I have just bought a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. I love the phone and am not someone who feels the need to rant much, but I am really disappointed with the apps that they have put on the device. Firstly they cannot be removed, so they take up valuable space. More importantly they are badly written and tend to start background services, often for an application that does not need a service and also without the application even being opened. On a higher spec device, this may not be the end of the world, but with 512Mb of RAM and a single core, this can cause lag when playing games. My big question is why? I understand that OEM’s need to differentiate and need to add skins and apps to Android. However, if you are going to differentiate, it should be an improvement on the stock experience, not make it worse. This makes absolutely no sense to me. I have turn off background services on my device daily when I should not have to and I really do not want to root the device yet as it is quite new still. Hopefully when the device gets the Android 4 update this situation will have improved and some missing apps like the Bravia Engine will be added, but I’m not holding my breath. Still, to play Metal Gear Solid and Mario Kart, it is a small price to pay.
