If you thought that Sony has revealed all their cards during this year’s Mobile World Congress when they unveiled the Xperia P and Xperia U, then you were wrong. Sony had an Ace up its sleeve as they’ve recently revealed a new handset which will be made available for purchase later this year.
Dubbed the Sony Xperia Sola, the gadget in question is supposed to join the new Xperia family and bring some new technologies along with it, mainly the “floating touch” feature which pretty much makes this handset rather unique. Join us after the break and we’ll tell you all about it.
Sony Xperia Sola - What You Need To Know
Sony Xperia Sola Specs
Under the hood, the Sony Xperia Sola has a great resemblance to the Xperia P and sports a 1GHz dual-core ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 chip, 8GB built-in storage, a 5 MP rear-facing camera and a 3.7 inch display supporting a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. Furthermore, the brand new “Reality Display” feature will be present as well, alongside the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS out of the box and an ICS update to be released this summer.
However, the Sony Xperia Sola introduces the “floating touch” technology which sets this handset apart from its siblings. The floating “touch feature” is supposed to improve browsing experience by enabling the user to hover his finger above the surface of the display and use it as a cursor before taping the screen. Have a look at the demo-video below and see the “floating touch” feature in action.
We’re not sure whether or not this feature is actually needed, but it’s a cool technology nonetheless. However, due to the fact that you will not get any feedback from not touching the device, it makes me wonder how practical this feature will be, and whether or not the user will be forced to pay more attention to the distance between his thumb and the screen, rather than what’s actually on the screen.
This reminds me of the fact that someone who managed to get his hands on the Xperia U at the MWC mentioned that the “Reality Display” isn’t much of a difference compared to regular displays. It makes one wonder if Sony is simply cramming somewhat unnecessary technology into their soon to be released handsets. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how these gadgets will perform once they are released and how useful are these newly developed features.
The handset will be made available in three colors, black, red and silver, and as far as availability goes, the Sony Xperia Sola is expected to hit the market during Q2 this year. The price tag hasn’t been revealed just yet, but we’re bound to hear something of the sorts pretty soon. We’ll keep you up to date as the story develops.
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