New Sony Xperia device names revealed: Xperia SP and Xperia L

Names of two of Sony’s upcoming handsets have been revealed. Indonesia’s Postel Telecom site has revealed that the C530X will be dubbed the Sony Xperia SP. The other major handset revealed by the website is the Sony C210X, which is set to be a low-end device. According to the website, the phone will be dubbed the Sony Xperia L.

The Xperia SP is set to be the next phone in Sony’s NXT series with a transparent bar. The display size is set to be the same 4.3-inches as that of the Xperia S and it will feature an aluminium chassis. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s dual core Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM’8960T chip clocked at 1.7Ghz. The display will be 720p – the same as that of the Xperia S.

The Xperia L is expected to run on a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon chipset, which could either be the MSM8227 or the MSM 8627. The graphics of the handset will be handled by an Adreno 305 GPU and it will have an FWVGA resolution display – 480 x 854 – with virtual buttons. It will come out of the box running on Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

The leaked pictures of the Xperia C530X

Just yesterday, Sony had revealed the price of its upcoming flagship device – the Xperia Z. The company's UK website states that the Xperia Z will cost £529 (approximately Rs 45,000) in the UK, but there is no information about its launch or how much it will cost in India. We tried to contact Sony but have not received a reply yet.

Our grey market sources have hinted that the device may make it to Indian shores in the next couple of weeks, but there has been no word from Sony about the launch.

We expected the Xperia Z's price to be in this price bracket, considering it is IP-certified water and dust-proof. It will be interesting to see how well the device performs in terms of sales against the recently launched HTC Butterfly, or even the relatively older iPhone 5, both of which are in the same price bracket.

Rupees 45,000 seems to have become the new price tag for devices deemed to be high-end. This is very different from even just a year ago, when even high-end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S III or the HTC One X were launched for around Rs 38,000. Even later in 2012, when Samsung came up with the Note II and HTC launched the One X+, the phones cost around Rs 38,000-40,000. This allowed Apple to sell the iPhone 5 for Rs 45,000, but now that all high-end smartphones are coming out at the same price tag, Apple may decide to escalate its pricing or risk losing the "premium" factor people like to flaunt after buying the device.