After a bit of on-stage patter (and a rather pointless Wonderbook video), Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai officially pulled back the curtains on a slew of new Xperia handsets — the Xperias T, V, and J — at IFA in Berlin.
The Xperia T (previously known as the Mint, left) is the clear standout in this crowd with its 4.6 inch display, which also takes advantage of the company’s Mobile Bravia Engine to produce to eye-popping (some would say “lurid”) visuals.
Taking a look inside the T reveals a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait MSM8260-A chipset, and the whole package runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, though a Jelly Bean update is in the works. As previously reported, the flagship Xperia T also packs NFC and a 13-megapixel camera, which Hirai says can go from sleep mode to snapping shots “in just over a second.”
Sadly, the other two models didn’t warrant more than a sentence apiece from Hirai. The new Xperia V (center) packs support for LTE, and “highest level of water resistance” seen in a smartphone. Hirai didn’t dive into much detail about how exactly that works — he’s bounding from topic to topic like a madman — but expect more to come shortly. The slightly-tinier V keeps the same 13-megapixel camera and Ice Cream Sandwich build as its big brother, but Sony opted for a slightly smaller 4.3-inch display and a slightly different dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 processor.
Meanwhile, Hirai didn’t have much to say about the Xperia J (right) aside from pointing out that it’s cheap, which I suppose is better than nothing. A recent leak revealed that the wallet-friendly J features a single core 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 4-inch display, and 512MB of RAM, which explains why Hirai was so quick to talk about something else.
Of course, hardware is only part of the equation, and Sony has plenty of audio and video content at its disposal. Just to get people on board with Sony’s oft-overlooked Music Unlimited service, anyone who purchases one of these new Xperia handsets will get a 60-day premium service trial.
No word yet on pricing and availability yet, so on the off-chance you’re downright smitten with one (or more) of these things, you may be in for a bit of a wait. In the meantime, you may want to peek at these promo videos that Sony has whipped up to help keep the heartache at bay: