The Sony Xperia Play is the phone that truly brings mobile gaming to the smartphone. Rather than the touchscreen games that are prevalent on the modern smartphone, the slide out controller gives a convenient way to play games with a reduced sized Playstation controller that allows the play of high quality 3D games without blocking out parts of the screen with controls nor covering the screen as one interacts with it.
All of the apps below can be loaded directly from the Android Marketplace by clicking install on the web page or by loading them via the Marketplace app on the phone. Most of the apps are free, so no cost is incurred downloading most of these applications. Some of the games listed below come preinstalled on the Sony Xperia Play and cannot be purchased individually in the Marketplace.
Apps
- Advanced Task Killer (ATK) – ATK is a great way to kill apps when not in use to free memory and save battery life.
- Astro File Manager – An easy way to view the file and directory contents of the Droid.
- Barcode Scanner – When you come across a UPC or QR code and want to look it up, this is the best app for scanning and reading them.
- Bump – A fun way to share contact information with people by bumping your phones together. The future of business cards.
- Connectbot – SSH client to connect to remote servers.
- DroidLight – For those times when you really need a flashlight, instead of using the screen to illuminate, use this app to turn on the LED flash on the back of the Xperia Play.
- Evernote – Stay organized by writing and syncing notes with the Evernote website and apps for desktop and other mobile devices.
- Google Goggles – A cool app that lets you take a picture and then scans the picture and runs searches based on it.
- Google Sky Map – The app I always use to demo the phone. Run the app and point your phone at the sky to get an Augmented Reality view of the constellations overhead.
- HBO GO – If you subscribe to HBO, you can watch the Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Sex and City and all your other favorite HBO original series, in addition to select movies, streaming directly to your phone.
- Key Ring – This great app scans the barcodes on your rewards cards (or any card with a barcode, like a gym membership), so you don’t have to carry the cards. When checking out, just hand the phone to the cashier and let her scan the UPC from the phone.
- Kindle – For those times when you want to read and don’t have a book available, the Kindle app has a built-in bookstore and can whisper sync with your Kindle and other Kindle apps.
- Layar Reality Browser – A variety of information can be seen by activating layers in this browser to gain all types of information around you.
- Mother TED – Mother TED gives streaming access to every TED Talk released online, sorted by name, category, etc. and streams them to the phone in very clear audio and video.
- Pandora Radio – A streaming music app, like Last.fm, that allows me to listen to radio stations based on a band or song I like.
- Seesmic – A nice looking Twitter client that allows the monitoring and posting of tweets from multiple accounts.
- Shazam – When I am listening to the radio or in a store and wonder what song I am hearing, I let Shazam give it a listen and it comes back and tells me who I hear.
- Shop Savvy – When you are shopping and want to compare prices, scan the UPC barcode with this app and get prices from around the web and local brick and mortar stores to see where you can find it cheaper.
- TV.com – Streaming access to clips to CBS and Showtime shows are how the app is promoted, but the real lure is the classic TV shows you can watch. MacGuyver, Beverly Hills 90210 (classic), Twin Peaks, Family Ties, and others to select from make this a worthy app to install.
Games
- Angry Birds – The popular game is a quick addiction and a great way to pass the time on the Xperia Play, even if it is a touchscreen game.
- Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD – Race around the world as you purchase the latest cars and tune them as you compete against the other cars in 3D.
- Bruce Lee – Fight as the master of Jeet Kune Do in this 3D fighting game that shows off what the phone can do visually.
- Crash Bandicoot – The original Playstation game is directly ported to the Xperia Play, showing the capabilities of playing full games from the past on a multifunctional portable device.
- Madden NFL 11– The king of the football video game is ported to the Sony Xperia Play for full on the go NFL action with commentary by John Madden himself.
- The Sims 3 – Control the lives of virtual people and their world in the latest game in the Sims franchise.
- Spider-Man: Total Mayhem HD – Play as Marvel’s webshooting, wallcrawling hero and battle his rogues as he protects New York.
- Splinter Cell Conviction – The Splinter Cell franchise continues on the smartphone in this 3D game that allows one to sneak, fight and assassinate as only Sam Fisher can.
The Sony Xperia Play is a full featured Android phone whose game playing ability that makes this the best smartphone for any hardcore gamers. With its slide out controller and 3D graphics, I look forward to seeing other original Playstation games being ported to it.
