Hands-on: Sony Xperia Touch review

Price When Reviewed

$TBC

While  MWC is typically all about  phone, tablets and smartwatches, Sony had something completely different which caught a lot of attention. Here’s our Sony Xperia Touch hands-on review from Barcelona. Also see: Best projectors 2017.

We’ll explain more as we go, but the Xperia Touch is essentially a short-throw projector which can turn any flat surface into a touchscreen. The pint-sized box was previously a concept but Sony is now bringing it to market.

Sony Xperia Touch review: Release date and price

Along with the  Xperia XZ Premium, the Xperia Touch is now on sale in the UK. You can grab one at the price of £1,299 which is quite a lot but the device doesn’t have any real competition.

Vodafone also lists the Xperia Touch, but at a more expensive £1,399.

Sony Xperia Touch review: Design and build

The look of the Xperia Touch might fool you into thinking it’s an external hard drive – at least when the device is not in use – but even if it was just storage we’d think it was good looking.

It’s a very compact projector at 69x134x143mm and weighs less than a kilogram making it easy to move around to different surfaces or another room in the house.

We like the perforated metal casing and glossy black panels giving the Xperia Touch a premium and stylish look.

The projector sits on the side and casts an image downwards onto a flat surface like a desk. The controls then sit on top in a nice neat line including an NFC chip and camera.

It might sound odd to have a camera on the top but you can change the orientation of the Xperia Touch so that the image is projected onto a wall. This means the camera is pointing towards where you’re sitting.

Sony Xperia Touch review: Specs and features

First things first, the Xperia Touch can project a 23in image onto your chosen flat surface with an HD resolution (1366×768). Your desk or kitchen worktop doesn’t need anything fancy as the Xperia Touch turns it into a touchscreen with a combination of Infrared and real-time detection via the built-in camera at 60fps.

When projected onto a wall, the touch element still works but you can make the image larger than 23in by pulling the Xperia Touch further away. It can go up to 80in and once you’re beyond 23in, you’ll lose the ability of touch input. Sony told us that it’s working on gesture controls via the 13Mp camera which will arrive with a software update.

During our hands-on time we were impressed with the Xperia Touch, both on a desk type surface and a wall. However, it’s not all plain sailing as 720p isn’t great for watch films and we didn’t always find the touch input responsive.

It’s perfectly fine for casual tasks but when we played a game or tried to DJ, it got occasionally frustrating. You’ll also need to use the device in the dark ideally because in regular lighting the image can look pretty dull. We’d prefer it if the Xperia Touch wasn’t limited 100nits.

In terms of core specs, the Xperia Touch is running on an unnamed Qualcomm processor, 3GB of RAM and has 32GB of storage. However, you can add up to 256GB more via the Micro-SD card.

It’s also got an HDMI post so you can plug in other devices to project and it has USB-C for data and charging. That’s right, there’s a battery inside but Sony says you’ll only get an hour of battery life (video playback), so it’s really just for doing something quick or until you find another power source.

Remaining specs include Bluetooth 4.2, 11ac Wi-Fi, NFC, Miracast, GPS, ambient light sensor, gyro, accelerometer, a mic and stereo speakers. That’s quite a lot to pack in and the Xperia Touch can automatically switch on when it detects a person. 

The Xperia Touch runs on Android 7.0 Nougat and has Google Play Store access so you can use all manner of apps via the 23in projected touchscreen. Gamers will also be pleased to hear it supports PS4 Remote Play, although we haven’t been able to try this.