Just weeks after Sony told What Mobile that there wold be additions to the Xperia range in our Sony UK interview, Bert Nordberg – President and CEO of the newly formed Sony Mobile Commications, revealed two new phones which follow the imminent launch of Xperia S in Europe.
Revealing that the Xperia S would go on sale this month in Barcelona at a Mobile World Congress briefing, Nordberg said that Xperia U and Xperia P would debut “in the middle of Q2, 2012” which, by our reckoning, means May. No UK prices were revaled but both phones are designed to be mid-range phones compared to the high-end Xperia S.
Xperia P and Xperia U are designed to compliemt the flagship Xperia S and Sony flew in the big guns to announce the new range. Nordberg turned to Sony stalwart and Mr PlayStation himself, Kaz Hirai (above), Executive Deputy President of Sony Corporation. Hirai said “we will incorporate our digital imaging and gaming assets into our mobile products which have tremendous potential”.
Xperia P is similar to the Xperia S but has a 4 inch screen, 8 megapixel camera and White Magic tech – the first phone to do so. White Magic is Sony’s new technology which claims to aid vision in bright lighing conditions and sunlight. There’s an HDMI socket on the body and Sony made a big deal about the SmartDock accessory, suggesting that you could add a screen, keyboard and mouse to the Xperia P to create a mobile office.
Taking a gap between announcing devices, Nordberg referenced the Oscars and boasted of 21 Sony nominations, highlighting that Sony produce content in a clear swipe at rival manufacturers who are hardware-only operations.
Xperia U is the mini version of the new Xperia range, with a 480x 864 3.5 inch display. In our test with the phone, the screen looked impressive for a smaller handset although we had difficuluty in removing the bottom of the phone – you can opt for different colour options on the base. The Xperia U runs Gingerbread out of the box and the bar of light which acts as an Android Beacon for calls and texts also mimics your desktop picture (see pink pic below) and pictures as you scroll through them. The new UXP NXT menus work well but in tests did crash, suggesting that there’s some work to be done before launch…
In closing, Steve Walker, Global Head of Marketing for Xperia said “Sony has significantly enchanced the advertising budget for the Xperia range” meaning that the battle for the most stylish and capabable Android phone of 2012 will be visible to everyone. With Samsung and LG following a similar path of style and power, 2012 is set to become a pivotal point for Android…
