At CES, Sony announced its latest flagship smartphone – the Xperia Z1s. While Xperia fans no doubt appreciated finally getting a new phone from Sony, it’s a little annoying that it was basically the Xperia Z1. Where were the brand new phones at? Well, Sony was apparently saving those for after CES.
This morning, Sony announced two new smartphones for two different kinds of consumers – the Xperia E1 and the Xperia T2 Ultra. The E1 is an entry-level device with low specs while the T2 Ultra is a phablet for emerging markets.
Starting with the E1, Sony is obviously calling back to its Walkman days with a design inspired by the classic consumer tech. It’s not only borrowing the design of the Walkman though as the phone is designed to be an audiophile’s dream come true with Walkman software and a 100Db speaker.
As for specs, the Xperia E1 is an entry level device with a 4-inch 800×480 display, Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM and 4G support. The device will be mainly targeted at European and Asian customers with an average launch price of €175.
If the Xperia E1 does nothing for you, you might be more interested in the Xperia T2 Ultra. Sony says the phone is specifically designed with emerging markets in mind, but it’s the kind of phablet device that you’d see in the U.S. It has a 6-inch 1280x720p display, 13MP rear-facing camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.4GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 3000 mAh battery.
In short, the Xperia T2 Ultra is a phablet with mid-tier smartphone hardware. It wouldn’t be all that desirable in the U.S. market due to that, but emerging markets may have a different opinion. An affordable phablet would be something that consumers in China, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe could use right now, and the T2 Ultra comes in a dual-SIM variety for those very customers. It will be available sometime this year for an average price of €400.
Image via Sony Xperia/YouTube