sony may be working on a mid-range smartphone that actually improves on some specs of the Xperia T. Last year, the Sony C530X (codenamed HuaShan) would have found itself branded as a flagship phone, but in the age of quad-core phones, the two Krait cores in the C530X are second in the pecking order. However, Sony is not skimming on many features in the HuaShan, despite the mid-range lineage. A screenshot of the Android software information page shows the phone running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean—the same version the flagship Xperia Z will launch with. German website USP Forum has leaked some images that show the mid-range droid with a rather plain-looking, matte steel-gray back. sonyxperiac530x The smartphone also carries forward the design language used in the Xperia Z, with the slightly-rounded corners, an unbroken front panel and a big metallic Power/Lock key. A translucent strip runs along the bottom of the device on both the front and the back and looks like Sony’s take on the notification LED. This is not the first sign of the HuaShan. Earlier, results from GLBenchmark hinted at a 720p display that had a resolution of 1184 X 720, excluding on-screen buttons. More importantly, the benchmark scores revealed the chipset to be Qualcomm MSM8960T, which indicates a dual-core Krait CPU, each core clocked at 1.7GHz, and a Adreno 320 GPU. It also brings support for LTE connectivity. An image uploaded to Picasa last year pointed to a 5 megapixel sensor, though whether this is the maximum resolution is not known. c5303huashan Sony announced the Xperia Z and ZL at CES 2013. They both feature 5-inch, 1080p HD displays (1920 x 1080), 2GB of RAM, a 13.1 megapixel rear camera and a 2.2 megapixel front-facing camera, 4G LTE support, and a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor. Other specs include 16GB of onboard storage space with a microSD card slot. However, the ZL doesn’t have the waterproof and dustproof casing of the Xperia Z. The two phones will be launched in different markets, but it is not known which regions will get which variant. The HuaShan is not the only one in Sony’s 2013 arsenal. Picture evidence found on Picasa points to another Sony Android smartphone in the works—the low-end C210X. The model listed is the C2105, which will feature a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor—either the MSM8227 or the MSM8627—along with Adreno 305 graphics and a FWVGA (480 x 854) screen. The handset too will run Android 4.1.2 out of the box. It looks like Sony is preparing a full complement of devices to be released at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

sony may be working on a mid-range smartphone that actually improves on some specs of the Xperia T. Last year, the Sony C530X (codenamed HuaShan) would have found itself branded as a flagship phone, but in the age of quad-core phones, the two Krait cores in the C530X are second in the pecking order.

However, Sony is not skimming on many features in the HuaShan, despite the mid-range lineage. A screenshot of the Android software information page shows the phone running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean—the same version the flagship Xperia Z will launch with. German website USP Forum has leaked some images that show the mid-range droid with a rather plain-looking, matte steel-gray back.

The smartphone also carries forward the design language used in the Xperia Z, with the slightly-rounded corners, an unbroken front panel and a big metallic Power/Lock key. A translucent strip runs along the bottom of the device on both the front and the back and looks like Sony’s take on the notification LED.

This is not the first sign of the HuaShan. Earlier, results from GLBenchmark hinted at a 720p display that had a resolution of 1184 X 720, excluding on-screen buttons. More importantly, the benchmark scores revealed the chipset to be Qualcomm MSM8960T, which indicates a dual-core Krait CPU, each core clocked at 1.7GHz, and a Adreno 320 GPU. It also brings support for LTE connectivity. An image uploaded to Picasa last year pointed to a 5 megapixel sensor, though whether this is the maximum resolution is not known.

Sony announced the Xperia Z and ZL at CES 2013. They both feature 5-inch, 1080p HD displays (1920 x 1080), 2GB of RAM, a 13.1 megapixel rear camera and a 2.2 megapixel front-facing camera, 4G LTE support, and a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor. Other specs include 16GB of onboard storage space with a microSD card slot. However, the ZL doesn’t have the waterproof and dustproof casing of the Xperia Z. The two phones will be launched in different markets, but it is not known which regions will get which variant.

The HuaShan is not the only one in Sony’s 2013 arsenal. Picture evidence found on Picasa points to another Sony Android smartphone in the works—the low-end C210X. The model listed is the C2105, which will feature a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor—either the MSM8227 or the MSM8627—along with Adreno 305 graphics and a FWVGA (480 x 854) screen. The handset too will run Android 4.1.2 out of the box. It looks like Sony is preparing a full complement of devices to be released at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.