The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo’s not known in superhero circles as the Showman for nothing. Armed with a spacious and crystal clear 854×480 3.7-inch touchscreen Reality Display and Sony’s Mobile Bravia TV engine for tarting up pictures on the fly, it’s one of the best smartphones out there for watching videos on the go.
Its smarts don’t stop there though. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo can change costume in an instant, and double up not just as a mobile video player, but one that’ll nestle comfortably under your telly too as a super slim, fast and petite set top box. You can even use your remote control with it. Read on and we’ll explain just how you can turn it into a media streaming maestro in seconds, and boss it around from the comfort of your couch.
Streaming skills
With a scorchingly fast 1GHz processor inside that would rival the Batmobile for speed, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is more than capable of slinging media completely sans cables to your flatscreen – if you have the right equipment, and are chilling in a Wi-Fi hotspot.
If you have a net connected telly, set top box or games console that’s DLNA certified, you can then stream videos stashed on your phone over the air and watch them on the big screen. You just need to grab one of the numerous free media streaming apps off the Android Market and you’re good to go.
That’s quite a pricey caveat however, the right type of TV. But the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo goes above and beyond, and gives you the option to chuck media from your phone to just about any TV, internet or no, courtesy of a little hero called HDMI-out.
Transform your phone into a set top box
Sony Ericsson’s always gone out of its way to include the ability to pump its phones’ screens to a TV (TV-out), but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo does it with the top notch, digital universal standard. Almost any flat screen TV will house at least one HDMI connection, and cables cost just a few pounds: plug one in and the phone at the other, and you can use the Neo’s raw power to pump even high definition video through to your big screen.
Whether you’ve recorded a clip with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo’s 8.1 megapixel camera, or downloaded a movie from the internet, you’ll be able to pipe it through to the big panel in your living room instantaneously, and without the whir of a big clunky PVR. Needless to say, it works in just the same way for stills should you fancy subjecting your arch nemeses to a slideshow of your last holiday. Do you exshpect me to talk?
Remote wizard
Here’s where it gets really smart. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo’s not just HDMI compatible, it’s HDMI-CEC compatible. CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) provides a way of issuing remote control commands over that same cable, so if you’ve got a HDMI-CEC compatible TV, you can even use your remote control to browse through the Neo’s menus and video selection on the big screen, choose what you want to watch, and play, pause and stop. It saves reaching over and doing it, right?
Act as a conduit – and then some
While remote control skills will only work in the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo’s video and image galleries, the fact that its screen is mirrored on your telly opens up a wealth of possibilities. You can use it as a media streamer to hoover up video stored on your PC, or even have it act as a teeny, tiny console. Ever tried playing Angry Birds on the big screen with the phone as the controller? Now that is one multitalented superhero.
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