So you’re sitting there taking a look at your brand new Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY from Verizon and you notice something strange. Something feels a little – off. You think, what could it be? Could this device be broken somehow, am I just losing my mind? No, wait, what’s that, is there an extra layer over the screen here that I forgot to take off? No way, man, can’t be. But sure as heck it is, a protective plastic sheet attached to the screen, not the same as the rest of the standard packaging safeguards, but one that’s meant to stay on for life.

Should we feel happy because now we don’t have to install a screen protector ourselves, or should we be disturbed that Sony Ericsson or Verizon thought it necessary to add an element to the screen before they approved it? More than likely we should just be satisfied, says I, as you can just remove the plastic if you have sharp enough fingernails and nerves of steel (seriously, this thing is installed WELL.) Also the screen looks fine once you’ve gotten going with it, but if you take a peek here, you might startle, so watch out!

Also lemme take this opportunity to let you know that we’re going to go through a big batch of the Xperia PLAY specific games available via Verizon and they’ll all be up on Android Community over the next few days (and perhaps even weeks!) Let me and us know what you’d like to see us play, and let us know what you’d like to KNOW as well because we’ve got to review this mother!

Preview: it’s good. This has been my initial review.

Protective Skin Removed, Flash Photo and No Flash Photo (for brightness comparison)

Also here’s how the phone looks with the layer attached still, for reference. This will drive you nuts!