Sony Ericsson Unveils Xperia Active and Xperia Ray

Sony Ericsson has announced two new Android 2.3 phones under the Xperia series – Xperia Active and Xperia Ray, in a global media conference in Singapore on Wednesday. Both of which use Sony’s Mobile Bravia engine to enhance the displays. Xperia Ray and Xperia Active are expected to be released in the third quarter of this year.

Steve Walker, Chief Marketing Officer of Sony Ericsson stated, “Android is at the heart of everything we do. We’re here to sell Android with something else. We call it Android plus,”

Sony plans to release the phones on GSM networks around the world and will team up with AT&T to support mobile broadband in the U.S. Last year, Sony Ericsson said that it hopes to become the top seller of Android phones in the world and have planned to work on a strategy to achieve it.

“We made quite a fundamental shift in strategy and decided to focus a large part of our efforts into smartphones, to focus on the mid- and high-end part of the business,” Walker said. “In many markets, we see a dramatic shift from feature phones to smartphones.”

Xperia Active

Xperia Active is powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system and boasts of 1GHz processor. It has a 3inch capacitive touchscreen display with wet finger tracking and sports a 5MP camera.

Fredrik Månsson, Global Product Marketing Manager, Sony Ericsson said: “Xperia active is the ultimate smartphone for an active life. Not only is it packed with all the features and applications consumers need for a worry free mobile life, it also comes with a set of accessories that make it fun and easy for them to take it everywhere, whatever their daily plans are.”

Xperia Active Specifications/Features

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS
• 3inch Touchscreen Display with wet finger tracking
• 320 x 480 pixels Resolution
• 320MB Internal Memory (Expandable up to 32GB)
• 5MP Camera with 8x digital zoom, Auto-focus and LED flash
• Geo tagging
• Wi-Fi Connectivity
• HD (720p) Video Recording
• Stereo Bluetooth with A2DP
• xLOUD
• TrackID Music Recognition
• Up to 4hrs 53min talk time and up to 351hrs standby time
• Up to 25hrs music playback and up to 8hrs 30min video playback

Other features include NeoReader Barcode Scanner, Sony Ericsson Timescape, 3D games, Motion Gaming, aGPS, PlayNow Service, FM Radio with RDS, Micro USB and Wi-Fi Hotspot functionality. Xperia Active weighs just 110.8 grams and is available in two colors – White band with black back color and Orange band with black back color.

Xperia Ray

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Ray is almost similar to the Xperia Active in terms of features except that it has 3.3inch capacitive touchscreen display with 854 x 480 pixels resolution and a 8.1 megapixel camera with 16x digital zoom. It is powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS and 1GHz processor.

Xperia Ray Specifications/Features

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS
• 3.3inch Touchscreen Display
• 854 x 480 pixels Resolution
• 300MB Internal Memory
• 8.1MP Camera with 8x digital zoom, Auto-focus and LED flash
• Front-facing camera for video calls
• Geo tagging
• Wi-Fi Connectivity
• HD (720p) Video Recording
• Stereo Bluetooth with A2DP
• xLOUD
• TrackID Music Recognition
• Up to 7hrs talk time and up to 440hrs standby time
• Up to 36hrs music playback and up to 6hrs 45min video playback

Other features include Sony Ericsson Timescape, 3D games, Motion Gaming, aGPS, PlayNow Service, FM Radio with RDS, Micro USB and Wi-Fi Hotspot functionality. Xperia Active is a bit lighter than Xperia Active and weighs just under 100 grams. It is available in four colors – Black, Gold, White and Pink.

Availability and Price

Xperia Ray and Xperia Active will be released in the third quarter of 2011, however the price of the smartphones are still not known.