Last month Sony showed off three Android smartphones at Mobile World Congress. All of them run version 2.3 of Google’s mobile OS, which is about 15 months old now. Sony says that those devices are going to get Ice Cream Sandwich, better known as Android 4.0, at some point in the future, but we know that’s just marketing talk for “you’ll get it when you get it, now leave us alone!” Today though, Sony has finally announced their first ICS device, the Xperia Neo L. Now before you leap out of your chair and jump for joy, you should brace yourself for an astonishing amount of disappointment. First, this thing was announced in China, which means it’ll probably never leave China. If it does, it’ll be months after it debuts in China, which by the way Sony failed to say exactly when that’d happen. Second, the screen measures 4 inches across and does only 854 x 480 pixels, so forget the Neo L competing with the Android flagships from HTC and Samsung. Third, the processor inside has a single core and is clocked at just 1 GHz. Hey Sony, 2010 called, they want their spec sheet back!
The failures of the Neo L aside, we’d argue that the hardware they announced in Februrary was also a complete bust. The Xperia S uses Qualcomm’s S3 Snapdragon, not the newest and greatest S4. The Xperia P has a 960 x 540 pixel display, which is too little for Ice Cream Sandwich, yet too much for Gingerbread. And finally the Xperia U … that’s actually a good device on paper, but we need to do some more testing on it first.
To be fair to Sony, everything they’re going to come out with this year and next year are probably devices that have been in the pipeline for ages. Devices that were thought up when the company was still called Sony Ericsson. We have a great deal of confidence that Sony can turn things around, but we’re also realistic when we admit to ourselves that it’s going to take a product cycle or two.