Well Designed
The Xperia Play 4G is small, though it has some heft to it. The phone looks very well designed and is virtually identical to the Verizon version, save for the fact that the Play 4G has a royal blue back plate as opposed to a piano black one. I honestly preferred the blue coloring over the black, if only because it was less of a fingerprint magnet. The 4-inch 480 by 854 resolution display is not the best I have seen, though it is better in terms of color to the many pentile displays we have seen as of late. Something to point out is that the screen comes with a screen protector pre-installed to keep the display from getting scratched up while in your pocket or your bag. The buttons on this version of the Xperia Play 4G didn't feel as flimsy as they were on the first one, and the sliding mechanism for the gamepad felt much more fluid.
Mobile Gaming Evolved
I prefer playing games on my Nintendo DS or Sony PSP rather than my phone, but I can see the appeal of carrying fewer devices around.
The Xperia Play works well for gaming. There is no real lag between pressing a button and having the action occur on screen, but I wish the face buttons on the gamepad were a bit more raised. I still find the placement of the Start and Select buttons awkward, and wish they were in the center (much like how they are on the Playstation game controllers).
The two touch-sensitive thumb pads worked, but they weren't accurate enough to use in games that required you to act quickly. In , movement and block placement were clumsy; more often than not you'd fall off ledges because the thumb pad did not properly register your input. If you plan on playing a lot of games on the Play, I'd recommend using the directional pad over the less than functional thumb pads.
Arc Launcher and Other Software
The Xperia Play on Verizon shipped with stock Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The Play 4G still comes with Gingerbread, though it's also running Sony's Arc Launcher overlay. I personally don't mind the Arc Launcher, since it wasn't as heavy as HTC's Sense or Samsung's TouchWiz overlays. I liked the animation of the app drawer and the ability to order apps based on how often you used them, though I would have preferred Sony had swapped out the stock Android camera app with something better since it lacks in features (and is somewhat of an eyesore).
The Xperia Play 4G is rather light when it comes to bloatware. Besides the usual bunch of AT&T branded apps, you get a handful of games that show off the usefulness of the slide-out game pad. The included games are: Asphalt 6, Crash Bandicoot, Dungeon Defenders 2nd Wave, Madden NFL 11, Star Battalion, TBloxx My City, and the Sims 3.
Performance
While I personally would have preferred a dual-core processor (for that extra kick of power), the Xperia Play 4G is no light-weight. The Xperia Play 4G's single-core 1GHz processor keeps the phone running buttery smooth, even when playing more graphically intense games.
Call quality was even, though AT&T's reception was shaky here in San Francisco. Reception would frequently drop from three bars to none, and on occasion I would lost HSPA+ connectivity. The earpiece was loud and clear, and the people I called had no trouble hearing my side of the conversation.
When I first reviewed the Xperia Play on Verizon, I complained about using 3G to download large game files. When the Play came to AT&T, I was hoping the faster HSPA+ network would remedy the languishingly long download times. Unfortunately AT&T's 4G download speeds varied so much, that you'll more likely want to stick to using Wi-Fi to download and play games online.
Speaking of downloading games, don't expect to download an entire library of apps to your phone. The Xperia Play 4G still has the same minuscule memory that its Verizon cousin had back in the spring, a sparse 380MB. Yes the Play 4G comes with an 8GB microSD card and you can add extra storage by buying a larger card (up to 32GB), but since apps are stored in the phone memory it doesn't do much good for those of us that love to download apps.
Camera and Media
The Xperia Play 4G has two cameras: a 5-megapixel camera on the back, and a front-facing VGA camera on the front for video chatting. Camera quality hasn't improved much since the first iteration of the Play, as pictures were still fuzzy and a little washed out. Videos also looked a little washed out, but did a good job at picking up audio and were serviceable.
The Sony audio player is leaps and bounds better than the stock Android one both in functionality and design. With the touch of a button, you can view available YouTube videos of the currently playing artist. There is also a basic equalizer should the audio levels not be to your liking.
A big surprise when I first opened the Xperia Play 4G was the inclusion of a charging dock. The Xperia Play snugly snaps into the dock and allows for the phone to be connected to external speakers (a nice touch if I do say so myself).
Bottom Line
The Xperia Play hasn't changed much since the last time we saw it. Other than a new coat of paint and 4G connectivity, most of the gripes I had with the original stand. The small internal memory, the lack of dual-core, and a mediocre camera would be unforgiveable on any full priced phone, but at a $50 price-point it's easy to look past these issues. If you really enjoy gaming on the go and can look past these issues, this is the phone for you.