I had previously made another new thread about the issue with Xperia S and now I will post it here for easier trackability purposes.
I had my Xperia S returned to my mobile carrier and got a replacement two days ago after much hassle and wastage of time. This is my analysis and I know what I say and compare because I had the chance of using the defective Xperia S and my current "seems to be ok" Xperia S.
This is the perculiar case of my earlier defective Xperia S:
[The earlier defective Xperia S really gave me a worst nightmare.
1) Dead pixels and yellow patches; The yellows patches will be seen easily when you turn on the "backlight"of the screen, which also means its 100% brightness. You can turn on the "backlight" by going to the widget at the home screen created by Sony, where you can also turn on wi-fi, gps etc from there.
To see these prominent "yellow patches" which tends to stay at the edges, corners, and at the area near the transparent antenna (where there should a big yellow patch), you need to turn on the "backlight" of your screen and use the phone for a while, probably 10 to 15 mins of gaming, web browsing or video. Once the Xperia S got heated up, you will see those yellow patches, especially in a white or grey or light blue or light green back ground. You can check the yellows patches out by opening Facebook (white background), or a more standard way, by downloading "screen test" from goggle play store.
2) Unfortunately for my case, there were also dead pixels on my screen. A perculiar case for me because, upon close inspection on the screen, there seems to be "grid lines" where the protective layer on the screen was removed. By close inspection here means it is noticed by physical eyes. The touch were particularly not that responsive and comfortable. The capacitive buttons were particularly not very responsive too.
3) Another perculiar case about the Xperia S is it seemed to warp at the bottom after 3 days of usage. The body of the Xperia S felt like it was not in a propotional manner; a phone with slim top but fat bottom if you know what i mean. I suspect this could the the immense heat generated.
4) Lastly the defective Xperia S crashed or "hanged" a lot compared to my current replacement Xperia S, when both of them are running on the same apps. Other than that, the defective Xperia S also seems to generate more heat.
My Current Xperia S where i have been using it for 2 days:
1) After my mobile carrier sent a replacement for my defective Xperia S (only the handset, no box and no accessories replacement.), upon using it right from the first time, I can feel physical difference between the defective one and this replacement. This is especially true about the capacitive buttons. It seems that design of the capacitive is different, the space to house the capacitive buttons seems to be "taller" than the previous one. As a result, the capacitive button are very responsive, accurate and easier to locate.
2) The heat generated from the phone is also lesser if compare to my previous defective Xperia S. There also seems to no warpage of the body, i.e at the bottom where the transparent antenna is housed.
3) There "grid lines" seems to disappear from the screen upon close inspection. The touch of the screen feels comfortable and very responsive.
5) The replacement Xperia S seems to operate stably and so far there has not been a single crashed or "hang" yet.
HOWEVER
5) The yellow patches seems to remain at the edges, corners and the bottom part (near the transparent antenna) of the screen, although i must admit the level of severity here is much subtle and less prominent. If the yellows patches prove to persist and get worse from the following usage, this could be a technical issue and I hope Sony will provide a solution.
Conclusion:
I will continue to monitor the condition of my new XPERIA S eventhough the experience of using it seems to be a lot better now.
My final advice is upon first usage of your newly purchse Xperia S, be sure to check the "Yellow patches", "Grid Lines", "Warpage", reponsiveness of "Capacitive Button" and touch experience of the "Screen".
I will post the Imei Number of my defective Xperia S and the Current Xperia S. This is to check the probability of defective manufactured batches of Xperia S in early stage.
I am a Sony guy and I am the pioneer user of Xperia because I used legendary Xperia X1 since the first day it was launched. I Hope this will help users of Xperia S or the potential users of Xperia S. The overall user experience of Xperia S is great, with that good industrial design, provided you are lucky to get the right Xperia S with good technical capability.
