Sony announces Xperia C3 for selfie-obsessives

Sony has finally accepted that duck faces are here to stay and announced a new selfie-focused phone, the Xperia C3. It has a 5.5 inch 720 pixel display, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage with support for 64 GB microSD cards, and is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor running Android 4.4.2. It also comes with NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, dual SIM card slots, and a Stamina mode to save battery drain.

But what Sony is really touting is the phone’s selfie capabilities, including the first front facing flash, wide-angle camera, and the front camera’s Superior Auto mode, which automatically adjusts photos depending on the lighting conditions. It also comes with a wide range of apps for you to retouch your images and add graphics, which the brand says will allow you to ‘impress your friends via your favourite social media channels’.

It’s just a shame the hardware isn’t as impressive: the front camera is 5 megapixels and the back camera is 8, a long way off high-end handsets like Sony’s own Xperia X2, and a 720p display doesn’t make it stand out. (If I were more cynical, I might think the brand is trying to target their vision of tweenage girls who hear the word ‘selfie’ and can’t take in any more information.)

But while the C3’s not as unique as Sony is trying to sell it as, it does look sleek (especially in mint green) and seems like a decent mid-range phone. Plus, as I think the phrase ‘flattering photo’ is an oxymoron, I’ll take all the help I can get.

It will launch in China in August and the rest of the world shortly after, but there are no details of a UK release (or price) just yet.