I had kept it when I upgraded. This phone reminds me of that phone a lot, but with custom keypad. I want a company to try to bring back a sliding keyboard. I feel with games as popular as they are, and phones as capable as they are, it would have some kind of market.
You just unlocked a memory of mine 😂
Gotta love these devices that tried to bridge the gap between high-end feature phone and smartphone. It's a shame the industry isn't willing to go back to it all that much
Mine doesn't not have the white shell, wonder what version model you got, still a good phone enjoyed every minute of its use, and is can be a pretty good hacking tool :) as well.
I loved my Sony Xperia Play! That phone had a lot of promising features. I wish we got a version 2 with updated specs.
I had one, I wish it had more ram, they should make a updated version
I owned this phone in my 20s. Thing was pretty dope with emulation.
I saw 2 items in your video that confused me. You talked like modern phones do not have removable batteries, or headphone jacks. My Samsung Galaxy A14 5G phone has both of those.
Fun fact, the Xperia play is supposed to be modeled after the PSP go
i always wanted it back then but didn’t want to switch to Verizon for it
I had this phone when i was a kid it was wild.
If this phone comes out with latest specs, I would buy it over any other phone out there!
Love the Alpha Tauri Cap! Nice to see another F1 fan!!
I wonder why all those handheld companies didnt make something like this? Well I think the slidder mechanism is gonna be expensive to make
Is not exactly expensive, but the extra hardware work to make this functional is not worth it. Also, sliding and hinged devices has the big flaw that flat cables are frail by nature and not easy to repair if needed (small spaces or problematic holes. Yes, I'm looking to you DS 😒)
It wasn't that fast. It was almost obsolete when it hit the street. It had that funky non-combined memory and not enough of it.
The gaming part of it was solid and I tried to love this phone. I had to hack the colonel use a custom firmware and a bigger battery.
I really wish they would try again though
I believe I still have the charging dock station for it🤔
I had the AT&T blue one and later down the line I end up unlocking it to use with other phone services.
P. S. I would recommend trying to get the AT&T version, it seems I have less problems in the Verizon version.
Plus if I remember at the virtual analogs work pretty good on it for playing Grand Theft Auto III on it.
bro, i still have my xperia play and psp go. these were so niched back then. i could totally go the route of emulation but my lazy ass just didnt want to. so they been sitting in my time capsule box. i do have ff7 on my psp go lol
Love this phone in concept but it was never a capable phone when it was new . Struggle to do pretty much anything but I loved it for emulator
I've been saying for years that Sony needs to revisit this concept. A smartphone handheld gaming console hybrid would be massively popular, if done right, that is.
Nice video 🙂
hey, just wanted to let everyone know of a pretty serious and annoying problem with the Sony Xperia Play.
I bought one years ago and loved but little did I know how fragile the ribbon cable for the screen was. so don't be sliding the screen up and down too much otherwise you might damage the ribbon cable. and to fix it, while possible it is not worth bothering with.
Had it back in time and loved it. Almost never played, but it was cool 😅
i have a brand new one in my phone collection and enjoy even watching it
Wait the xperia play was 4g capable?
I wonder if we will see a shift back to physical buttons with android phones because of the popularity of handheld devices.
Crash Bandicoot is not an Analog Stick game. and Setting your controller to Analog Mode with a game that doesn't support it can result in non-responsiveness or erratic results.
I wish I had one of these, but it's hard to find one here in Brazil lol
I didn't remember that Ericsson was yet part of Sony phones to smartphone era. Like I just remember seeing the old phones as Sony Ericsson but then they just disappeared at least on my sight. Even as countryside boy during that time can't say much.
PPSSPP was awesome on that thing I played so much Tekken and MK on it.
I genuinely do not understand how this form factor has not been explored more by Sony (since they own the patent for it). Specially with the industry investments in game streaming, and the overall public demand for emulation devices and external controllers for phones.
I had just started as a tech at verizon didn;t see these often cool machines
They actually put the first form of Minecraft android on this
You were going way too hard on the betterhelp praise. I just kept thinking "he can't be talking about betterhelp!"
Can u use the browser
Official Sony PS gaming on Android coming back would be dope.
This was my favorite phone I ever owned.
I remember installing snes nes and 64 emulator on them ! it was great !
Nostalgia
I'm surprised no one tried to make this form factor / gimmick again even tho we have better hardware and more gaming phones these days
got it in my teens, it was like a dream come true at that time.,,🤣🤣🤣
I remember the other Xperia phones from this time - they were honestly awesome. Way more personality than the Galaxys of the time, IMO. The Xperia Play, though... kinda felt like some Sony exec lead one meeting about synergy, a small team was tasked with taking one of their regular phones and slapping on a slidy controller, they had one or two meetings with the Playstation team, and this total compromise of a device is the result.
When he said gingerbread I was sent back to the good old days 😂
If your after emulating SNES, DS, etc, the Xperia Play is actually much better than the PSP. Get an extended battery and it will last you for days! For PSP games I just stick to the PSP Go so it pairs really well with this, not to mention the 245 PPI is much better than the PSP and even better than the Vita.
I had one when I was in school, and I used to play Minecraft Pocket Edition on the way to school.
Random question: Can u play Cod mw4 on it??
I'm annoyed that no one's done this like its easy money, imagine if the galaxy did this now with flagship specs it would demolish
I'd say the Xperia play was ahead of its time. Phones today are great for gaming made better with controllers that are detachable.
That particular xperia play depreciated in value by almost 100% the moment you showed that Verizon logo. 😂
Buddy of mine had one of these and let me play on it sometimes. Got into minecraft because of that.
Hey review the Blackview Shark 8
Sony should bring back this with modern specs and 18:9 display and type C charging.
If you wanna use a Sony handheld for Emulation, I think the best best is with the PS Vita because it can play PS Vita, PSP, and PS1 game natively and can play stuff from the NES, SNES, Game Boy/game Boy Color, GBA really well
I have two of these, One from my childhood where I spent too many hours playing minecraft PE Demo haha and onther one that someone gave me that was broken. Both of them aree having problems again but I still keep them
It’s basically a psgo double
If only Sony rebuilt this with modern phone hardware
I recently bought my Vita. It has many "free"games on it. Dont regret it.
Consider a Razer Kishi or Backbone is about the same size.
Dont bother with better help they have so many legal problems, regarding privacy and Hippa laws
I miss Bushido Blade :-(
Do Nintendo DS Lite next!!
For God's sake they need to bring this back to modern phones!
i bought this in 2011, I regretted it so much (wish I had waited, and bought a ps vita instead). my current one has a fried memory card slot, which effectively makes it useless (almost no internal storage)
When you realise even this is better than the Portal 😅
I'm happy that I found out about this phone and bought it before this video came out. Again after your review prices will go up
You think way too highly of my influence if you think this video will drive prices up. Plenty of channels bigger than mine have already covered it in the past year of so...
@@DNKI 2 years ago I bought it on Aliexpress for $48. You have several videos about phones with two screens. How about Vivo Nex 2 and Yotafon 2 or 3, I have all these devices and I am sure that the audience will be interested.
It’s readily available on Aliexpress for $70-85 shipped. You underestimate the Chinese/Refurbished phone market over there. They will always have a supply.
I remember getting into a street fight back in the day because of this damn phone 😂😂
I remember having this in high school 😂
God this phone looks cool
I love the design
Good old days when phones were unique
❤
Imagine if sony partnered with htc for this phone, maybe the playstation phone and htc would still be arround
Did you that the Experia Play was the first device with Minecraft Pocket Edition?