Want to know how it looks when surfing in winter, plus you have your Xperia Active with you.
Thanks to TheMCPK who uploaded this great video of how “A day at the office could actually mean a day out surfing if using the Xperia Active phone from SonyEricsson”.
More good news from SportyPal – the developers of the sports tracking app SportyPal PRO.
Apparently they have created a bike holder for our favorite phone. I must say that it looks very elegant, and what’s most important, it’s not bulky at all. I can imagine it on my bike already. This is a good sign of companies starting to produce accessories for the Xperia active, maybe we will have more custom accessories to choose from.
The price is announced to be around $20.
Read the full review of the bikeholder at dcrainmaker.com
Lots of you were asking if the Xperia active was crash-proof and now we have a “documented proof” which exceeds even our expectations!
In the videos bellow you’ll see a really “angry” guy trying really hard to break the active with almost every tool possible. They even run over with a Jeep. And amazingly, it survives.
Trying to scratch and break Xperia active!
Xperia active survives runover by Jeep Wrangler
Enjoy if you can take it 
Here is another nice compassion and review of these two mobile phones.
- Sony Ericsson Xperia Active
The Xperia Active may be wrongly overlooked due to its cutesy design and small looks. But underneath that small chassis, the Active packs in a lot of power. It has got a 3-inch, scratch resistant screen with a pixel resolution of 320 x 480, which might be low for some, but at that size and with the Bravia Mobile Engine powering it, the display is bright and vivid. The interface was solid and smooth and Sony has provided a whole range of pre-loaded apps as well as accessories along with the device.
Connectivity options include the usual along with ANT+, so if you’re out gymming and need a data logger your phone can wirelessly sync with the equipment. This also works with health related equipment like heart rate monitors. The 5 MP camera is capable of shooting pretty good shots and record at 720p resolution. The battery is a tad lower at 1200 mAh, but optimization has been worked out quite well.
- Motorola DEFY+
The Plus provides an upgrade in the processor from the original DEFY. Sealed with the scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, the DEFY+ packs in a superior (in terms of plain size) 3.7-inch screen. With Motorola’s MOTOBLUR UI running on top, the DEFY+ is slick and fast. Connectivity options are pretty much covered as well.
The Plus is strapped with a 5 megapixel camera capable of recording in VGA mode. Motorola has bundled in a couple of miscellaneous apps and a Car Dock and Cardio trainer feature as well. Lastly, there’s 1700 mAh of battery power underneath the shell that gives you an astonishingly brilliant battery life.
The Bottom Line
As you can see from the comparison chart, both phones have their own set of pros and cons, but it’s the Xperia Active that emerges as the clear winner. If you’re looking at just the screen size, the Active will definitely not impress you, but if you’re willing to overcome that mental block and look at the features this phone’s got, then you’re in for a real treat. The Bravia Mobile Display makes the display look much better as compared to the display on the DEFY+. Also, the camera has image stabilization, touch focus and 720p recording, which is missing on the DEFY+ out of the box. The dedicated camera button gets a point as well, because if you’re the more adventurous types, the Active will be able to shoot snaps and videos underwater, while the DEFY+ will not be able to do so.
Next, we tried wet finger tracking on the DEFY+, just to check if it might be a gimmick (like 3D sweep panorama!), but we were pleased to say that it wasn’t. The Active actually responds brilliantly well to wet fingers as compared to the DEFY+ that ended up registering random touches. The media player consists of enhancements (no enhancements on the DEFY+) and Sony’s xLOUD feature, so at least you’re not stuck with the audio quality you get. Even in the synthetic benchmarks, the Active fares better than the DEFY+. Though the battery life is slightly less than the DEFY+, it’s definitely not a con, as the Active’s battery performs pretty well in its own regard. Lastly, ANT+ will definitely be a useful feature for health enthusiasts.
Well, those are the reasons why we’d prefer the Xperia Active over the DEFY+. Which one would you pick?
*The article is taken from tech2.in.com
Finally, the most versatile sports smartphone has come to the US!
CNET.com reported: “The Sony Ericsson Xperia Active retails for $369.99 at Newegg.com and other online outlets and comes in two color options. U.S. carriers supported by the phone are AT&T and T-Mobile, whereas our friends to the north can use the Xperia Active on Rogers and Fido.”
The package includes:
Personally, I’m very curious how the US market will react on this phone, will it recognize its potential as a sports device with the ANT+ support, the built-in compass and barometer.
What do you think?
ONE DAY, ONE DISTANCE, ONE TIME, ANYWHERE, EVERYWHERE
How does this actually work?
Xperiathon is the world’s first marathon that takes place all over the place. A regular full or half marathon in all aspects except one, you run wherever you choose and you do it alone.
The race is open to everyone with Endomondo, MapMyFitness or RunKeeper installed on their smartphone.
Three easy steps
1. Register here on the site, use the “Register & login”-box (top, far right). Fill in your personal details, choose distance and app.
2. Make sure you’re ready for the run, both physically and mentally. We don’t want you to get hurt.
3. Saturday the 26th of November 12.00 CET. Activate your app and run for your life or at least some great prizes!
It’s this easy
After registering on Xperiathon.com you use the run tracking app of your choice (RunKeeper, Endomondo, MapMyFitness) on the day of the Xperiathon race. When you have covered the distance (half or full marathon) you end your run and tap save. This will send your run data to your run tracking service and we will get it from there. This will be the way you enter the contest.
More info can be found on the official webpage Xperiathon
I’m sure that a lot of people are asking this question to themselves.
Recently, I’ve been browsing the web a little, looking for interesting Xperia active articles, but what I find out was that, surprisingly people in general are not familiar with the “killer” feature of this phone – the ANT+ protocol. For that reason, I decided that I should write a blog post here, to clarify things a bit.
So, let’s start from the beginning. What is ANT+ and what is it meant to do?
Without getting into too many technical details, I’ll say that the ANT+ protocol enables you to connect your device to a number of devices wirelessly. In that sense it’s much like the Bluetooth®.
However, ANT+, as stated by its manufacturers, has its advantages like ultra-low power consumption, long battery life, minimal burden on system resources, simpler network design and lower implementation costs.
Why is this useful a sports phone like the Xperia active?
Well, there are a number of ANT+ enabled heart rate monitors and sensors for cadence/speed/power on the market right now that you can pair with the active without using additional dongles like you need for the iPhone, for example.
Actually, each accessory that has the ANT+ logo on it will be compatible, as long as your apps support it, and we’ve seen earlier that they do.
Additionally, your heart rate monitor battery will last several years, compared to Bluetooth® heart rate monitors that measure their lifetime in hours, and I think that there are no cadence/speed/power Bluetooth® sensors.
Except, the Xperia active, a number of other Sony Ericsson phones have a built in ANT+ chip. That includes, the Xperia mini/mini pro, Xperia ray, Xperia arc…
Even older models like the Xperia X8 and Xperia X10 mini/mini pro have it. According to this blog, “Sony Ericsson announced that all phones going forward will have an ANT+ chip enabled in it.”
Hope I helped making things a little bit clearer
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How can a smartphone with the right app be better than a dedicated GPS tracking device? Let’s compare the two devices and see the results!
I’ve chosen a Garmin Edge 800 as one of the newest and most advanced models from the renewed GPS manufacturer and, my personal favorite Sony Ericsson Xperia Active smartphone.
Size. Both devices are similar in size, except that the Xperia Active is much thinner than the Garmin Edge 800 – 1.65 cm (0.65 in) compared to 2.5 cm (1in). The screen size is also a plus for the smartphone – 3 inches on the Active compared to the 2.6 inches on the Edge 800. The screen resolution is also way better on the smartphone, with 320 x 480 pixels (192 pixel density) versus 160 x 240 pixels on the Edge 800. Of course, this will result in shorter battery life in the Xperia, but I’m quite OK with that. However, the Xperia Active is a little bit heavier with 110.8g (3.91 oz) versus 98g (3.5 oz) of the Garmin, which is understandable because the phone is packed with additional parts such as speaker, mic etc. The both devices are waterproof, but only the smartphone is dustproof. They are certified with IP certificates. The Garmin has an IPX7 certificate and the Xperia Active has IP67 certificate. As explained here the letter “X” stands instead of “0” or “No Protection”, but I couldn’t verify this. If you have more info about this, please send a link.
Usability. The Garmin Edge 800 has a significantly longer battery life which is reported to be around 15 hours, according to official specs. This will be enough for several longer rides, which is an advantage but not an absolute necessity, because most users wouldn’t usually ride longer than 4 – 5 hours, which is the threshold for the Xperia Active (with music player and Bluetooth on). Still, for anyone interested in doing longer workouts, there are optional accessories – additional external battery chargers like this one (just to give you an idea, I haven’t tested the specific model).
Software.The Xperia Active comes with a number of pre-installed sports, social and office apps. It has the same apps that are pre-installed on any Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphone plus some dedicated sport apps. I’ve heard that there is market segmentation, meaning that different GPS tracking apps are available on different markets. However, since I already made reviews of the apps, in my opinion it’s best to use the SportyPal PRO app since it has more features, and is by far the more user oriented app.
Since the features of the SportyPal PRO mobile app are explained in details in the review, I will stick more to its web features here.
After the workout is uploaded to your profile on SportyPal.com, you can analyze almost any parameter. There are state-of-the- art, zoomable graphs, different map-views, manual or auto checkpoints, lots of stats and even a 3D player that will guide you through your workout. That’s only for the workout analysis. Besides that, you can create tracks of your favorite routes, create plans, manually add a workout or edit the existing workouts if you like to. A big plus goes for the community page, where you can see what workouts have been done by other users near you, add them as friends or just comment and put thumbs up if you like to.
Also, they regularly answer to questions from the users on the forums.
Garmin Edge 800 has its own software for workout analysis called Garmin Connect. It’s more user oriented system, without features like adding friends or leaving comments. It offers interesting preview of the workouts of the cycling pro’s on their team, although the lack of community features is a minus. There are separate graphs for everything, but they don’t look as good as on SportyPal.com, since they’re pretty small and even zooming is not very useful.
Conclusion.Before Xperia Active, the pros and cons for using a smartphone instead of a dedicated GPS tracker were pretty even. A lot of people weren’t using their phone for sports activities because they were afraid that they could break the device and because the apps were providing only basic features.
However, with Xperia Active and SportyPal PRO those problems are surpassed. The hardware and the software work perfectly together, and I think that we might have a game changing product in our hands. I mean, it has everything that the Garmin unit has plus even more features and on top of that it’s cheaper. Besides – it’s a phone that you can actually use if you need to call your friends and have a beer with them after the workout. The only downside may be the battery life which is around 4-5 hours, but for 99% of the users that’s more than enough, since workouts of non-pro athletes are usually shorter than that. Even if you need more “juice” you can still carry an additional battery charger with you and cover a full day of hiking on your camping trip.
All things considered, with smartphones like the Xperia Active paired with the right software like the SportyPal PRO the folks from Garmin will have a lot to think about or in a year or two, only their sponsored athletes will be using their devices.
| Sony Ericsson Xperia Active | Garmin Edge 800 | ||
| Pros | Cons | Pros | Cons |
| ANT+ support | Battery life | Battery life | Price |
| IP67 cert | Barometer not yet used up to potential | Weight | Single sport |
| Bigger, scratch resistant screen | Included bike mount | Only IPX7 certified | |
| Wet finger tracking | Ability to add maps | Maps are sold separately | |
| Accelerometer, barometer | Barometer | Lower screen resolution | |
| Listening to music | Thickness | ||
| Multi sport (with SportyPal PRO) | |||
| ANT+ support | |||
| Price | |||
| It’s also phone J | |||
In the box:
Xperia Active:
Two versions depending on the market:
Garmin Edge 800:
Thanks to DCRainmaker.com who did a full test on the waterproof capability on Sony Ericsson Xperia Active. Now we can confirm that the phone is fully waterproof and ready for long and wet workouts.
First covering the phone with typical sports nutrition gel which is similar to most of the gels that can cover up the phone while doing a long workout, and than cleaning up the phone with water.
Although the phone was covered up with two different liquids, at the end the touch screen is working fine and can be easily navigated through the menu.
The video shows everything
The purpose of this review is to compare the two sports training apps pre-installed on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active and see if there is a core difference in overall phone usability.
Since Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is a niche phone for specific users (athletes and nature lovers) the software should take advantage on the potential of the hardware and deliver an experience that will differentiate the Active from any other smartphone.
Let’s talk about the sports training apps that will come with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active. There are rumors that SE will make a premium sports pack with the Xperia Active, LiveView and SportyPal PRO app. On the other hand, the smartphone itself will be released on selected markets with pre – installed iMapMyFITNESS+ app.
So, we would like to make a comparison between the apps and see which one is more suitable for users’ needs. To keep things fair we’ll stick only to the free features. The extra features of each app will be explored in a separate review (this also applies to the SportyPal PRO LiveView integration). In this review will just dig a little deeper into the apps features and see what they can offer to the casual user.
Let’s start with the primary feature of these apps – GPS tracking.
- SportyPal PRO
I chose the workout type – cycling in my case, and pressed the start button. I got a real fast GPS fix, sooner than I expected. I wasn’t even looking at the phone, but got a voice notification that I have a GPS lock. Neat. The workout screen is divided into three functional parts. At the top, there is a multi functional bar, which visually shows how much have you crossed of the distance shown (1km). If you press it, it will show you a bar where the current heart rate zone is displayed (picture). This is a great feature because you can check your current heart zone with a glance – very convenient and easy to use for any activity. Each heart rate zone has different color – from blue for resting to red for maximum effort. The main stats are in the central part of the screen and the other stats are in the smaller fields at the bottom. The smaller fields can be customized with a click. Once you choose what you want to see, the app will remember your choice for your next workout. You can choose between avg. speed or pace, kcal, current, average, maximum heart rate, altitude or climb.
The music player can be activated through the bottom button, so browsing through your music is very fast. The integrated music player is very useful for runners, because it will allow them to browse the tunes more efficiently, with fewer clicks.
The button in the far left is the map view, if you need map while working out. When switching to map view, the stats are displayed at the top of the screen and are also configurable. The map view has additional functionality like landscape view, road or hybrid map, turn on/off map centering and buttons for zooming in and out.
I like to point out that the auto – pause function works very well with cycling. When I stopped for a traffic light it almost immediately reacted, and when I started riding again it started counting again very fast. Anyway, it’s not that accurate with walking, but I’ve asked around a little bit and got to know that due to the nature of GPS, it doesn’t work very well on lower speeds. Still, the auto pause feature on SportyPal PRO is a great plus.
- iMapMyFITNESS+
The iMapMyFITNESS+ app also was fast with the GPS fix, although they don’t have integrated voice notifications (for the GPS fix). This is a big minus, because you have to hold your phone in your hand until you get a signal, otherwise your stats may be inaccurate. Another huge miss is that the volume of the voice notifications can’t be controlled with the side buttons of the phone. For an adjustment of the volume you have to exit the workout, go to settings/voice feedback and set the volume. This is too much effort for a simple function that every other app has.
The main view here is the map. I guess they like to put the accent on the map, but I don’t see much point in that, and here is why: firstly, if you work out regularly you probably know where you’re going, even so, you probably do the workouts on few, well known routes. Secondly, what happens if you are hiking in the mountain or if you’re in a remote area without internet connection? The whole screen will be blank, you’ll see only very tiny fields with stats at the bottom of the screen. The design of the map is non – functional since it’s covered with too many buttons and a blue line at the top saying iMapMyFITNESS+. I don’t understand why do I need a button for turning the GPS on/off. Of course it’s supposed to be on all the time – this is a GPS tracking app.
Also, I know which app I’m using – it’s just a waste of space to put the blue line with the app name at the top. Besides this, there aren’t any options for choosing a map type, turning the map center on/off or a button for zooming in/out. Instead, to zoom in/out you have to swipe with both fingers, which is OK while walking, but highly unpractical while doing other, more vigorous activities.
About the stats, they are really, really small, and you have to look at the phone from a very close range to be able to read them, especially on smaller screen, like on the Xperia Active. In fact, the stats are so small they are almost useless; I literally had to stop moving to read them. If you like to see the stats only, you need to press the button at the top corner. Again, I don’t see a point showing the average speed and the pace at the same time, since it’s the same data. You either use one or the other, but never both of them at the same time.
The fields are configurable, meaning that for example the “time” field can be switched with the other fields or if you have an ANT+ heart rate monitor, your heart rate can be displayed. The iMapMyFITNESS+ app supports only ANT+ sensors, and SportyPal PRO will support a Bluetooth HR monitor also, so if you already have one, you can use it with SportyPal PRO, only.
Another downside is that it will only display the heart rate, and not the related data that you can actually use e.g. the heart rate zone you’re in or the calories burned. For most people, the current or the average heart rate are important, but not as important as the overall calorie burn. I don’t see a point not to display these data during the workout.
Now, let’s explore the design and pre-workout settings.
- SportyPal PRO
After choosing the metric system and entering your info (needed for calorie calculation), the home screen is initialized. It has three buttons (Start, Track and Goal) and a slider for activity type selection. In the lower part of the screen, the information about the current month, quarter and plan are displayed. SportyPal PRO has intuitive and simple design that allows users to start their activity with a single click (big green “start” button). The green bar shows how close you’re to reaching your best month so far. Below the bar, there’s info about activity types, distance, time and calories spent in the ongoing month. At the bottom there are buttons for current weather in your area, settings, heart rate setup, help and music player controls. It’s really great that they’ve made an integrated music player. This feature proved very time saving while working out, because I like to browse through the songs a lot. If you slide to the right you’ll get info for the last three months (quarter). The Goal and Track features require subscription (however, there is a 30 day free trial), so we won’t be exploring them now.
So, let’s explore the features a little bit.
When you press the weather button you will get a weather forecast for the present and the next day, along with a humidity, wind and visibility report. This feature can be very useful if you’re trying to decide whether you want to work out today or maybe on some other day.
After completing a similar procedure as with the previous app you’re directed to the home screen of iMapMyFITNESS+ (you will need internet connection to complete the process). Unlike SportyPal PRO, the iMapMyFITNESS+ doesn’t give you a choice for the activity type, but only an option to record a workout (which is basically a “start new workout” button) and to log a workout (enter manually – internet connection needed). Below the workout buttons, there are icons about profile, routes, workouts, friends, live etc.
In SportyPal PRO the workouts are saved in a very well organized workout list. When at the workout list, at the top of the screen, you see the total stats for the month. Bellow it, there is a list with every workout done that month. At the bottom there are arrows, for browsing through the months forward and back. If you like you can see all workouts, by pressing the all tab. I must say that they thought of everything – the overview of the workouts is exceptionally done.
After the workout is finished SportyPal PRO will display the most important stats: distance, time, pace/avg speed, min/avg/max heart rate, calorie burn (heart rate based or estimated), max/min altitude, total climb/descent. The stats can be analyzed in more depth on the website.
At the bottom of the screen there are buttons for map view of the workout, upload, delete and graph view.
If you press the graph view button you’ll see 3 graphs: speed/time, altitude/time and heart beats/time.
You can see them in full screen if you click on them. Moreover, if you press the menu button, you will see a pie chart of the heart rate breakdown – the percentage of the workout you’ve spent in each heart rate zone. This will give a visual overview of your effort during the workout – great feature.
By clicking the upload button you will transfer the workout to the website, to your profile. SportyPal PRO scores points again for keeping the workout in the phone memory for as long as you like (or until you’re in a range of a Wi-Fi). While uploading you can choose if you like to share the workout with your Facebook or twitter account, and brag a little to your friends.
It’s a little more complicated with iMapMyFITNESS+.
After you pause your workout, the app will ask you if like to save, resume or discard workout. If you choose save, than you will be asked to choose a workout type: run, regular walk, road cycling, mtb or other. After this, you can choose a route name and privacy. Finally, the workout is saved. Another popup menu will appear and give you a number of different options.
That is the scenario if you have a data plan or wi-fi. If you don’t have any of that, at the moment the workout is finished, you can’t save the workout. So, the only option you have is to keep your app open until you have a connection and upload then. This can be very annoying at times, so if you don’t have a data plan I would suggest that you skip this app anyway.
The stats displayed are not that organized and don’t go into that much detail as in SportyPal PRO.
This app doesn’t give an estimate of the calorie burn. The only way that it’ll display calories is if you have heart rate while working out. There are buttons for map view of the workout and also twitter and Facebook sharing buttons. On the map view there isn’t a starting nor ending point – it’s just a blue line on the map. There is also a challenge button. If you press it will give you a link to your email, gmail or messaging accounts so you can send the info about the workout to your friends and challenge them to do the same or better. This is a nice feature. There aren’t any buttons for uploading workouts because they are automatically uploaded and stored on their servers.
The workouts can be viewed later in the workouts tab on the main screen, but only if you have internet connection. Otherwise, a message “No workouts available” is displayed. If you happen to have an internet connection, you will see only a continuous list of workouts that you can’t interact with (only view and edit the values).
Web site features
I won’t go into too much detail here, but I will give a general preview of the web features of each app. For iMapMyFITNESS+, it’s obvious that the website is the center part of their model. It offers a lot more data and features than the app. It has so many options and features that sometimes can be a little hard to navigate through it. I like the nutrition part, but the problem with navigation persists – it takes too much time to log your foods. They have a subscription for full website features, but there is enough free stuff, also. However, there are ads in the free version.
SportyPal PRO is more workout oriented. It will give you detailed info about the workouts, detailed and zoomable graphs, manual intervals, very nice help feature and more. They have a great support forum, also. I like the community, which is a Facebook – like page, where you interact with friends or users from your area. You can send friend requests or make comments, view workouts or give thumbs up for a workout you like. For each completed workout you receive community points, and if you work hard enough you’ll enter your country and/or world top users list – but this requires a lot of work.
Wrap up
I vote for SportyPal PRO – it’s far more user oriented. My guess is that these guys listen to the feedback they receive from everyday athletes. The app is very easy to use and offers as much detail as you need without being complicated for the average user. The one-click-start, no data plan required, exceptional heart rate zones display are only some of the features that make this app far better than its competitor. The display of the stats while working out and post workout, and the auto pause function are a big plus.
As I can conclude from the app itself, the iMapMyFITNESS+ is far more website oriented. They didn’t do a lot of research while working on their mobile app. It has unattractive design and very bad user experience, but even if you get over that you will still need data plan to save a workout, or do anything in the app, and that can be tricky if you’re hiking in the mountains where there’s no network coverage. I can’t really see a future for this app, unless strategic changes are made in literally every segment. I really don’t know how reputable manufacturer like Sony Ericsson could pre-install an app that looks like a very rough beta version on a device that is supposed to be a leader of the rugged smartphone segment.