The device runs on the Android 2.3 'Gingerbread' operating system, with early prototypes running Android 2.2 'Froyo'.

It supports microSD cards, in contrast to the PSP consoles, which use Memory Stick variants, and the PlayStation Vita, which uses a custom, proprietary flash storage medium. The device features a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, a 4.0 in (100 mm) TFT LCD display with a resolution of 854 × 480 (FWVGA) capable of 16,777,216 colors, a 5.1-megapixel camera, 512 MB RAM, 400 MB internal storage and a micro-USB connector. The form has a long rectangular touchscreen, and four buttons below, for Back, Home, Menu, and Search.

The slider features a D-pad in an indented area on the left side, a set of standard PlayStation buttons (, , and ) in an indented area on the right, a long rectangular touchpad in the middle, Start and Select buttons in an indented area on the bottom right corner, a Menu button on the bottom left corner, and two shoulder buttons (L and R) on the back of the device. The device is a horizontally sliding phone with its original form resembling the Xperia X10 while the slider below resembles the slider of the PSP Go. On February 13, 2011, at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011, it was announced that the device would be shipping globally in March 2011, with a launch lineup of around 50 software titles. Originally rumored to be a 'PlayStation Phone', the device shed the 'PlayStation' branding in favor of the Xperia brand, running on the Android operating system. With the marketshare for dedicated handheld game consoles diminishing into the 2010s due to the rapid expansion of smartphones with cheap downloadable games, Sony attempted to tackle the issue with two separate devices a dedicated video game console with elements of a smartphone, called the PlayStation Vita, and a smartphone with elements of a handheld console, the Xperia Play. The Xperia Play is a smartphone with elements of a handheld game console produced by Sony Ericsson. ( D-pad,, ,, , L, R, Select, Start, Menu (×2), Back, Home, Search, Volume ±, Power)

Setool for xperia play