[petes67bird]

....And I am still loving this phone. Granted, this is my first smartphone. My wife has had smartphones and I have used everyone elses to some great extent, I just never had the desire to pay for a data plan. This phone benchmarked great at 2997. The camera is great, the only knock would be somewhat grainy when shooting in dark situations with flash, and I mean DARK. Other than that, pictures and videos turn out great.

I use my phone pretty heavily from text messages, video chat, and especially web browsing. I do not do any gaming on the phone really, I am a forumite and on ebay all day long. Right now I have had the phone on for 9 hours. I have the GPS on, I have the brightness at 75%, I have talked about 40-45 minutes, sent about 50-60 texts, taken 4 and tweeted 4 pictures, surfed all day long here at work, and I am at 65% battery life. I dont know what other people do with their phones to drain the battery so much and so fast, but I have had the phone go 20+hours on 1 charge with no quick chargeups whatsoever.

Here is the best part about this phone, it truly is silky smooth. I have only had one of my applications force close on me, and that was immediately after installing it upon hitting the open button in the play store. So it could of been the stores fault, who knows. Other than that, no issues at all. It is extremely responsive to the touch and when you use the swipe upwards motion instead of just a press on the capaciative buttons on the button, there is no issue at all. The phone feels so solid, doesnt weight much at all, and is a nice shape with the contour on the back.

The screen is really great on this phone. I think the colors are vibrant, and really provides the user with real world colors, instead of the fake sort of fluorescent colors samsung screens typically provide. Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime movies look great. Sound is on par with what one would expect from a phone. Its not a stereo, but it provides more than adequate sound from such a device. Also, reading my kindle books on the phone is easy and clear.

The one app for this phone that seems to give me fits is SKYPE. For some reason I get a constant chirping noise when talking to my wife over video chat while be both are on our IONS and on WIFI. I spoke to a SKYPE agent today and they are currently going to be putting the ION into testing and certification and hope that an update is produced. As of right now they told me the ION is not a supported device for SKYPE even though it may work at times. I am currently using Google Talk. Sound is clear, video a little sharper, but it does lag a bit more. Tried Tango it lagged even more, next I may try Ooovoo.

Cases for this phone are still slim pickings. I currently am using the Incipio Silicrylic case. I purchased the case directly from Incipio and it is a good case overall. There is one thin area on the left side of the phone where you hook up the mini usb/hdmi that may be a problem in the future after some use. If the case were to break, it would break in this area. I plan on purchasing the Ballistic SG case as soon as one becomes available, I just do not think the Incipio case provides any sort of respectable fall protection. The screen protector that comes with is nice, and is better than the stock one on the ION. Less smudges, and I applied it to the stock phone without removal of the one that was already on the ION with no decrease in visibility or touch sensitivity.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I am not too hip on alot of android/phone talk, but wanted to give me review from a normal user. I read so many reviews on this phone from different sources and many knocked this phone for being antiquated, not having ICS or pretty much in every other area. People even called this phone sluggish and said it has poor call quality. Let me tell you guys I was the most worried about call quality. First this is the clearest sounding phone I have used cellwise. Second, while driving in my 1980 Camaro Z28 with a 410HP engine, with headers and flowmaster 10 series mufflers dumped at the rear axle, I can still hear the person talking, albeit barely. So for those who were concerned about this, I say get the phone and try it out. I am loving it. Thanks Pete

[erwaso]

Thx for the review Pete !

I'm looking into the diztronic tpu case. $10 on amazon and looks good from the YouTube reviews.

Diztronic @ Amazon.com: xperia ion

That's some insane battery life!!!!!!!

[petes67bird]

Thanks. I saw you mention that case but that is just a hard case, not much fall protection. The incipio.is basically that case plus a soft rubber shock absorber as well, so dual protection. The ballistic case normally has 3 layers of protection. I just was fall protection.

[petes67bird]

Downloaded Go SMS Pro and the messaging is now superb coupled with SwiftKey keyboard. Phone is beyond great now. I can't think of anything else I need that I don't have currently.

Sent from my LT28at

[erwaso]

Nice. I used to use gosms just for the pop up notifications. I'll
Probably get it again since there's no dark theme lol

[petes67bird]

Just bought the ballistic case and will let you guys know my impressions when it arrives. I love ballistic cases so I may have a week old black incipio silicryllic case for sale soon.

Sent from my Sony Xperia ION.

[petes67bird]

Ballistic case shows delivered will update with review soon.

Sent from my Sony Xperia ION.

[petes67bird]

Ballistic case came and I prefer the bulkiness of this case. My incipio silicryllic case will be going on Craig list and then ebay for 20 shipped.

Sent from my Sony Xperia ION.

[drogers81]

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to order the Ballistic case also..I really like the looks of it. Not crazy about my case..makes the button hard to press at times. It's just a cheap-o off brand I got off ebay.

[drogers81]

Just ordered the Ballistic case, it looks like it will look perfect on the ion.

[petes67bird]

It does add bulk and weight to the ion but it sure feels like it is protecting it as well from drops. Best choice I have seen so far.

Sent from my Sony Xperia ION.

[petes67bird]

Update. My phone wouldnt get gps for 2 days so i took it in and got it swapped out. No issues to date since saturday.

Sent from my LT28at using Tapatalk 2

[riflewilly]

Is it just me or do the reviews for this phone seem incredibly unfair everywhere. Just because it doesn't ship with ICS doesn't make this a horrible phone. This phone is the best one I've used so far. I came over from Sprint where I had a Samsung Moment, then an Evo, then an Evo Shift, and finally a Nexus S.

I have no gripes with this phone whatsoever. Sure I wish there were some custom ROMs for this phone already, but I am patient. This phone is more than capable of being a top notch phone in my opinion.

[drogers81]

I agree that this phone has had it fair in a lot of the official reviews I've read. I'm glad I didn't let those review detour me, because it's everything I've wanted and more. The only downfall is it only having gingerbread...that didn't bother me, because I know it will get ICS and run even better than it already does.

On the other hand..I should be getting my ballistic case in the mail today for my ion...I'm excited about that...from the pictures I've seen, it looks great on the device.

[riflewilly]

Do you have a link for the ballistic case?

Sent from my LT28at using Android Central Forums

[petes67bird]

Amazon.com: Ballistic SG0876-M005 Soft Gel Case for Sony Experia Ion - 1 Pack - Retail Packaging: Cell Phones & Accessories

[petes67bird]

Can anyone post their standby on their phone. After 3 hours of barely any use my phone is down to 83% battery, standby is 64% and time without a signal is 39%. I am a bit concerned with time without a signal. Thank

Sent from my Sony Xperia Ion using Tapatalk 2.

[drogers81]

I just got my Ballistic case in. It looks so good on this phone and fits it perfectly! Thanks for the suggestion.

Sent from my Sony Xperia ion using Tapatalk 2

[petes67bird]

Drogers does your phone get weaker signal with ballistic case on vs it being off?

Sent from my Sony Xperia Ion using Tapatalk 2.

[drogers81]

So far I haven't noticed any signal loss. I will keep a check on it though now that you mention it.

Sent from my Sony Xperia ion using Tapatalk 2

[petes67bird]

How has your battery life been?

Sent from my Sony Xperia Ion using Tapatalk 2.

[drogers81]

Well, the battery life isn't great for me. I mean I kind of expected it to not be the greatest. It really depends on the amount of use I do on it. When at work, I usually put it on the charger at around 1:00pm and it's fully charged by the time I leave at 3:00pm. When I get home, I use it quite a bit more and it usually usually comes up to 17% battery remaining at around 10:00pm and then I plug it in and leave it on charge until the next morning. This is fairly routine for me, but it really depends on how much I'm on my phone etc..It definitely doesn't change my opinion on it, because I know the other devices out there seem to range about the same.

[drogers81]

Have you or anyone been having trouble with the facebook app? The last couple of days, it's been crap..it never loads properly and seems to lose connection and I'm always having to refresh. I even tried to uninstall and reinstall..nothing is working. Anyone else having issues? My wife has the HTC Vivid and her facebook app is smooth and flawless..so I was thinking it was just something with the phone?

[petes67bird]

Haven't used Facebook as my wife and I swore it off and have never even after an account. It seems as though this new battery is dying fast for me. It has been going down fast and if I use it it needs to be charged after 5-6 hours were as the last phone was great. I might go to att today to swap again as I have 6 days left before 30 days are up.

Sent from my Sony Xperia Ion using Tapatalk 2.

[drogers81]

I read some posts from users saying their battery life has improved..I know mine isn't improving, it's about the same, maybe a tad less. If mine gets worse I may exchange mine for another as well..I still have about 2 weeks of my 30 days left. I really wish I didn't have to put mine on the charger 2 times a day, so if you trade and that helps you, I may exchange mine also. I'm really hoping the ICS update will help improve battery life some too.