Last year was the year everyone got serious about the selfie.
We saw the selfie stick, selfie features becoming a big deal in phones, with the word “selfie” being added to the the dictionary near the end of 2013, and there was even a selfie drone during both April Fools and eventually finished product form later in the year for a tourism stunt.
It was a year of selfie-ness, but this year, Sony is getting good and properly serious, updating its first “selfie” phone into something that can put up something of a selfie fight.
How does one put up a selfie fight, so to speak?
With similar sort of tech to what the back camera might ship with, and some software to help out alongside it, and that’s precisely what Sony is loading into the Xperia C4, taking over from last year’s C3, which was Sony’s first “selfie smartphone”.
In fact, the inclusion of technology this year has given Sony the chance to name its C4 the “PROselfie smartphone” — no, we’re not making that up — thanks to the inclusion of a 5 megapixel camera on the front above the screen, flanked by an LED flash, and with a 25mm wide-angle lens used for that 5 megapixel sensor.
We’re told HDR is supported by the front-facing camera, while Sony’s SteadyShot technology is also being used to make sure those hand and wrist vibrations don’t translate to a shaky selfie.
Also of note is the software, which will include augmented reality portrait styles, similar to the augmented reality camera technology Sony has had in its Xperia Z series for some time.
“Following the success of Xperia C3, we are proud to introduce Sony’s evolved PROselfie smartphone,” said Sony Mobile Australia’s John Featherstone.
“Xperia C4 caters to consumers that want a smartphone that not only takes great photos, but also packs a punch. Benefiting from Sony’s camera expertise, the 5MP front-facing camera with wide-angle lens lets you capture perfect selfies, while its quality display and performance features provide an all-round advanced smartphone experience.”
In case you’re curious, there’s still a phone beyond that 5 megapixel selfie camera, and there’s even a better camera on the back, with a 13 megapixel shooter on the back which has its own flash, so you can still take shots like most people do with their smartphone camera.
As for the other technology, there’s a 5.5 inch Full HD IPS display, which is bigger than what is currently offered on the Z3, but with the same resolution, and with Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 supplying colour clarity, while the IPS technology should provide decent viewing angles.
Inside the phone, you’ll find an eight-core processor set to 1.7GHz with Android 5.0 “Lollipop” ready to go, and while we don’t have a storage amount yet, we suspect this will be a 16GB phone with a microSD slot to expand it later. WiFi will of course be here, as will Bluetooth and GPS, and we’ve even confirmed that this is a 4G phone, too, which should also provide some solid download speeds, network dependent of course.
There’s also a sizeable battery, too, with a 2600mAh piece here, which Sony says should be good for a little over eight hours of video watching.
We’ll have to test it for ourselves later on, but not for a few weeks, at least, because while the Sony Xperia C4 has been announced, pricing and availability for our region has not, with that information on the way soon, we’re told.
