great phone with great price October 22, 2012

Reviewer:  Dragan Jovanovic "SuperSlav"  (LA, California) -

Ive been looking for a new phone for quite some time and have decided to go with the ion. Their were many great phones but the ion had an amazing price. I consider myself a pretty heavy user and so far the phone treated me great. It runs on a snapdragon s3 processor and not s4 but it is still extremely smooth and everything opens up quickly. The build quality is quite good and I like the mix of aluminum and rubber in the back. The display on it is truly amazing and the bravia engine is great. The display really suprised me, it has very strong and relestic colors and overall looks better to me that the s3 and on par with the one x. The camera is also really good. It captures very nice colors and has many great modes and feutures. Now for the downsides. One huge problem is that the phone comes with gingerbread which is actually quite sad. Lucky their is an update to ics out which makes it a lot better and faster. Another is the touch buttons. They are very hard to press and the light is under them and not on them which is very strange. Overall ion is a great price and was worth it for sure. If youre looking for a phone with a great price but is still very good this is the phone for you.

A good phone overall, but with its limitation January 9, 2013

Reviewer:  Rambo  (Falling Waters, WV) -

When this cellphone was introduced at last year CES in Las Vegas, reviewers gave it a thumbs up. This was to be Sony's first LTE phone and the first to have the Sony-only brand on it (after the company bought Ericsson's share). At that time, I owned the Xperia X10 that I don't miss. This phone is not too bad but I expected more from it based on the reviews I initially read following Sony's press conference at the show. I received the Xperia Ion from AT&T in July 2012, a month after the carrier started distributing it in the United States. There is no doubt that the hardware design is pretty nice, better than some of the phones out there. It has a 4.5 inch screen and weights relatively 5 ounces. The phone, in my opinion, has some software issues despite an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. In my experience, call quality is not always good as the Cnet initial review stated. I've also experienced quiet a few call drops but that could be due to a congestion with the AT&T network. The 12.1 megapixels camera can at times be disappointing. The camera features impressive options, however, such as the scene recognition and sweep panorama. Pictures are crystal clear when they are. When they're not, you wonder, "What the hell is that?" Video recording is in HD format. Generally speaking, the camera seems to work best during daytime or when there is enough lighting. Other than these flaws, the phone is pretty good actually. A cool feature is the improved Sony-owned Timescape that let you monitor social network feeds in real time (with a wireless connection of course). Internet browsing is easy, especially with the Google Chrome app. For now, I use the phone to listen to music and that hasn't been a good experience, alas. The Music Unlimited service that I use (also owned by Sony) crashes a lot but I'm not sure if the Ion is to blame or if it's due to a faulty, buggy app. If you don't expect too much from owning a smartphone, I would recommend this unit, especially if you already own other Sony products (it marries well into the company's ecosystem). But if you expect a good performance for at least a year, I would go with either another model (the Ion has a few younger sisters and more to come, all supposed to perform better) or with another manufacturer like Apple or Samsung.

Could have been great. December 24, 2012

Reviewer:  Rebekah K. "avid reader and technophile"  (KY) -

Yesterday at Best Buy I signed up for AT&T and although I wanted a Galaxy S3, the camera and display of the Ion caught my eye. So, I got the Ion and right out of the box the battery was beyond dead and I had to wait an extra 45 minutes for it to charge enough to activate it.

When I got home, I played with it. I'm a heavy texter, photographer and app user. I liked that this has now comes with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box. The 12MP camera was pretty good. However, the button for the camera on the lower right side of the phone did not work unless I pressed it and held it for a good 10-15 seconds. It's not a one-click button for opening the camera, as it should be.

The buttons along the bottom of the screen are a disaster. The emblems for Menu, Home, Back and Search are there along the bottom, but those are NOT buttons. They do not light up. The actual buttons are thin horizontal lines below the emblems that backlight when tapped. Sort of. I couldn't just tap a button to use it. I had to rub the button area; actually slide my finger up and down a couple times before the button realized I was trying to use it. The Menu button didn't even want to work at all.

The display is gorgeous. The screen is a little thinner than I like, but still a good size. The phone is solid with some weight to it. It felt good in my hands.

If the buttons worked, I probably would have kept this phone, as it was free. I took it back today and paid for my Galaxy S3. I wanted to love the Ion, but it was far too annoying to operate.

Dumbest Phone Ever -- Dont Buy January 21, 2013

Reviewer:  miaeba  (Bronx, NY) -

I have a&tt. This phone was sent to me from insurance to replace an Atrix 2 Moto. This phone does not go on the internet on the 3G and 4G network, it only uses wifi. So if you are traveling and need a map, you better hit a 7/11 or something for a paper map.