Sony has just introduced the latest addition to its smartphone lineup called Xperia SP. The mid-range smartphone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with a 4.6" 720p Bravia Engine 2 LCD and a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960Pro chipset.
The Sony Xperia SP's dual core Krait CPU is clocked at 1.7GHz, while an Adreno 320 GPU is in charge of graphics. There's 8GB of storage, but you can use the microSD card slot to expand that. The 8 megapixel camera is capable of shooting 1080p video and there's a VGA front-facer to take care of video chats.
The Sony Xperia SP features a plastic body and with a co-moulded aluminum frame, measures 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98 mm and weighs 155g. There's an illuminated notification strip, which can be customized to flash in different colors depending on who is calling.
The connectivity department offers the usual Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS, Wi-Fi and MHL-powered microUSB as well as NFC and LTE.
The battery inside the Sony Xperia SP has a capacity of 2370 mAh, which combined with the Sony home-backed Stamina mode, should give you pretty good power autonomy. The official stand-by times are 635 h (GSM), 734 h (UMTS) and 709 h (LTE), while talk time is rated at 18 h 53min.
The Sony Xperia SP should be available in white, red and black from Q2, but its pricing is yet to be confirmed.
We had a chance to spend some quality time with the Sony Xperia SP and we can give you some live photos of the smartphone. Don't forget to check out our hands-on with the smartphone over here.
The Sony Xperia L is the latest smartphone to slide in at the bottom end of the Japanese firm's range, launching alongside the mid-range Xperia SP to complete a trio of handsets headlined by the Sony Xperia Z.
It's the natural replacement for the Xperia J, which launched at IFA 2012 alongside 007's Sony Xperia T - handsets which bare a strong resemblance to the Xperia L in terms of design.
There's no exact Sony Xperia L release date for now, all we've been told is that it will arrive during the second quarter of the year. The price is also still a mystery but we expect it to land around the £200 (around $300/AU$290) mark.
When we said it borrows design cues from the J and T we weren't kidding, as it's difficult to tell the trio apart.
Sony has stuck with the same curved rear made famous by the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc on the Xperia L, instead of cladding it in the straight-edged, glass finish found on the Xperia Z.
A noticeably plastic finish greets you when you pick up the handset, but it feels sturdy and there was little flex in the body - meaning the Xperia L doesn't feel too cheap.
The curved, soft touch plastic rear does mean the Xperia L sits comfortably in the hand and offers a good level grip.
It's a well balanced device and although it may look chunky at the ends, it's positively slender in the middle measuring in at 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98mm.
Something which the Sony Xperia L has borrowed from its high powered brother is the distinctive power/lock key located half way down the right hand side of the handset.
Also on the right side is a volume rocker switch and a dedicated camera key, all of which are easy to hit one-handed.
Up top there's a 3.5mm headphone jack while on the left is a microUSB port.
The front of the Xperia L is dominated by its 4.3-inch FWVGA display with the standard Android keys appearing onscreen instead of below it.
With this is mind we were disappointed about just how much bezel was left under the screen, with the chunky plastic adding what appears to be unnecessary bulk to the phone.
The screen itself is a pretty decent offering, especially if the Xperia L does come in sporting a sub-£200 price tag, with colours appearing vibrant while text and images look pretty sharp.
Of course on closer inspection you'll be able to define pixels, but with a decent viewing angle and a bright, 854 x 480 resolution it's difficult to fault it at this price point.
On screen the action is provided by Android Jelly Bean, version 4.1.2, with a 1GHz dual-core processor running the show under the hood.
General navigation is snappy and we were able to move swiftly through homescreens, of which you can have up to seven, and dive in and out of the app list without too much hassle.
The responsive touchscreen means the Xperia L doesn't have trouble registering your various pokes and prods, which also helps to enhance the user experience.
Sony has applied its own layer of gloss to Jelly Bean, with its a homescreen editor function allowing you to quickly and easily manage your widgets, apps and shortcuts as well as changing the phone's theme and wallpaper - making it that bit more personal. Lovely.
The custom user interface also sees the addition of the handy quick settings toggles in the pull down notification bar, allowing you to control things such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC without having to dive into the full blown menus.
Applications aren't quite as speedy though, with most taking a second or two to load up with more demanding apps such as the camera sometimes taking even longer to sort themselves out.
We never encountered a drastic delay, but it is a contrast to the relatively fluid app list and homescreens.
The keyboard is relatively basic but this isn't a bad thing at is allows for well spaced keys and acceptable next word prediction resulting in us typing pretty quickly.
In terms of photographic ability Sony has equipped the Xperia L with an impressive 8MP rear facing camera which also boasts a single LED flash, 720p video recording and HDR and panorama modes.
You also get a front facing VGA quality snapper on the front of the Xperia L, but it's the offering round the back which helps the handset stand out from the competition.
As we've mentioned the camera app isn't the quickest which can be a little frustrating, espeically if you're trying to nab a quick pic - with a tardy auto-focus not helping either.
The inclusion of a dedicated camera key on the right of the handset means it easier to access the application and snap photos, as you don't have to mess about with the on screen shutter.
Pictures were acceptable but we weren't blown away with the quality, although to be fair the Sony Xperia L we were in an oddly lit location which probably didn't help things.
You can whip the rear cover of the Xperia L off, but do this carefully as the case is hooked over the top and bottom of the device and a sudden application of brute force could spell the end of the plastic case.
The rear cover is available in three colours; black, white and red, with the white version of the handset also sporting the same coloured finish on the front.
Under the cover you'll find a microSD slot and a removable 1,750mAh battery. Pop the battery out and there's access to the SIM card slot too.
Sony has squeezed 8GB of internal storage into the Xperia L, although only 5.5GB is free, so you may be grateful for the microSD option.
As this is a Sony handset it also comes with the firm's various bells and whistle in terms of pre-installed apps (or bloatware, depending on your views).
There are dedicated Walkman, Album and Movies applications plus Sony's Music and Video unlimited streaming services are also plonked onto the Xperia L.
If you're a fan of gaming then you'll be pleased to learn the Xperia L also supports PlayStation games via the PlayStation Mobile app.
Sadly there was no content pre-loaded onto the handsets we go hands on with, so we were unable to test out its media capabilities.
We also lacked a web connection which meant we couldn't surf the internet, but we did note the Xperia L only has the Chrome browser - no stock Android offering in sight.
Early verdict
The early signs are positive for the Sony Xperia L which brings a decent set of features to the bottom end of the market and although it won't be as cheap as the likes of the ZTE Blade 3, Huawei Ascend G330 and Nokia Lumia 520, it will still register as affordable for a lot of people.
Generally it copes with everything pretty well and while there is a hint of slow down every now and then that's expected from cheaper handsets.
We look forward to getting the Sony Xperia L in for a full review to see how well it handles media and the world wide web - we're keeping our fingers crossed.
Kids: this is a test card. You won't have seen this on your television
Although the UK still favours live television, the latest findings suggest that we are beginning to replace our secondary TVs with other devices.
The TV Licensing TeleScope report is published annually and its latest offering underlines just how important watching things as they happen remains.
But one fascinating finding is that the average number of televisions per household has crashed from 2.3 to 1.83 in the last ten years.
Goggle not Google
That stat suggests that, although we are as attached to our main gogglebox as we ever have been, our spare rooms / kids bedrooms are far less likely to have a television in.
And that, you would assume, is because we are using laptops and tablets more and more to keep up to date with our favourite programmes.
This is borne out by the fact that the amount of TV we watch is up from 3 hours 36 minutes in 2006 to a fairly substantial 4 hours and two minutes today.
For long term observers of the fascinating UK TV market there's a familiar feel to the data.
The UK population is increasingly using mobile devices to watch television, but we're still at our happiest sat in front of our big screen television in our front room watching live TV as it happens.
HTC USA has confirmed via its official Twitter account that HTC One won't be available on Verizon's networks. It also suggests to check the HTC DROID DNA instead, if you are into Verizon.
It seems the recently announced Galaxy S4 will be a competitor short on the Verizon's network. The DROID DNA is surely a powerful smartphone - it is powered by the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset and comes with a 5.0" 1080p display, but it's been around for four months already and, let's face it - the DROID DNA is not as beautiful as the One.
On a positive note, the DROID DNA will be updated with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and will get the HTC Sense UI 5.0, which premiered with the HTC One.
A few days ago we informed you of possible production bottlenecks for some of the HTC One components. The good news is those won't affect the US release date for the carriers, which will get it - AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. While a fixed date has not been announced yet, it might as well be this very month.
An Italian website has received some insider's information about the retail, unsubsidized price of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Our fellow journalists say Samsung's latest and greatest smartphone will cost €699 at launch in Italy. What's more, the handset will launch there in the first half of May, instead of the end of April.
According to the publication, the price in the rest in Europe will be €100 less. There's little explanation about the substantial price difference, but the author suggests that's the usual overpriced manner of launching the latest smartphones in Italy.
So if they are correct, the European launch price of the Galaxy S4 should fluctuate anywhere between €600 and €700 depending on your country.
Historically, this sort of price range makes perfect sense for smartphone flagships, so we are not surprised. That's usually the price at which top-shelf smartphones launch, and of course, later on, they get a bit cheaper. There are exceptions, of course, Apple's products hardly get any cheaper before the next generation comes out, but still the price range is the same.
The Sony Xperia Z, Sony's current flagship, retails for around €600 too, while the HTC One is supposed to launch at €660 in Europe.
We are not going to get into an argument whether those prices are fair or not. If there are so many people out there ready to pay them, we can't blame the manufacturers for asking them.
Hopefully, we'll learn the pricing in other countries soon. The Galaxy S4 is supposed to launch in the end of April in UK and probably, the rest of Europe, too (though we are no longer that sure given the delay in Italy).
The UK's income from the 4G spectrum auction fell short of expectations
The recent 4G spectrum auction could have raised almost £3 billion more than the £2.3 billion it did, according to new figures published by the auctioneer, government communications watchdog, Ofcom.
The tally, paid to the government by the UK's mobile operators in exchange for the right to roll out next-gen mobile internet speeds, fell well short of chancellor George Osborne's £3.5 billion budgeted estimate.
That alone was enough to worry Britain's bean counters, but it seems that, but for Ofcom's bidding rules, the sum obtained could have far outstripped the chancellor's wildest expectations.
New figures published by Ofcom have revealed that the total bids made by operators came to £5.2 billion, more than double the amount the auction will raise for the treasury.
Second bidder rules
The "theoretical" £5.2 billion would have been the amount paid by the operators had all of the top bids for 800MHz and 2.6GHz frequencies been accepted.
Instead, Ofcom employed a "second bidder" rule meaning that the winning party only had to pay slightly more than the next highest bidder in order to obtain their spectrum.
This system, which had been used in other European countries in their auctions, was outlined to ensure the bidding was harder to rig.
However, this has led to accusations that Ofcom had "over-engineered" the bidding process and as a result, the UK's purse strings will be a little tighter.
"Ofcom over-engineered the auction and it neither raised the amount that the government was looking for nor did it ensure that spectrum found its way into the hands of everybody who wanted it," a source at one bidder told The Guardian.
Reserves and caps
Ofcom has also set aside a portion of the spectrum for Three, the UK's smallest network, to ensure it received some of the spectrum, while it also placed caps on the amount of spectrum O2 and Vodafone were allowed to buy, both of which may have lowered the potential income for the treasury.
Vodafone had bid £2 billion for its spectrum, but only ended up paying £790m, whereas O2 owner Telefonica had bid £1.2 billion but ended up paying considerably £550 for the share of the pie they were able to purchase. Three, on the other hand was only asked to pay the "reserve price" of £225m for its share.
Ofcom responded by saying: "We are entirely comfortable with the rules that we put in place on the caps and the reserved spectrum to ensure that there is effective competition in future to the benefit of UK consumers and businesses."
Apple's new webpage explains why the iPhone is still top dog
They say the best defence is a good offence and Apple has attempted to reassert the superiority of the iPhone 5 with a new website outlining how the device still smacks down its high profile Android rivals.
The new 'Why iPhone' portion of Apple's website, launched on Saturday, just two days removed from the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, explains why "there's the iPhone and there's the rest."
It touts hardware design, customer satisfaction awards, the togetherness of iOS over Android, the safety and selection offered by the App Store and the quality and popularity of the iSight camera, among other features.
It's a somewhat unexpected and defensive move from Apple as the company hasn't felt the need to defend the iPhone against rivals in its marketing materials, rather letting the features speak for themselves.
Is Retina still the gold standard?
The defensive nature of the campaign is outlined by the praise Apple lavishes upon the iPhone's Retina Display.
It explains that only the iPhone and other Apple products have the Retina Display, and claimed that the iPhone "ushered in the era of super hi-res displays."
However, the iPhone 5's 1136 x 640 resolution and 326 ppi pixel-density have been bested by the 5-inch, 1080p HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4 handsets, that all rate above 440ppi.
And while it's true that only Apple products have one, for all intents and purposes, 'Retina Display' is a marketing term rather than a technological advance that consumers should be coveting.
Oh snap
The site, which is also bullish about the iPhone 5's battery life and the power of its A6 processor, also touts the merits of the iPhone's rear-facing 8-megapixel iSight camera.
It calls it "the world's most popular camera," citing the fact that the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 are the top three cameras used to upload photos to Flickr.
"While other smartphones simply tout large amounts of megapixels, taking great pictures is about so much more," the company says, in response to 13-megapixel offerings from its Android competitors.
Support system
The company also makes clear that its status as the hardware and software manufacturer keeps everything perfectly integrated, while the threat of malware is seen off by a stringent App Store approval process.
Finally, it outlines the support system, claiming that any problems with the iPhone can be handled through its own in store channels, rather than seeking assistance from multiple parties.
The post reads: "With other smartphones, you're not sure where to go for help. Call the manufacturer, and they tell you to call your service provider. Call your service provider, and they tell you to contact the OS developer. Getting answers shouldn't be that hard. And with Apple, it never is."
Running scared?
It certainly seems that Apple's marketing team has decided to go on the offensive in order to protect its territory against a swathe of ever-improving, well-hyped and critically acclaimed Android rivals.
With the iPhone 5 only half way into its annual life-cycle, perhaps its a smart, well-timed play to outline the perceived superiority of that device.
The three big Android rivals HTC, Samsung and Sony all launching their flagship 2013 offerings this spring, while there's at likely to be least six months left before we see a new iPhone
What are your thoughts on Apple's shift in strategy? Is it running scared or just throwing out a few truth bombs? Let us know in the comments section below.
