The Playstation Phone Was Ahead of Its Time, Here's Why.

[@DammitJeff]

It might've been 12 years later, but I eventually still got my dream phone 💖 Thanks to Aura for sponsoring this video, go to aura.com/dammitjeff and see if your personal information has been compromised 👀

[@Fr0stM00n]

@DammitJeff can you post a link to that Discord group you mentioned? I’m trying to find it but I guess it’s only posted in redit and like always it’s trying to force me to use their app… NOPE! Not sure why they make people try to use their app to the point of me hating them!

[@jameschen8]

@@Fr0stM00nit’s in the video description

[@Fr0stM00n]

@@jameschen8 thanks! I had not clicked on “more” 😅

[@ThootjeGaming-f7w]

no

[@lingojam5346]

Hey are you gonna make a video about the mig switch?

[@dsimpson530]

A lot of people forget that Minecraft mobile for iOS and Android (known as Minecraft pocket edition at the time) was exclusively launched on the Xperia Play. Notch was at e3 2011 showing off the game in the Sony/Ericson booth.

[@mal0gen]

The very first demo was exclusive to this phone!

[@ak47fan0]

This just reminded me I had the most 🔥 survival world on mine. It’s a shame that I lost it

[@adamhadi5841]

Watch the vid bro

[@R.Mustang]

I used to play this game on this phone 😂

[@rastas_4221]

Sony made such good devices that never took off or they just dropped. Xperia phones were my favorite at around this time. They just felt premium back when Samsung was all plastic.

[@pedrosilvaproductions]

The Vita was another device with amazing potential that they just dropped. What a shame

[@chunkybeats79]

Back then apple didn't have a clue what it was doing (quite similar to now only they're following the others now)

[@SkullModder]

I remember there was a feature in psnapp that let you play from your sony phone then with a modded version you could do it on any android phone but then it was patched to keep the feature for sonyphones because no one was buying them. never met anyone with a sonyphone or anyone who even knew this feature existed, maybe shooting themselves in foot repeatedly didnt help.

[@ApfelSgt]

@@chunkybeats79lol did you just say that apple didn’t know what they’re doing ? 🤣 sorry if i understood that wrong, my English isn’t the best 🙈

[@Jasper-j7l]

​@@chunkybeats79lmao

[@ProjectEdan]

I used to absolutely love this phone - this was a lovely trip down memory lane. I remember at the time using ePSXe instead of Sony's own emulator to play PS1 games, i remember that input delay being a real nuisance.

[@ChillingCrowley]

Psx4droid, epsxe and the other one I forget the name was good. Reicast and n64oid were the other great emus for it, shame I did t know about drastic that would solved many issues for me

[@ChillingCrowley]

FPSe!

[@IgnacioEsteves]

This was such a nostalgia trip. This was my first phone and in a short period of time the Flex broke and I couldn't get it fixed. I cried for hours. Thanks for this video chief!

[@Freshy10]

This was my first phone, and all these years I still have it, now in a box as an electronic relic. This device was my first exposure to Crash Bandicoot because "woah a cartoon animal character" (my game shuts down after Ripper Roo for some reason, so I can't access the rest of the game without the 100% password). I had no idea you could just mod it for further functionality after the catalog shutdown. Thanks for some shinning light on my old boy!

[@lucasrem]

Freshy10 I got my second iPhone back then, the games on Xperia was bad, that store. Symbian OS on it, too weird ! Kept using the iPhones, never a Sony Phone after that.

[@KarlRock]

For mobile gaming, I’m very happy with my Switch. I like a dedicated gaming device which gets the latest full games and not “mobile versions.” Great video bro.

[@mactep1]

It really depends on the use case, personally i find it a hassle, with the psp go, i could just put my phone in my pocket, psp in the other, and go, anytime i got bored it was just there, with the switch, its this whole ritual of putting it the case, and then lugging it around or having to put that inside a bag-pack.

[@Vicy5Modapk]

@@mactep1 The psp sizes were actually perfect for portability. Shame that outside of emulation devices we don't get systems with that form factor anymore.

[@Josuh]

I really thought this was sarcasm

[@StarmenRock]

what the hell? dude, the switch is so underpowered and barely gets games... if you were talking about a steamdeck or rog ally or smth id understand, but what...

[@KarlRock]

@@StarmenRock I know what you mean Bro. Actually I’m not playing graphically intensive games like Hogwarts Legacy or Witcher 3 on my Switch. I use it for games which suit handheld play better - like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Dredge, Cult of the Lambs, and other such games that I wouldn’t play on a big screen on my Xbox or PS. I never even used to give these games a chance, but now I do on Switch.

[@SirCaco]

This was my dream phone too, I wanted it so bad I looked everywhere. Sadly I was never able to get it and had to settle for an Xperia Mini Pro, which, in hindsight, wasn't bad at all because it turned out to have the exact same internal specs! That physical keyboard, while not exactly a controller interface, performed well enough for that purpose. So it may not have been what I wanted, but unbeknownst to me, it was the next best thing in the Android sphere at the time.

[@tehonlynoobs5556]

Shit man im ex xperia mini pro owner too that thing are such comfortable to use the physical keyboard are beast

[@SirCaco]

@@tehonlynoobs5556 Agreed, it was a lovely device.

[@idkwhatimdoingproductions8824]

That has to be the best sponsor segue I've ever seen, kept me genuinely interested

[@siloPIRATE]

And it got interrupted by an ad

[@jaseaquino]

Missed the Sony Ericsson days when they gave us cool Sony stuff added to their phones such as the Cyber-shot and Walkman phones. You might haven't heard of Ericsson, but Ericsson is a telecommunications company based in Sweden and it used to make phones. After a fire happened to Ericsson's supplier of chips, Ericsson decided to partner with Sony, who also make phones too but not that popular outside Japan. Thus, they formed a joined venture company called Sony Ericsson but later in 2011, Ericsson sold its shares of Sony Ericsson to Sony so it became just Sony Mobile.

[@SlimJim3082]

All of my phones in high school and college were Sony Ericsson. Z20, S700, K750, W705, W710, W595, J20 etc. Even my first Smartphone was Sony Xperia U. Not a very good phone.but it looked awesome with it's lights at the bottom.

[@jaxcrum1707]

This video was a big nostalgia kick for me. I didn't have an Xperia Play, but i did have a Kyocera Rise. Very smilar form factor and performance level but instead of psp controls it had a qwerty keyboard. I played all these games. Especially GBA and SNES emulators with my slide uo keyboard bound to button presses. For N64 games I'd connect my wii remote over Bluetooth and plug a wii classic controller in.

[@mactep1]

i had a psp go in my later years in high school and absolutely fell in love with this form factor, pretty god size screen for retro games, while being so compact that i could just bring it anywhere, as a secondary device, without any hassle or having to bring a bag or carrying case for it, sadly it seems to have died with these devices :(

[@Multimine]

check out the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro

[@ChristianoLord9]

Having a controller mounted on your controller must have been a big deal back in 2011. It really looks cool, even if it takes inspiration from the PSP Go. One thing: The sign-in "bug" isn't actually a bug: Google ended support for Google services on Android 1 and Android 2 a few years ago.

[@calculateddeclination5534]

A red magic 8 with a slide in controller with all the things a modern controller has would be nice.

[@Fr0stM00n]

Thank you for making this video! I still have and use mine! I actually own 5 Xperia Plays! One was DOA from an eBay purchase however my first one was purchased when it first came out! I mainly used it for tethering my unlimited 3G Verizon internet connection! I’m shocked how you have so much installed!! I could only install less than a handful of APK’s due to the extremely limited on board memory :(

[@Blindperson38]

Verizon still works on 3G connections?

[@Fr0stM00n]

@@Blindperson38 nah, it was many years ago that I had unlimited data plan with Verizon. They had removed unlimited accounts (guessing it was due to AT$T getting away with it!) . When I went to cancel my account, the employees were trying to find a way to switch my account over to one of them since no one could get it anymore! This was before LTE was wide spread.

[@TheHarrissonPereira]

Mobile gaming back then was perfect! We had games fun enough to play for little sessions of gaming and some powerful enough to make spend a good amount of time, but nothing too much focus demanding like console AAA games.

[@johnsducks9816]

It would have been amazing if sony stuck to this, imagine if they made a modern version with snapdragon 8 gen 3 they could port any ps4 game they wanted

[@therunawaykid6523]

I would love a modern version of this phone in a slimmer form factor and more power

[@sonyx5332]

Phones back then looked more futuristic than today's phones.

[@nakoo]

INCREDIBLE VIDEO!!!! always been one of my dream devices to own one day, thank you for summing up a lot of the cool stuff you could do with it!!! can't wait for more shenanigans on the channel! 💖

[@cheetah672]

Original aspect ratio. People who stretch the image are psychopaths

[@cosmic_Iatte]

I just hate the massive borders

[@triple_lei]

@@cosmic_Iatte Well you are wrong to think that, unless you like unnaturally fat characters and making platformers unplayable if they require any sort of precise jumping at all. It might be okay in racing games, but even then I'd just prefer to zoom in instead.

[@mementocity]

some games could use the widescreen hack

[@ocosmosinfinito]

The best thing is to play Mega Drive with Widescreen Hack.

[@CrBlaSk69]

@cheetah672 And you have ΟCD

[@MATomaso]

1:58 So you think that "Ericsson" was just the name of Sony's phone division and it was named after "the son of Eric"? Ok.

[@Dairunt1]

One thing that frustrated me to know was that Android didn't support XInput controllers until 2013. If the Xperia Play only had XInput support, any game that you can hook a gamepad into would have used the Xperia Play's built-in controls.

[@banguseater]

Pretty sure Android has never supported Xinput rather Dinput. Xinput is only supported in Windows with Xbox controllers

[@Dairunt1]

@@banguseater Thanks, that was probably what I was thinking about. What I meant was that games had to be hardcoded to work with Xperia Play's controls, but if there were an Android-level support for controllers at that time, they would have made it so the Xperia Play's controls get recognized as a regular controller, greatly expanding compatible games. Sure, the Xperia Play would have needed an L2 and R2, and L3/R3 could have been emulated by tapping one side of the touchpad.

[@banguseater]

interesting that has never been figured out yet@@Dairunt1

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Talking about home consoles being obsolete by 2015, I really wish many 7th gen games would get ported to mobile phones. ESPECIALLY World at War. Not just the zombies mode! Like, the WHOLE thing!

[@PS5ProROGPhoneROGAllyuser]

Nokia N-Gage QD and Sony Xperia Play were true mobile gaming, also special mention to Razer Phone for starting the "gaming" smartphone revolution (ASUS ROG Phone series and Nubia Red Magic series).

[@lucasrem]

PS5ProROGPhoneROGAllyuser I was on Xperia Sony Erikson PS too then, Symbian OS games, T-Mobile, mad ! N-Gage too Happy with the non gaming iPhone i bought too ! Rest was never used for games....

[@AvrgDerk]

I had this phone throughout middle school - high school. I remember already being heavily into psp modding when I got this and had custom psx roms loaded into the phone's built in emulator 💀 Crazy good times having that thing in my pocket and hiding the slide out part from teachers was clutch.

[@Randomness662]

Labelling the Minecraft chapter "hello old friend" brought a tear to my eye. Old pocket edition made so many childhoods.

[@kimjrYT]

I have this phone. it's sitting in my drawer with the rest of my old phones. I remember 64 emulation was just getting started when I had. Didn't know you could play paper Mario on it now and DS might dig it out test out some of the new stuff

[@lucasrem]

junkimyt Me too, i almost never used it, iPhone was way better ! Symbian phones, was crab !

[@olaideekeolere358]

I had one of these, but the hing was bad and spoilt after a few months. Loved it.

[@morsecode980]

I’d think it would be cool if a new one of those came out. But it’d have to be as powerful as current iPhones to be able to play the games I’d want to play like Grid Autosport and Warzone Mobile. If it can do that and has solid gaming controls that slide out when you want to use them, in addition to a traditional touchscreen, I’d love it.

[@therunawaykid6523]

I would love if there was a ps5 phone in a slimmer design similar to this with slide out controls it could even have a PlayStation 5 store where you could buy ps5 games designed for the phone itself that would be amazing

[@morsecode980]

@@therunawaykid6523 While that would be very cool, we probably won’t have anything like that anytime soon. But at least just a Sony Xperia Play 2 that can play those more powerful iOS and Android games, some of which are ported down from home consoles.

[@Equalizer2922]

12:45 dude this part is super nostalgic. Like no one ever thought how much the game would change and how big it would become.

[@HinkHall]

Dead space late at night on my iPod touch 3g that I had jailbroken and modded to the teeth is peak mobile experience and while I’m sad we will never go back. I’m happy I was there to have it

[@mihai96z3d]

Bro having a jailbroken iphone or ipod back then was just some sci fi magic. Cydia was insane back then. Once you could no longer jailbreak iphones and they doubled the price I switched to android.

[@BlindReflex]

I've wanted a modern powerful version of this phone for so long now. I hope eventually the d-pad gets its rightful place as a digital navigation tool in our cyborg lifestyle

[@therunawaykid6523]

Imagine how cool it would be to have a ps5 phone in a similar style to this with fold out controls, it could even have its own store you could buy ps5 games made for the phone itself

[@masterkc]

check out GPD Win Mini....it might exactly be what you want. its not a phone though.

[@Awsomeisimo]

Most phones came with a file browser at first, there was a time where that was excluded and i was put off buying new phones for a while. But all android phones can install .apk files just fine

[@LelandHasGames]

When it comes to GB, GBC, and GBA games, I always played with the legit aspect ratio. Just can't stand to play it any other way. I really wanted one of these things back in the day and, I still want one. Sony really needs to revisit this concept. I would buy one in a heartbeat if they made a new one.

[@ildekfain6648]

there was a time . the grass was greener, not cleaner and everyone was smiling and not every 2nd person had an iPhone smartphone on this long-suffering...

[@Everythingdylan-123]

8:48 this minigame is called sort or' splode

[@bRUHrossclat]

Got this when it came out on Verizon , had it for 6months before it got stolen I was only in the 6th grade very thankful for my hardworking parents the phone was so kick ass for Minecraft at the time

[@SupaRush]

The great thing is all of these games and those android games were full gaming experiences without any microtransactions.

[@Nafiur13]

Back then a huge box as a size of a laptop became this with the same power, obviously it's very ahead of its time.

[@djjjjjd]

I bought one of these a few years ago, and it has the perfect form factor and screen size for emulating Gameboy and GBA. For anything more demanding than that, you probably want something with a bigger screen and more power for upscaling. The difference having good physical controls makes vs just having a touchscreen cannot be understated though. The buttons/controls on this thing still feel premium to this day.

[@ruhalfoyls]

Man this and way before this the ngage from nokia were so cool. It was like owning a handheld and a phone in one.

[@kanesworld4]

I owned one of these back when they first launched. 500mb internal space (before apps can be stored on sd cards) was the killer.

[@qaypod]

I remeber back then there was a port of GTA III, man that was bonkers to play

[@Froge69]

Had this phone when new. It wasnt the greatest phone but used it to emulate GBA and it was a beast for that

[@littletoast9465]

Had this phone as a teenager, wish I was more interested in the nitty gritty of tech at the time so I could have taken more advantage of the device! I did get the g2 play a while ago with the add on accessories and emulation was a dream on it!

[@uberhaxornovanongalaktiksk9798]

I remember a classmate of mine owned this phone. Smartphones were kinda new at that time so personally i prefered the old phones over smart phones. I remember i got an iphone as a gift from my parents, all my other friends still had old non smart phones. I didnt like the swap from non smart to smart phone so i went back to using my old phone.

[@thediamondprincechristian]

That would absolutely be a fantasy to have when I was in school, even now. I could see myself using it today and flexing

[@mihai96z3d]

Sony could make the xperia play 2 and revive its phone line, but noooo lets do a streaming controller for the price of switch

[@therunawaykid6523]

Yeah they sure make some weird choices

[@icyds]

we need xperia play 2, LG Wing 2, and fan cooled foldables!

[@thebeats69]

I had one of these and the battery life was shocking. I bought a Chinese XL battery that stuck out the back like a brick, it added about 30 mins. I completed RE2 on it and loved it, if the battery was better it would have been amazing.

[@AK47z]

Reminds me of all the old Samsung/HTC phones that came with IR blasters, def ahead of their time.

[@tauqeerdarve4876]

The nostalgia in this video is just hitting hard. I remember how much I used to mess around with new phones and tablets. Learned many things from that and now in the field of computer science, all those things are still helping me out. My first GBA emulator was John GBA, then switched to myBoy cause it had Multiplayer over Bluetooth and Wifi. Life was simple 🥲👌

[@RamlyJer]

You know I am still using ES File Explorer till right now my phone is Nubia Z60 Ultra android 14, it is the best file explorer ever made, till this day it's working fine on my phone. The feature by ES File Explorer I love, hiding files, apps backups, LAN file transfer, zip extractor, file to zip, text editor, and many more. No other file explorer has all these features.

[@Diamond-wr6qi]

I had this phone in white! Loved it

[@marlonvenaancio]

I had two and I liked it, but for retro I had issues with input lag. Also, opening and closing overtime would bring issues with the flat cable. Lastly, internal storage was really bad. But it's already nostalgic to see it running.

[@edwardgreenjr167]

Awesome video. I picked up one of these as new old stock last year, since it was such a unique phone and I'm an old tech hoarder, I mean collector. Man, this is going to make me hunt down a older micro sd card and waste some time with retroarch again.

[@andyliau6786]

I loved this phone so much when it first released into the market... And I used my following month's pay to get one !

[@ElVangulo]

I loved my xperia play. It was awesome for emulation. I remember running kh birth by sleep at 12fps or something and thinking it was the coolest thing ever

[@Snoc06]

If I could run Dolphin and PPSSPP on a Xperia Play 2, I would absolutely buy it!

[@zangetsuee]

OMG seeing link2sd gave me major nostalgia to my Galaxy Ace. Its truly wonders what we were able to do with 256mb of storage with games XD

[@ThunderDragonRandy]

I would have loved to have this phone back in 2011-2014. But ever since Android phones became more powerful over the years and that we've been getting a lot of retro gaming handhelds (some running on Android and I have two Nvidia Shield Portables and one GDP XD+ but I currently use my Galaxy S22 Ultra with gaming controllers), the Xperia Play seems to be more of a antique novelty to look back in the past on what gaming phones could have been. But it would be nice to have to play older Android games that don't support gamepads other than the Xperia Play's controls.

[@therunawaykid6523]

Yeah this is like the classic looks really cool but not as feature packed and powerful as you want it to be , would love to see a modern version of this with a slimmer form factor and more power though

[@ziaclipsegaming2835]

One of my all time favorite phones.

[@DieselTheDog]

This is so nostalgic lol I remember playing so many of these mobile games on my iPod touch circa 2010

[@MonkoK14]

Man me and my friends had this phone, we played a lot of games together, great for emulators, good times! oh dude! modding pocket edition too, the memories are flooding back lol

[@Joshtheweatherman]

I still have mine, and it still works!

[@thepsychicpeach8425]

If Sony or Samsung came out with a sliding gaming phone with modern sleek 3DS like controls and second screen. I think it could really take off. What a machine

[@evindrews]

man that apk install screen brings back memories

[@Syzergyize]

I still have this phone with me! Battery seems to be dead though.

[@therunawaykid6523]

I actually had a Sony Xperia play once but sold it soon after as it didn’t have much onboard storage space and the main reason I sold it was because it had a fold out controller for me it made it really chunky and heavy to carry in my pocket so I got a much slimmer Samsung galaxy s 2 instead really cool device though I must admit

[@aceofkingsje3463]

They needa bring this back they have more than enough tech to make this happen really smoothly.

[@JayyFromFL]

This came out in 2011?!?! Omg man the years are flying I remember wanting this soooo bad and begging my mom but she just wouldn’t get it

[@namethem00]

I don't play video games much anymore, but there was a time i wanted one of these so badly!

[@MrAppbee]

What a good review. Subscribed. I wish someone made gaming phones like this. All modern gaming phones like RedMagic or ROG don’t have physical controls like that

[@chunkybeats79]

I have 2 at the moment both needing a repair in which I'm going to make one decent phone and the other as parts. What the presenter didn't notev was the quality of materials of this phone. The metal for the slide out dpad was very premium. The back not so much but the sound was brilliant. Just a pity they didn't make it a 1GB RAM it would of had more appeal

[@haydenk6459]

We need longer gameplay of the black ops zombies I wonder how they made that work with the controls. I have that game on iOS so having that with controls would be amazing

[@supervortex8363]

yes i own a rooted xpsphone those can hold 256GIG with a custom rom,,still works for calls,its a great device,

[@RedForeman]

I rooted my HTC evo back in those days I had gta 3 and San Andreas before it was on the markets lol “4 shared” was crazy asf back then

[@DammitJeff]

4SHAREDDDDDD

[@CaptSkott]

I had this phone. I rocked this phone for years. Had shitloads of roms on it. Was the best times of the modern smartphone era for me. Just hop over and game when you’re bored or waiting. Screw scrolling social or anything like that. Just hop in and bust out some Super Mario World.

[@TNAZEP]

Loved the video. Just a little bit of info, Sony Ericsson was a collaboration between Sony and Ericsson, Ericsson are one of the pioneers in mobile telecom and are still around today, Sony eventually purchased Ericssons share in Sony Ericsson and renamed it to Sony Mobile.

[@lucasrem]

jakeDOT. Sony needed Ericson, to release phones, patents etc. Siemens, Motorola, Nokia, they needed a telephone company all back then, MS bought Nokia etc.

[@mekurumaybe3598]

Dammit Jeff, your videos always keep me interested in modding. I feel both blessed and cursed.

[@iancaetano]

Meu professor de judo tinha ele em 2012/13 ele deixava a gente jogar era incrível ver isso em um celular!

[@MU93N_POW3R]

I had one back in the day. I always wonderd how it's capable of running heavy games with so little RAM

[@NeoTechni]

Dead Space was even ported to Vita by 1 genius homebrew dev. Sony should have begged EA to put it on Vita... Also since it was the Sony Ericcson Xperia Play, it was called the SEX PLAY

[@saltmiester720]

I like how hey always says the word computer

[@Nick-f3b]

just straight up this design no edits w 12gb ram 500gb storage on android 15 would go hard af

[@voidofhope6259]

I never had the chance to get one 😞 this looks dope

[@nouns7504]

The dpad and buttons alone are just beautiful

[@lamont1901]

I got this phone for my 8th bday good times man I was literally the coolest kid in school lmaoo

[@heres_the_sauce]

Loved this phone! Was amazing for games!

[@lassekilde7659]

The Xperia Play is pretty good for dreamcast with reicast, but as I remember you would need to flash it with a newer custom firnware.

[@rastas_4221]

Just installed a custom rom on my new phone and it turned it from bloated mess to actually a good phone with update support. Community doing what big manufacturers wont.

[@KaitouKaiju]

Right to repair is so necessary because it prevents a lot of e-waste

[@JetScreamer_YT]

It tried to be ahead of time, but it had yesterday's hardware. I had to hack the kernel, run some SD programs, and got a jumbo battery. I loved the phone, but it had some faults.

[@R.Mustang]

Default games on this phone was so good 😢

[@valhakun]

Amazing that back then we had compelling mobile games like Dead Space. I would really love to see a remake of that game.

[@FrancisMarcosGaming]

I had a friend who also had a PS Phone back in senior high, i could've sworn that the model she had was able to run Tekken 6 smoothly. Then the memory came back to me as the video went on, it did actually lag a little.

[@Malgrok]

This was my all time favorite phone. I'm waiting that the sony licence expire over this form factor so we can get new one like that.

[@Dee_Lopez]

I like filling up the entire screen, most emulators have updated the games to fill up the screen nicely without looking too stretched

[@ChillingCrowley]

I wanted one as soon as i heard about it on engadget in 2010 and went to the phone shop at tesco in Northampton on its release week in about april 2011. I was living on a boat and my gaming life at that time was a nokia ngage and a psp, i didn't actually get one until 2012 and was very impressed with having vice city and gta3 on my phone. The analogues were crap though and i spent more time emulating 8bit and 16bit consoles with it. I could do that on ngage but the display was vertical so not optimal. I was also gaming on a nokia 9500 communicator at the time so Xperia play was a massive upgrade. I still soent more time on ds and PSP overall and mainly used xperia play for videos and tv etc. Being on a boat meant ps3/xbox 360 was not possible so i was a portable gamer for 10yrs nearly. Anyway thanks for the awesome nostalgia hit

[@RebornAudio]

Bro said “combooder” And “commoonity” wtf 😂

[@muhdaimanharith]

If only Sony could bring this phone back just once. give it full spec with 512 GB storage and an SD card... imagine the possibility of the device, and thanks to developers.. we can use the phone for 20 years without any problems...