Sony unleashes Xperia V in Asia

If you caught the Bond movie Skyfall recently, you may have noticed the shiny Xperia T that 007 was using. Well, the bad news is Sony won't be selling that particular handset in Singapore. Strangely enough, the company is branding the 4G Xperia V as the "Bond phone" and selling it instead.

Sporting a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and loaded with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), the Xperia V looks to be quite a promising handset. Other specifications include a 4.3-inch HD (1,280 x 720 pixels) display, as well as also dust and water resistance (IP57).

While it only has 8GB of storage, the Xperia V does come with a microSD card slot so you won't have to worry about running out of space playing PlayStation Mobile games (the V sports PlayStation Certification, too). A 13-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p video rounds up the feature set.

The V is likely to face stiff competition from Nokia's Windows Phone 8 devices when it launches in Singapore, since the Finnish company's handsets will be available on the same date of December 8. The Xperia V will launch in Malaysia next week, while the smartphone will only be sold in Indonesia in January.

In Singapore, the retail price of the Xperia V is an affordable S$698, while the pricing for both Malaysia and Indonesia has not been confirmed.

Lastly, Sony has informed us that the 3G-only Xperia T/TX will launch in Malaysia and Indonesia. Sony says this is due to Singapore's advanced mobile infrastructure and that the launch of the LTE-capable V allows them to "meet the demands of the tech savvy consumers in this market", which in this case, likely means customers who want a 4G-capable handset. This is strange, as there's still the LTE capable Xperia TL (though it only supports LTE band 4 and 17, meant for Canadian networks).

http://asia.cnet.com