Sony Xperia Ion Launched in India: Will it outshine Samsung Galaxy Note? [Specs Comparison]

Japanese phone manufacturer Sony has finally launched its Xperia Ion smartphone in India – adding another feather to its Android smartphone product line in the country. Announced at Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Sony Xperia Ion has some nice features, it is quite stylish and has a decent price tag when compared to high-end phones in the smartphone arena. As informed by Sony's spokesperson, the new smartphone will be available at a price tag of Rs 35,999.

However, it seems the new smartphone has some tough competitors awaiting in the battleground, as handsets like Samsung Galaxy Note are already witnessing soaring sales figures with a price tag of Rs 33, 000 and quite impressive specs under the hood.

Hence, here we bring for you a head-to- head comparison between both the bold and beautiful smartphone, to have a look at how they stack up against each other.

Form Factor

Sony Xperia Ion boasts a glossy black look and measures 133.0 x 68.0 x 10.6 mm and weighs 144 grams. On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Note is a phablet measuring 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65 mm and weighing 178 grams.

Moreover, Xperia Ion sports a 4.6 inch Reality display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels (pixel density of 313 ppi). The display is scratch resistant and shatter proof. It is a capacitive touchscreen powered with the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine and supports multitouch.

On the other hand, Galaxy Note is a phablet sporting a massive 5.3 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels (285 ppi). The display supports multitouch and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. The Note comes with a S Pen stylus, which lets users to write on the screen.

Operating System

Sony Xperia Ion is an Android 4.0 ICS based smartphone. This is the first Sony phone to come with ICS out of the box. On the other end, Samsung Galaxy Note also runs on the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS. However, Samsung has announced the Android 4.0.4 ICS upgrade, which is expected to happen soon.

Processor

Xperia Ion is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor while the Galaxy Note is powered by a 1.4 GHz dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor.

Camera

Sony Xperia boasts a 12 MP camera that can capture images of great quality. The camera is equipped with features like smile, face and touch detection, geo-tagging, image stabilization, autofocus and LED flash. It can record 1080p high definition videos @ 30 fps. There is a front facing 1.3 MP camera that can record 720p videos @ 30 fps.

Whereas, Galaxy Note sports an 8 MP camera with features like smile, face and touch detection, geo-tagging, image stabilization, autofocus and LED flash. The camera can record videos of 1080p at a frame rate of 24 to 30 per second. It sports a 2 MP front camera for video calling.

Memory

Both the smartphones come with 16 GB on board memory and have 1 GB RAM. The memory capacity can be expanded to 32 GB through a micro SD card slot.

Connectivity

Xperia Ion packs connectivity features like Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR, NFC, micro USB 2.0 and USB on the go.

Galaxy Note supports Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot, option NFC, micro USB 2.0 and USB on the go.

Battery

Xperia Ion packs a 1900 mAh Li-ion battery that offers a talktime of 10 hours and a standby time of 400 hours while the Galaxy Note packs a 2500 mAh Li-ion battery that offers a talktime of 12 hours and a standby time of 800 hours.

Verdict

If you like to work on stylus and a massive device with a large screen, you can opt for the Galaxy Note phablet, but it is quite bulky. The Xperia Ion sports a design that fits the current trend of smartphones with large displays of high resolution.