After a couple of months waiting for the right moment, I finally bought myself a new mobile phone! Introducing, Sony Ericsson's Xperia Neo V... I bought this phone mainly because in my opinion, it's the best one I could purchase with my budget of RM900... and because my brother in law recommended it over Samsung Galaxy W... 

The "V" is actually a Roman number and not an alphabet... Though, most (including me) prefer to refer it with the alphabet since it sounds cooler... 

Basically, Neo V is closely similar to the prior model, Neo...

Insufficient stock of 8 megapixels camera due to the damage done by the horrifying earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year has forced SE to "downgrade" its Xperia Neo to Xperia Neo V... Neo is equipped with 8 megapixels camera while Neo V's is only 5 megapixels...

You lose some, you win some... In order to compensate with the camera downgrade, SE installed a more recent version of Android, Gingerbread, into Neo V making it more powerful in terms of programme processing... Ice Cream Sandwich is also available for download...

The curvy back side and compact design makes it easy to hold... Made entirely out of plastic, Neo V is also quite light... 

I "accidentally" had the opportunity to test the phone toughness and durability just after a few weeks after purchasing it... While riding my motorcycle home from work, my phone jumped out of my pants' left pocket and dove straight onto the hard tarred road... 

I hit the emergency brakes straight away as soon as I noticed it missing from my pocket... After walking back a few metres from where I parked my bike, I discovered the phone with it's back cover and battery disassembled... A part of me died that day...

The back cover was fine - no scratches... However, the front was badly scratched...

The good thing is, the touch screen was totally unharmed and the phone still worked without glitches... Quite tough huh?

I managed to replace the front cover with a new one that I found online... Actually, the replacement cover is for Neo, but since both models are similar in design and size, it fits perfectly... Unfortunately, opening the parts voided the warranty... Sucks for me... Don't get me wrong, I'm very particular when it comes to phone care... It's just that, shit happens... and when it does, it stinks...

The touch screen is bright and clear, and the response to tap is very good... Only a feather light tap is enough to trigger any application and function...

Of course, this phone is no match with Samsung's Super AMOLED screen in terms of brightness...  I've compared it with my brother's Samsung Galaxy W and his phone is certainly brighter... However, Neo V's definitely better than my dad's Nokia C7-00...

I tested out the battery and with minimal use (short calls, no gaming, no music, no camera use, light texting), it managed to last from Thursday to Sunday... That's three days of endurance which is not bad for a smart phone... However, if I maximize the use by playing games, using the Internet function and listening to music for a few hours straight, I need to charge it at least twice a day... 

Battery saving apps are essential for smart phones in order to maximize battery life... Currently I am using two apps which are Battery Dr Saver and JuiceDefender... Both apps work great for me... After using them, my phone battery last longer...

In terms camera, of course Neo V's performance is no match with Neo's because the difference of megapixels... However, I found that Neo V's is actually not bad... The flash is bright, it has auto-focus, and the images are very sharp...

The front camera, on the other hand, is not that good since it's just VGA...

So far, the main drawback of this phone that resent me the most is the lack of internal memory... After using it for a couple of weeks, I noticed that my phone gradually slow down... It was because I had installed too many application in my phone memory... The solution was, I downloaded an app named APP 2 SD Free in order to detect applications that I can move from phone to SD memory... Once I've moved most of my apps into the SD card, the swipe between windows became smoother and applications are opened faster...

I can only install a handful of applications because even if I install downloaded apps in SD card, the internal memory is also affected since running the apps requires the use of internal memory...

Sony Ericsson hasn't fix its wireless connectivity problem... Most Sony Ericsson phones, including Neo V, cannot detect certain wifi connection especially the ones that come from home routers... The solution is to change the channel of your wifi to 11... or, u can also download Wifi Analyzer which detects wifi connections with any channel... Though, the prior solution works better... Contact your service provider if u have difficulty changing your wifi settings...


Above writings are based on my hands on experience of using the phone for about two months... All in all, I'm quite satisfied with this phone though a little upgrade in the internal memory would go a long way for this phone...

My brother and I had done a few comparison between his Galaxy W and my Neo V... As a conclusion, both have their own strengths and weaknesses... For example, Neo V has less internal memory but Galaxy W has 2 Gigabits... However, Neo V has HD camera and better interface... We agree that both are on par with each other... After all, they are about the same price...

For a better review on Neo V, click here...