Sony Mobile yesterday held a media event in Singapore where it launched the latest six Sony Xperia handsets for the South East Asia region (Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia). As expected, no new Xperia models were announced, instead we saw the official launch of six handsets for the region including the Xperia acro S, Xperia go, Xperia ion, Xperia miro, Xperia neo L and Xperia tipo.
Our man on the ground (owl_order) got hands-on with most of the devices and came away with positive thoughts. The event itself encouraged creativity in line with Sony Mobile’s current “Made of Imagination” marketing slogan. There was an open canvas where the media was invited to paint their own creations along with coloured sands to rub into the rugged smartphones.
Whilst some may bemoan the lack of an announcement for a high-end flagship, it is quite clear that Sony Mobile is targeting the low-end smartphone segment and sees it as a good growth opportunity. After all, market research firm Canalys recently estimated that more than 40% of smartphones in China will be priced under $200 by 2015.
This was a point echoed by Matthew Lang, Head of Sony Mobile SEA & Oceania Customer Unit saying that the expanded portfolio left Sony Mobile “in a much better position to meet the diverse consumer needs of emerging markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia” and that these phones will “strengthen our footprint in Southeast Asia markets”.
Anyway, check out the gallery below where you’ll find pictures from the event along with some hands-on photos with the phones. As we’ve previously seen, three new apps for the Xperia range will be introduced (Walkman, Album, and Movies) and you can see some photos of these. Towards the end you’ll also see something we haven’t seen before, notification settings for the lock screen on the Xperia ion. See all of the pictures below.
New Sony Xperia handsets to launch in South East Asia in Q3 2012
These are the handset SKUs due to launch in South East Asia over the third quarter of 2012. Not all colours will be available in each region, see the list below to see which colour of handset is launching in each country. The Xperia go will initially launch with Android Gingerbread, whilst all other models will be pre-installed with Ice Cream Sandwich. Prices have not been confirmed.
If you want to see the full specifications of each device please click on “SPECIFICATIONS” at the top of the site which has all of these phones listed or the “COMPARISON” tab to compare specs between phones. The “GALLERY” tab includes press photos for all of the listed phones too.
Indonesia
Xperia acro S (black, white and pink)
Xperia go (black, white and yellow)
Xperia ion (black and red)
Xperia miro (white, white/gold, black and black/pink)
Xperia neo L (black and white)
Xperia tipo (black, white, red and blue)
Xperia tipo dual (black and silver)
Malaysia
Xperia go (black, white and yellow)
Xperia ion (black and red)
Xperia miro (white, white/gold, black and black/pink)
Xperia neo L (black and white)
Xperia tipo dual (black and silver)
Singapore
Xperia acro S (black and white)
Xperia go (black and white)
Xperia ion (black)
Xperia miro (black and white)
Xperia neo L (black and white)
Xperia tipo dual (black and silver)
Thanks again to owl_order!