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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

Sony hopes its Xperia Z smartphone goes under water. Literally.

The Xperia Z has all of the standard bells and whistles of a high-end smartphone: 5-inch high-definition display with 443 pixels per inch, a 13-megapixel camera, a high-end quad-core Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, ability to pair with devices via near-field communication. Also, it's waterproof.

More to the point, Sony aims to brand its new phone -- and its smaller brother, the Xperia ZL -- as its first true attempt at marshaling the company's considerable resources in ways it's never managed to pull off before. To that end, … Read more

Editors' Note: Our partner site CNET UK has recently reviewed the global version of the Sony Xperia Z. Read their full review here.

LAS VEGAS--Sony has just stepped up its smartphone game with the new Xperia Z. The flagship handset boasts a number of high-end features including quad-core processing, a large 5-inch screen, and a 13-megapixel camera.

Design Encased in an all-black chassis, though Sony plans to offer the phone in a selection of multiple color options, the Xperia Z is a real looker. The device's body is crafted in premium metallics with a back panel made from smooth … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Touch, anyone?

Two of Lenovo's IdeaPad lines will be joining the touch fray this year: both the IdeaPad U310/410 and IdeaPad Z400/500 have multitouch screens. Much like USB 3.0, HDMI, and solid-state drives were in previous years, touch seems to be the de rigueur Windows laptop upgrade of early 2013.

The IdeaPad U310 and U410 Touch ultrabooks, previously reviewed by CNET, are thin notebooks with more than a passing resemblance to a MacBook. The new 2013 versions are equipped with up to a third-gen Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics in the U410 … Read more

New details have surfaced for the Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL just days ahead of an assumed CES announcement.

A chief difference between the two models is that the Xperia ZL will be a dual-SIM variant of the Xperia Z, reports Android Authority.

While this wouldn't be Sony's first smartphone to offer dual-SIM capabilities, it is the first time we've seen this rumor tied to the upcoming handsets. Interestingly enough, there are also rumors that the dual-SIM Xperia ZL will be less expensive than its counterpart. This latter bit of news dovetails with earlier whispers of … Read more

Sony's Xperia Z and Xperia ZL have been found hiding on Sony's Web site, hinting at things to come for next week's CES show.

Known in other circles as the Yuga and Odin, these two Sony devices have been tied to numerous rumors over the last few months.

The Sony Xperia Z (Yuga) is the larger of the two smartphones however, the Xperia ZL may possess similar internal hardware specifications. Reportedly, the Xperia Z will possess a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, a 5-inch 1080p HD display, 2GB RAM, and a 13-megapixel camera.

Both are expected to offer … Read more

Though it isn't slated for the U.S. anytime soon, ZTE's ultra-high-end device, the Nubia Z5, finally launched today.

The handset comes in black or white, and has a 5-inch 1080p touch screen with a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and 443ppi. The display itself is manufactured by Sharp.

Its aluminum uni-body design measures 5.43-inches tall, 2.71-inches wide, and has a thin, 0.3-inch profile. And at 4.44 ounces, it's more lightweight than most standard 5-inch smartphones.

The Nubia Z5 runs on Android 4.1, and it's powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor … Read more

Pedestal-style sound bars are the latest evolution in the simplification of home audio. Instead of placing a long sound bar in front of your TV, pedestal sound bars are designed to sit under your TV, for a cleaner look with considerably less clutter. It's by far the easiest way to improve on the sound of your TV with the least intrusion on your living room decor.

The trade-off is that these systems generally don't sound quite as good as traditional sound bars, largely because they lack a separate subwoofer to handle the low end. It's yet another … Read more

A fresh review of a Windows 8 Acer tablet by chip site Anandtech shows it beating ARM-based devices pretty consistently on central processor unit performance benchmarks but not on graphics. The site also noted a "bug" that has delayed the release of some Intel-based tablets.

"The [Intel] Atom architecture is still faster than every single ARM based [processor] core on the market today with the exception of the Cortex A15," -- ARM's newest chip design -- wrote Anandtech when it posted a review of the Acer W510 today.

Intel's Atom z2760 "Clover Trail&… Read more