Sony Xperia Play: Great gaming device but is it a good phone?

One of the more interesting phones Verizon Wireless has let me review is the Sony Xperia Play. I say interesting because this phone is just as much a full-fledged portable game console as it is a phone.

Which is why before I even laid a finger on it I handed it over to my two sons to play with. And that they did. In fact, I found them fighting over whose turn it was to play it in only a matter of minutes.

But my question at the end of the day was, "But how is the phone?"

I took care of doing that research myself and I have to tell you it came up short in the happiness department. The screen is too small which makes the buttons smaller which makes everything harder to use. And for me personally, I would rarely use the gaming features so the whole slide-out game controls are just a big waste of space that add a lot to the weight of the phone.

Xperia vs. iPhone

To drive home my point that the Xperia is not a good overall phone, I asked a loaded question to my 9-year-old son who has played many a game on my now-expired iPhone. I asked him, "If you had your choice between a Sony Xperia and an iPhone, which would you pick?"

Fully expecting the obvious answer of "iPhone" to come out of his mouth, I gasped when he answered, "The Xperia."

Here's his explanation. He says the games are much easier to play because you have physical controls (ie, hard buttons) to control the action in the games versus have to try to touch the screen or tilt the phone back and forth like you have to do on the iPhone.

And in his opinion, the games are actually better on the Xperia. Albeit, they cost more than most iPhone gaming apps as well.

Fair enough.

So I guess it comes down to this. The Sony Xperia Play seems to come out on top with my kids when it comes to a phone with built-in gaming features. But for me, the gaming features add to much bulk and weight to the phone making the Xperia fall to the bottom of my favorite phones list.