Sony Mobile is unveiling two new Android-based smartphones, the Xperia miro and Xperia tipo. The miro is a mid-range handset with a focus on deep social integration while the tipo is more in the low-end range with a lower price tag and smaller set of features.
The Xperia miro is the more stylish of the two. It has the larger 3.5-inch display and comes in four different colors: black, black/pink, white and white/gold. It has a 5MP camera on the back with LED flash and 30fps video recording, though Sony is suspiciously leaving out the video resolution. A camera is also present on the front for making video calls. Facebook is built in to the contacts and photos apps for obvious reasons as well as the music player to share and discover content. Another benefit for the music player is Sony’s xAUDIO technology, which is supposed to improve the quality and loudness of the sound.
The Xperia tipo is the miro’s little brother. It has a 3.2-inch display and also comes on four of its own colors: black, white, deep red and navy blue. The tipo is downgraded to a 3.2MP shooter on the back without flash. There’s no front-facing camera or xAUDIO tech either for this guy.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that both of these — keeping in mind that they aren’t high-end devices, especially the tipo — ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s about time vendors start openly adopting the latest Android OS more; it’s only been seven months. Battery life for both is at least 24 hours of usage.
The Xperia miro and Xperia tipo will both launch internationally in Q3 2012.