New Sony Xperia C3 is all about the selfie
The Sony Xperia C3 packs a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with a flash for feeding your selfie habit.
In final proof that the selfie is taking over the world, Sony has beefed up the camera on its latest smartphone to make the Sony Xperia C3 "The world's best selfie smartphone."
The word "Selfie" -- referring to a picture taken of yourself, alone or with friends -- was added to the Oxford English Dictionary last year. The new 5.5-inch C3 Android smartphone is "fully-optimised for selfies" and includes a "powerful new PROselfie cam." What that means is that the the usual low-resolution front-facing snapper has been bumped up to 5-megapixels so you can see yourself on the screen without sacrificing the quality of the picture.
The 25mm-wide angle camera also boasts a soft LED flash in any light. You can take pictures by double tapping the back of the phone, or setting the Smile Shutter to fire as soon as it detects a grin. No word on whether there's a Duck Face Shutter.
Once you've captured a goofy grin you can add fun extras like pirate hats or laser eyes to the picture, or use the portrait retoucher to smooth out blemishes and perfect your pout.
On the back there's a traditional 8-megapixel camera for photos that don't involve screaming narcissism, if they even exist anymore.
Away from the camera, the C3 is a 4G phone powered by Android 4.4 KitKat and a quad-core Snapdragon 1.2GHz processor with 1GB RAM. Under the 720p screen is 8GB of storage for keeping all those selfies.
The phone comes in black, white and mint colours, it's 7.6mm thick, and it weighs 150g.
The Xperia C3 will launch in China in August and the rest of the world afterwards. So far Sony has announced a dual-SIM version, but that's likely to be an option only in some countries: the UK, for example, doesn't have dual-SIM phones.
Other selfie-focused phones include the Huawei Ascend G6 , also packing a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a rumoured Nokia device with an 8-megapixel selfie-snapper.