Tech PIVI

Post a separation from Ericsson, Sony seems to be eyeing the smartphone market with a new vigour and enthusiasm. Sony has recently launched three mid-range Android devices in the Indian market - Sony Xperia P, Sony Xperia Sola and Sony Xperia U. Price at Rs. 17,399, Sony Xperia U may be the cheapest of the three handsets but when compared to other similarly priced smartphones, will it be able to make a mark or fizzle out? We will find in this review.   Hardware/ Design In terms of the design, Sony Xperia U looks quite similar to Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia S but draws more resemblance to the latter. It sports a 3.5-inch screen with 854x480p resolution. Just below the screen are the three standard Android touch buttons for back, home and menu. What stands out in terms of the design of Sony Xperia U is that there is the illuminated transparent strip at the bottom. This strip can light up in various colours such white, blue, green, red, purple or yellow, depend...

Sony Ericsson released some nice mid-range Android smartphones last year in the form of Xperia neo, Xperia Ray and neo V and now Sony (sans Ericsson) is trying to achieve the same this year. The Japanese manufacturer launched three mid-range devices this year at Mobile World Congress to cater to almost every consumer in the price-segment. Sony Xperia sola is one of the three devices to be launched in India recently. Priced at Rs 20,449, it brings 1GHz dual-core processor, 3.7-inch Floating Touch display (more on this later), 5MP camera and Android 2.3 to the table, but is this enough to make the consumers go for it over the competition in the market? We will find out in this review. Hardware:  Sony has followed a fixed design style for all of its 2012 smartphone launches apart from Xperia sola, which offers a distinct basic design that might not win design awards but is pretty decent. There is no transparent bar or curved back, but Xperia sola comes with ...