It's interesting to read reviews of the Xperia S across the internet. I bought it day 1 with plenty of hope and must admit to trepidation on reading the reviews written before I received mine in the post.

As is often the case with technology the suitability of a product depends on your needs. Others have complained that the screen has a shallow viewing angle. That is correct. I travel for business constantly, and have put a polarised filter on my laptop screen. This phone remains private to me. Perfect. I've not yet found an occasion when I wasn't looking at it front on!

The same with battery life. I don't use a lot of widgets but do make and receive a lot of calls including using bluetooth. I get well in excess of a days usage comfortably able to go through an evening of entertaining. Added that the battery seems to recharge very quickly including over USB I've not yet had a problem.

I don't mind the lack of ICS, though to be fair I'm more interested in the applications I use daily, and the OS itself isn't a high priority for me. I might be missing something here and could be eating words whenever Sony gets around to releasing it. I doubt ICS will improve my ability to maintain contact with my customers and team, so from a garden variety users point of view rather than a technology view it isn't a big deal. I can understand though that a flagship phone released post ICS should be carrying the latest software.

The same applies to the processor choice - I believe but do not know that the choice of an older tech processor would allow for better battery management. The tradeoff doesn't seem to have been any great penalty as I don't notice any lag or issues. But then I came from Windows Mobile, so really my opinion may be undeservedly flattering!

While the capacitive buttons haven't been a problem, I don't understand the decision. It doesn't really add anything to the experience so ends up feeling like one of three bad design decisions. Sure it looks good and I haven't had a miss press since the second day, but why? The others are the extra length and not using the white LEDs for notifications except when the phone is ringing. Which is good when on silent.

I love the camera, the screen, and the clean black slab design. As a daily driver this has been a great choice. For me.