Sony has surprised us this morning with a new smartphone to join its growing Xperia range. It was only yesterday when we showed you a leaked picture of the ‘Xperia Pepper’ or ‘MT27i’, and now it’s become official, going by the name Xperia Sola.
The Sola, or ‘Sole’ if you’re in Italy, will join Sony’s 2012 Xperia line-up as an entry level model, as we had expected. That doesn’t stop it looking great with a similar design to the pricier Xperia S and U models in the range, though.
The Xperia Sola features a 3.7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 854 x 480, which is labelled with Sony’s Bravia screen tech, so the picture quality should be excellent. Below the screen we have three capacitive touch buttons for Back, Home and Menu functions, which we initially thought confirmed that this phone would be running Ice Cream Sandwich, but unfortunately we were wrong. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is the operating system of choice for this device, with a view to a 4.0 update this Summer, Sony confirmed in the press release.
The key feature being touted with this phone is something Sony calls “floating touch”. The Xperia Sola is the first smartphone to feature this tech, which we’re told allows the user to navigate the web using the browser, but without even touching the screen. By hovering your finger above the screen you can scroll and move things around, which sounds very interesting indeed. It’ll only work in the browser initially as a test of sorts, but Sony says it will expand on what floating touch can do and which apps it will work in using software updates.
Asides from some futuristic control methods, the Xperia Sola is much like its Xperia stable mates, albeit with a lower spec. Under the hood sits a Dual-Core 1GHz processor, 5-Megapixel rear camera, 8GB of internal storage, plus Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, DLNA and NFC connectivity. You’ll also be able to turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, sharing its 3G data connection. All of this is crammed into a pretty small package – the handset is 9.9mm thick and weighs just 107g.
The Xperia Sola will launch worldwide in Black, Red and White during the second quarter of the year – so between April and June. It will launch in Italy as the Xperia Sole, and in China as the MT27i. Sony’s French Xperia team confirmed earlier today via its twitter account that the phone will cost €329.
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