Sony Xperia SP Tips and Tricks

To lock your screen while you are watching videos, simply press the power button.

This will disable the touchscreen buttons while the video is playing, but it won’t turn the screen off like the lock key normally des.

Note, this will only work on video files that you are playing that are stored on your phone. It won’t work for videos played within websites, such as Youtube videos.

To find out information about Signal Strength, Network Information, Remaining Battery Time and Battery Usage (by Application), go to your Homescreen – Menu – Settings – About Phone.

The phone has the ability to send quick response text messages if your phone is ringing but you can’t answer it.

To change these, go to your Dialer App – Settings – Quick responses. You can only have 4 of them and you may need to edit existing ones.

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card).

To perform a hard reset, or factory reset, then there are a number of methods to try:

1) From the home screen, press Menu – Backup and reset – Factory data reset – Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything

If the phone is totally unresponsive, even after a reboot, then try the following methods.

2) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together. Then, while holding these, press and release the Power button (keep holding the volume buttons). The phone should turn on and a menu will appear. Press the Volume down button to navigate to the Recovery option. Press the Volume Up to select (if that doesn’t work, use the Power button to select). A yellow triangle and an Android logo will appear. Press the Volume Down and Volume Up button together and a recovery menu should appear. Use the Volume buttons to move to the Wipe data/Factory reset option and then press Power to select. Again, use the Volume Down key to choose Yes and press the Power button again to select.

3) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Down button. Then, while holding, press and release the Power button. A menu should appear. Use the Volume down key to go to Clear Storage. Use the Power button to select the option. Then when asked to confirm, press Volume Up for Yes.

4) While the phone is off, press and hold down Volume Up + Home + Power buttons at the same time. Then release the buttons when you see the Logo. Use the Volume Down button to go down and the Home or Power key to select. Choose the Wipe data/Factory reset option. Then Select Yes to delete all user data. Then choose to reboot the phone.

5) A final method is to enter the code into your phone’s dialer: *2767*3855# This method will not give you an option to reverse the process, so be careful! This method will only work if you can boot into your phone.

To change your default font, you need to download a third-party app because Android does not have a built-in way of changing fonts

There are two good Apps that allow you to change fonts:

Font Changer – There is a free version and a paid version. The paid version allows you to change the screen density and allows you to preview the font. You can also change a few other options.

Type Fresh – With this App you can load any TrueType font and also backup your default fonts to your SDCard. Be aware that you might need to reboot your phone after installing Type Fresh.

Also, if you use GoLauncher, then try downloading GoLauncher Fonts.

Note: most, if not all, font changing Apps require you to Root your device

You can use the volume buttons to put the phone in silent mode.

Keep pressing the Down volume until it reaches 0%.

If you have ‘Vibration in Silent mode’ turned on, it will also put the phone into Vibrate mode. To change this, go to your homescreen. Press Menu – Settings – Sound – Vibration.

If you want to install Apps outside of the Android Market (called sideloading), then go to Settings – Security – Unknown sources.

Note: use at your own risk.

To set your voicemail number which allows your phone to automatically input your voicemail password, then open your Dialer App.

Then choose the Phone tab and go to Settings – Voicemail settings – Voicemail number and enter it there.

Depending on your carrier you may have to enter the series of steps required to go through the voicemail menu, for example: *86,,yourpassword# (a comma inserts a pause).

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

This might not work on all models.

Here are the top 5 tips to make your phone run faster:

1) Use only essential widgets on your homescreen – each widget consumes memory and processing power which can slow your down your phone.

2) Uninstall apps that you don’t use – after awhile your phone can get cluttered as some Apps are designed to always run in the background. If you rarely use an App, then uninstall it to free up memory and CPU resource.

3) Install Apps to your phone memory – if you have an SDCard, always install Apps to the phone memory, which can be accessed faster. If you have Apps on the SDCard, then move them back to the phone memory with an App called Move2SD available from the Play Market.

4) Use Static rather than Live wallpapers – Live wallpapers consume processing power and memory. Unless you really must have them, uninstall them.

5) Kill tasks occasionally – Some Apps will run in the background indefinitely unless you kill them. Most of them won’t cause a problem, but it pays to check your running tasks from time to time. Hold down your Home key and check the Task Manager.

One last thing: Don’t use Task Killers. Android manages tasks very well and Task Killers just make your phone unstable and can slow it down further.