Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY hands-on

We’ve been kicking back and playing (literally) with the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY for the past few days, and while we put our full review together, we figured we’d share some quick impressions of the handset that will make its way to Verizon Wireless tomorrow. For starters, Verizon’s Xperia PLAY runs stock Android 2.3 Gingerbread as opposed to the customized user interface that the international version ships with. Trust us, that’s a good thing. In terms of feel, the Xperia PLAY feels good in the hand, though it’s BMI is probably creeping up into the overweight category as the the phone is a bit heavy and is much thicker than most other Android handsets on the market. At the same time, it also feels slightly hollow, however. There’s obviously a reason for the added weight, and it’s because of the great hardware game controller built into the slide-out portion of the phone. And we have to say, the controls feel and work great — we’ve had a blast playing emulator games with a real gaming pad. Our only real initial complaints are the fact that the Xperia PLAY software launches every time you slide the device open, which seems like a nifty shortcut but we found it to be a bit annoying, and the lack of a functioning ambient light sensor. The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY seems like a great choice for any serious gamer who doesn’t want to carry around more then one device at a time, but is it the best smartphone for gaming in the world? You’ll have to wait until our review to find out. In the meantime, be sure to check out our hands-on photos below, alright?