Sony has announced its latest Xperia handset, the Xperia Sola which features the same styling as the Xperia S, P and U. Sony has also given the Xperia Sola floating touch display, a new feature that will allow users to navigate with fingers a few millimetres above the touchscreen. The device will release in Europe in Q2 2012, and should be available globally by the end of the first half of the year so far, no pricing has been announced yet.
The Sola has a 3.7-inch 854x480 pixel display with the Mobile Bravia engine, a 1GHz dual-core NovaThor U8500 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, and 8GB of built-in storage.
The 9.9mm-thick Sony Xperia Sola weighs 107 grams, and will be available in black, white and red colours. As for connectivity options, the Xperia Sola features 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA and hotspot functionality, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and A2DO, microUSB 2.0, stereo FM with RDS, and NFC - the device will come with two NFC Sony SmartTags.
The Xperia sola will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread with Sony's custom user interface when it launches. Sony says that an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is in the works for a summer 2012 release. It runs on a 1,320 mAh battery, rated to deliver up to 470 hours of standby time, 6 hours of talk time, and 40 hours of continuous music playback.
Sony Xperia sola specifications: * 1 GHz STE U8500 dual-core processor * Android 2.3 'Gingerbread' * 5-mega pixels rear camera with auto focus * xLoud and 3D surround sound * NFC, DLNA, GPS, MTP, * 3.7 inch Reality display with Mobile Bravia Engine * 8GB internal storage * 1320 mAh battery