Besides a fear of imminent conjunctivitis from handling the same phone as hundreds of others at the Sony Xperia Press Event at the GSMA Mobile World Congress…what else comes to mind?

This phone — a model marketed mostly toward a younger segment — is, to me, reminiscent in some minuscule way of the old Sony W series phones I loved so much (way back in the day). I think it’s the thickness that reminds me of its Cro-Magnon predecessor.

It is a tad thicker than than its bigger brothers, the Xperia S and P, however it still feels like part of the same family of phones, due to the nice feel of the custom Android shell it runs. It’s thicker yes… but not too thick. It felt solid and not “toy-like” which unfortunately is the case with so many Android phones these days.

One “feature” that I am not so sure I find necessary, is the colorful and removable bottom plates. They are there for “self expression”. Clearly, I am not the target segment for this phone, as I find that unnecessary. But for a 16-year-old kid, this could make total sense.

It’s ironic that the model they gave me to handle had a pink bottom plate to go along with the “pink eye” theme running through my head. Regardless, it felt good in my hands for the brief period of time I was able to handle it.