Sony at Mobile World Congress 2012
Sony broadened its Xperia selection during MWC 2012 with a few new phones and some market expansions. The Xperia Ion was announced for worldwide distribution, and the previously-announced Xperia S was released. Sony also announced the Xperia P and Xperia U, both of which are smaller versions of the Xperia S.
Mobile
Sony: Android 'doesn't eliminate us from examining other opportunities'
Just days after the closure of Sony's deal to buy out Ericsson from their decade-old Sony Ericsson joint venture, we've sat down with US product marketing manager Stephen Sneeden here at Mobile World Congress to discuss the phone brand's past, present, and future.
Sony Xperia U hands-on video, pictures, and impressions
Amidst a dense, angry crowd of rabid tech journalists, we managed to get some time with the Xperia U, Sony's lower-tiered, Android 2.3.7 smartphone announced just minutes ago along with the NFC-equipped Xperia P. At first glance, the screen is very prone to slimy fingerprints — some of the fault lies in the crowd, but it also doesn't bode well for prolonged use, either. The the home button on the transparent bar was a little finicky, but the color changing looked great, especially as we...
MWC 2012
Sony Xperia P hands-on pictures, video, and close up with the WhiteMagic display
We just had a quick chance to play with the new Sony Xperia P, and... it's a slightly smaller riff on the Xperia S packed into an aluminum unibody case. The big draw is the "WhiteMagic" LCD display, which adds an additional stripe of white pixels to the traditional RGB layout. Sony says it's a dramatically better display and allows the phone to perform better in daylight — it certainly looks beautiful, with super sharp text, excellent contrast, and solid viewing angles. It's only qHD,...
Mobile
Sony introduces Xperia P SmartDock for a 'full PC experience'
To go along with Sony's new Xperia phones, the company is lauching a SmartDock to connect your Xperia smartphone to your TV — and if you add a keyboard and mouse, the company claims you can have a "full PC experience." On its own, the SmartDock outputs via HDMI to allow your phone to serve as a media hub for music, videos, and photos. If you've got a newer TV, you can control the phone with your remote control over HDMI-CEC to navigate the media on your phone and play with Android apps, and...
Android
Sony Xperia Ion launching worldwide this summer
Sony introduced the Xperia Ion at CES last month, but now Sony Mobile President Bert Nordberg has announced that the handset will launch in markets around the world this summer. The handset has a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 display with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, NFC support, and 12-megapixel camera. There's no word on whether the LTE radio will be carried over into the global version, though.
In our hands-on at CES, we liked the Ion's solid feel and lightweight construction, and were impressed by...
MWC 2012
Sony Xperia U announced: 3.5-inch screen, 1GHz processor, and custom colors
Sony has just announced another cousin to the Xperia S, called the Xperia U. The Xperia U has a small, "compact design" with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 3.5-inch Reality Display, and a 5-megapixel camera. For music, the Xperia U comes with "xLoud" for sound processing. It also has the Xperia transparent element, but the has added the ability to make it illuminate with different colors for notifications. You can customize which color the bar uses, but it has another trick up its transparent...
Sony Xperia S shipping globally now, goes on sale in Barcelona this week
Sony has just announced here at MWC 2012 that its Xperia S Android smartphone is shipping now globally and will be available exclusively in the Barcelona Sony Store this week. Sony says the S joins the just-revealed Xperia P and Xperia U as part of the Xperia NXT series of "connected entertainment devices." The Android-powered phone launched in Japan just last week as the Xperia NX, but now it looks like the rest of the world will be able to get their hands on the device. The device has a...
