Xperia

Always On's last gig in Barcelona veers away from Mobile World Congress and lands Molly and Jeff in the streets of Barcelona with only their BlackBerry Z10s to guide them. While an Amazing Race-style mission involving lunch under the famous Arc de Triomf and a Spanish ragtime band at La Catedral should have had our hosts overflowing with enthusiasm, the BlackBerry Z10 had other plans.

Whether it was an inability to map the crew a half-mile east, wacky gesture control, or wildly imbalanced NFC photo exchange rate, BlackBerry's comeback kid left us lost in a strange land. Never … Read more

Our colleagues at CNET Asia just took the new Sony Xperia ZL for a complete test-drive and like how this elegant handset handles. While not as luxurious as Sony's current flagship the Xperia Z, the Xperia ZL offers plenty of smartphone goodies including a nimble processor, Android Jelly Bean, and even an IR blaster to function as a home theater remote. … Read more

Smartphone buyers eyeing Sony's Xperia ZL can now pre-order the phone directly through Sony's online store.

The ZL is available in two flavors and at two prices, both versions unlocked and carrier-free.

The C6506 model sells for $759.99 and offers 4G LTE connectivity. The C6502 model goes for $719.99 and is compatible with the HSPA+ networks used by AT&T and T-Mobile. Both models are available in black, white, and red.

The phone is pre-selling online only through the Sony Store for now but should soon pop up at other select online retailers, Sony said … Read more

Sony today unveiled two new Xperia phones for people who may find the 5-inch Experia Z and ZL too big to handle.

The Xperia SP offers a super-bright 4.6-inch 720-pixel HD Reality Display. Sony's Reality Display borrows technology from the Bravia TV lineup, which the company says enhances the brightness and picture sharpness. Courtesy of the Mobile Bravia Engine 2, the phone automatically adjusts its display based on the image being viewed.

Packed with 4G LTE, the SP also comes with near-field communications to display photos and videos on a TV and share files with other devices. An … Read more

If you're still waiting for AT&T to update your Sony Xperia TL to Android 4.1 and patience isn't your top virtue, the carrier is now letting you download Jelly Bean yourself.

While connected to Wi-Fi, you can scoot on into the settings and choose "About phone," then select the software update to get things rolling.

Easy-peasy. You can check out the full Android 4.1 Jelly Bean features here.

Owners of Sony's Xperia T and Xperia V can expect a dose of Android 4.1 sometime soon.

Sony said yesterday that it's begun deploying Jelly Bean to its initial batch of Xperia smartphones. The Xperia T and Xperia V are first on the list, while the Xperia TX is due sometime in March. The rollout will continue to ramp up over this month and next, Sony added.

Xperia owners will receive a notification when the update is available for the model of phone they have. Most users will be able to download the software over the air. … Read more

Sony's new tablet is really thin. How thin? Thinner than the already-very-svelte iPad Mini.

The 10.1-inch Xperia Tablet Z measures 6.9mm or about 0.27 inches. The uber-thin Mini is 7.2mm and 0.28 inches, by comparison.

Thinness is important in tablets because it translates to very light, easy-to-hold designs. And here Sony delivers too: it weighs in at 485 grams or just over one pound.

That also beats the 10-inch class competition: Apple's iPad 4 is 1.44 pounds.

The 10.1-inch Xperia sports a 1,920x1,200 "Reality Display." That's not quite the pixel density of the iPad 4's Retina display but it's pretty close. The Xperia is about 224 pixels per inch (PPI), while the iPad's 9.7-inch display is 264 PPI.

But, to be fair, both fall short of Google's Nexus 10 with a PPI of 300. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Today Sony announced one of the broadest and most compelling product and service lineups at CES 2013, including 4K and OLED TVs, the first way to get 4K content into the home, and yes, an actual smartphone.

Leading the charge was the company's new flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z. With quad-core processing, a massive 5-inch screen, and a 13-megapixel camera, it has the specs to compete with the best phones on the market. And one of the only ones that's water-resistant.

Next the company talked up NFC, or near-field communication, saying it had integrated "One Touch" communication among devices to ease media transfer and streaming among phones, tablets, TVs, and audio devices. The idea is that the link can be established just by touching the devices to one another.… Read more

LAS VEGAS -- Sony hopes its Xperia smartphone brand will ultimately reach the same heights as its vaunted Trinitron and Walkman lines.

It'll be lucky if it can get a consumer to even remember the Xperia name.

"Sony needs people to know that we make phones," said Calum MacDougal, director of Xperia marketing for the company.

That's the uphill climb that Sony faces in the ultra-competitive smartphone business. The truth is the company is so far behind -- particularly in the U.S. -- that it will take a monumental leap this year just to get … Read more