Xperia Play & Xperia Arc

 &This piece of news is aimed towards our Canadian readers because we’ve got word that both the Xperia Play and the Xperia Arc have been announced to arrive at Rogers. Thus, the carrier lives up to its name by offering the top of the line Android devices, being the first carrier to actually introduce these two smartphones on the Canadian market.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Xperia Play Release Date -Spring 2011

The Xperia Play is the world’s first smartphone to be PlayStation certified and will combine both the outstanding features that Sony Ericsson has been bringing time and time again with the ability to play countless games while on the move. The device is powered by a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor coupled with a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU which will take care of all your gaming needs.

The XperiaPlay also features a 4-inch Reality Display capable of offering a 854 x 480 resolution.

The Xperia Play specs would not be complete without other important features such as the 512 MB of RAM and ROM memory ( which can be expanded via a microSD card -- 8GB card included in the package ), a 5 Mp camera packing LED flash and auto-focus and let’s not forget about the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.

According to Rogers, we can expect the Xperia Play release date to happen sometime this spring.

Those of you who are considering getting the Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson now have another good reason to do it as the Havok game technology is making its way towards Android smartphones that have Gingerbread installed ( and above ), the Xperia Play being one of the devices that will benefit from these tools.

The Havok tools are meant for Android developers and have been optimized for the Xperia Play. Take a look at the video demo below to see what the Xperia Play is capable of and judge for yourself. You should also take a look at the Xperia Play GDC 2011 Hands-On.

But what is this Havok physics engine ? Well, think of great games such as Assassin’s Creed, Bioshock 2 or Fallot New Vegas and you will get the idea of what this engine is made of.

Three different demos were shown running Havok technology on the Xperia Play. The first was called Havok Destruction and featured a pickup truck driving through different obstacles. The second demo running on the Xperia Play featured the Havok animation and physics engine using a gorilla. It uses ragdoll technology and looks very smooth. The last demo was Havok Behavior which showed a character run and jump very much like Assassin’s Creed.

Even though it was only a demo, the Havok engine looks promising and the Xperia Play could be the perfect smartphone to promote it, as its also meant for games. I’m pretty excited with this technology, as Android smartphones not limited to the Xperia Play will also get it so if you’re not considering buying a Play, don’t worry … If the device you choose will have at least Android 2.3 installed.

All that remains is for the Android game developers to roll up their sleeves and get to work so that we can enjoy some excellent games on the Xperia Play and other Android smartphones. When you think of what these devices have achieved and that we will soon see the same graphics and animations found on the PC or consoles, the Xperia Play is even more tempting.

What do you guys think about the Havok engine for the Xperia Play ? Will you get it should the technology become mainstream ?

As far as the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play release date goes, according to Play.com, the smartphone will become available in UK on March 28th. In US the phone should arrive during Spring. In Canada, Rogers has also announced that we can look for an Xperia Play release date sometime during Spring 2011.

Many thanks to the guys at Endgadget for bringing us the news about the Havok engine for the Xperia Play.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

No, I’ve not forgotten about the Xperia Arc as Rogers also said that Canada will be getting it at the same time with the Xperia Play. This means that the Xperia Arc release date will come this spring as well.

The Xperia Arc specs are not something to be ashamed of either as the smartphone will be carrying a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and a 4.2-inch Reality Display capable of offering a 480 x 854 resolution.

Xperia Arc Release Date - Spring 2011

The Xperia Arc also comes with a 8.1 Mp camera with auto-focus and LED flash plus the ability to record 720p HD videos. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS is also present for duty on the Xperia Arc.




At the moment that’s about all the info we have on the Xperia Arc and the Xperia Play but as soon as anything new pops up, we’ll be here to let you know.

Many thanks to Red Board for bringing us the news about the Xperia Play and the Xperia Arc.