14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Mobile officially announced the Xperia sola last week, but the Japanese handset maker did not release any details regarding the phone’s price tag.
Shortly after the official announcement, Sony France confirmed that the smartphone will hit shelves in the country in April for about 329 EUR (435 USD).
Today, SoMobile reports that Xperia sola has been listed by a minor online retailer for a whopping £400 (635 USD or 480 EUR) outright. The Order retailer also claims that the smartphone will be available from April.
Additional deals are available at The Order. Depending on what the sales package contains, Sony Xperia sola may cost customers up to £430 (680 USD or 515 EUR).
This is simply ridiculous, as the Xperia S, which is a much better, is priced at O2 UK for exactly the same amount on PAYG (pay as you go).
Other carriers and retailers in the UK offer similar deals on the Sony Xperia S, so it’s kind of weird to see the Xperia sola priced so high.
Those who are not familiar with Xperia sola specs should know that this is rather a mid-range Android smartphone that packs a dual-core processor clocked at 1 GHz.
Sony Xperia sola comes with ST Ericsson’s NovaThor U8500 platform and packs 8GB of internal memory, only 512MB of RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion.
There’s also a 5-megapixel camera on the back, which features autofocus, LED flash and HD (720p) video recording, which is completely outperformed by Xperia S 12-megapixel photo snapper that can record full HD (1080p) videos.
Last but not least, the Xperia sola sports a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 854 pixels resolution. The only strong point of the phone seems to be the floating touch navigation technology of the screen.
Obviously, the smartphone will be shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform on board, but it has already been scheduled for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade soon after launch.