Back in the early days of Sony Ericsson's Android adventure, it decided to launch its new smartphones under the ‘Xperia' brand. The Xperia brand was the umbrella that was used for all of its smartphones, regardless of shape/size and form factor. The models that came with the keyboard carried the ‘Pro' moniker, but they all sat under Xperia.
Sony has picked up an EISA 2020-21 Multimedia Smartphone award for the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2), a well-deserved win given the phones' all round performance. The handset boasts a number of features that helped it to win including its 4K OLED display, Dolby Atmos sound, support for PlayStation DUALSHOCK4 controllers, and of course the return of the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Sony reported its fiscal first quarter results last week covering the three months to 30 June 2020. The actual performance for Sony's mobile business was not that interesting – Sony shipped 0.8 million smartphones, a slight decline from the 0.9 million units sold in the same period last year. Sony's latest flagship, the Xperia 1 II only launched in select regions towards the end of this quarter, so it wouldn't have impacted the results in any significant way.
Sony has introduced its first 2020 smartphone, in the form of the entry-level Sony Xperia L4. As you'll see from the headline, one of the most notable new ‘features' as an Xperia fan, is that this is the first Xperia smartphone with a notch. We thought that by now we had ridden out this fad, given that we've seen phones with notches since 2017.
The first leak for a 2020 Xperia device has arrived. The pictures you see below show the first CAD renders of the device, coming from Steve Hemmerstoffer of @OnLeaks fame – a reliable source of new smartphone renders for a number of years now. The pictures show a design that continues on from Sony's 2019 devices, with the long-and-thin 21:9 displays making a return.
A local assembly in western Japan has come up with a measure to prevent minors from becoming addicted to the Internet and computer games.
Kagawa prefectural assembly has presented a draft ordinance that suggests limiting the use of smartphones, PCs and game apps by children under the age of 18 to 60 minutes on a weekday and up to 90 minutes on Saturday, Sunday and national holidays.