Review: Sony Xperia Ion for AT&T
Camera
The Ion's 12-megapixel camera is one of the device's best features. The dedicated camera button and quick-launch mode really set the tone for ultra-fast performance.
Press and hold the camera button at any time and the camera will launch and quickly fire off a shot. That's really neat. When you're in a hurry, that quick shot mode oftens mean the difference between getting the shot you want and not getting it at all.
The Ion's camera can be configured in many ways, and offers all the shooting modes and controls we've come to know and love from the best phones. Options include: 3D sweep panorama, multi-angle panorama, sweep panorama, flash control, geo-tagging, smile detection, and so on.
The left side of the screen is where the in-depth controls are. The cool thing is that you can customize which controls are in this tool bar. On the right you have the software toggle for the video camera, the software shutter button, and access to the picture gallery.
The speed of the Ion's camera alone is enough to make me like it. Throw in tons of controls and you have a happy Phonescooper.
Gallery
As awesome as the camera app is, the gallery stinks in comparison. It's the stock Android 2.3 Gingerbread gallery. It feels like Sony didn't even bother developing a nice gallery app for the Ion because it knows the Ion will have all new software once it is updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.
Be that as it may, the gallery offers the same old stack of images floating in mid air. The stacks are folders of images based on date and/or however you choose to designate them. The entire gallery can also be viewed in a timeline grid.
Sharing photos via social networks or messaging apps is easy, but you won't be able to edit them at all. Images can be rotated and cropped and that's it. There's no third-party editing app, either. That's pretty weak, Sony.
Hands-On: Sony Xperia Ion
Sony Xperia ion
