The Sony Xperia Tipo is stylish and small enough to slip into a pocket, yet offers Android Ice Cream Sandwich with access to thousands of apps from the Google Play Store. But it’s the price of the Tipo that’s appealing – retailing for just £80 on PAYG it’s easy to see why it is such a popular phone, in our Sony Xperia Tipo review we praised it for its impressive battery and great design.
If you’ve invested in the Tipo or you are thinking about getting one, here are our top 10 tips to help you get the best from this budget gem.
Tip 1: Customise the Quick Launch bar
The Quick Launch bar lets you quickly access the apps and features you use the most. Add or remove a features simply by pressing and dragging. If four features aren’t enough, it can be used for folders – either drag an existing folder onto the bar, or hold and drag an app on top of another with the bar to create a new folder.
Tip 2: What type of security?
One of the most important thing you should do when you get a Tipo is set a security lock, by heading to Settings – Security – Screen Lock. Choose between Pin or Password, while Pattern lets you set a personal screen unlock pattern, whereby you unlock the screen by drawing a shape.
Tip 3: Cancel that call
Too busy to take a call? The Tipo includes a selection of pre-written text messages you can send out. Slide ‘reject wth message up’ select the appropraite message and the call will be cancelled. The caller will receive the message and know not to disturb you.
Tip 4: Web shortcuts
Create shortcuts to your favourite website on the homescreen They need to be saved as bookmarks first, which you do by going Menu – Bookmarks, open your bookmarks, select the appropriate thumbnail, press it and select Add shortcut to home.
Tip 5: Font size
Text on menus or messages can look small on the Tipo’s 3.2-inch screen, head to the Settings menu and select Accessibility and there’s an option for Large text. Check this and the font size will increase.
Tip 6: Go faster
The Tipo has an 800MHz processor, which is fairly average for a phone at this price point, but you may find if the homescreens are populated with lots of power-hungry widgets, it can feel slow. Get around this by deleting any widgets you don’t use and opt for a static rather than moving wallpaper, by pressing down on the homescreen and selecting Wallpapers.
Tip 7: Take a screenshot
To take a screenshot press and hold the volume down and power buttons simultaneously. The screenshots are stored in the gallery where you can share them to multiple places such as Gmail, Messaging or Facebook.
Tip 8: Watch your data
If you don’t have unlimited data on your tariff and want to use the internet and Facebook freely without bill shock Sony has a handy Data usage feature, located in the Setting menu. It not only shows how much data you’ve used, but allows you to set a data limit and a separate warning when you get close to the limit, using the red and orange lines on the graph. Once the limit has been reached mobile data automatically switches off.
Tip 9: Read offline
To avoid using data on the go, but still read your favourite websites, the Tipo lets you store web pages to read later. Within the browser hit Menu – Save for Offline reading. When you want to access the page, open the browser, select Menu – Bookmarks and select Saved Pages from the top menu bar.
Tip 10: Hotspot
It’s possible to use the Tipo as a Wireless Hotspot to get online using a device without a cellular connection – such as a tablet. Head to Settings – More – Tethering & portable hotspot and check Portable WiFi hotspot. Select Configure WiFi hotspot and tick Show password to view the password. To use the hotspot search for the same name on the device and enter the password.
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