This is the Xperia Sola, which features ‘Floating Touch’ technology. This basically means that the user can browse the web without having to touch the screen. The display can detect the proximity your finger in mid-air and register its movements and swipes as inputs. So scrolling and highlighting of text can be done without having to physically make contact with the screen. Selecting a hyperlink does require a physical tap however.
Sony promise additional floating touch functionality through new software updates. As for the handset itself, it offers a 3.7-inch Reality Display from Sony’s mobile Bravia line. It has a screen resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, scratch resistant glass and a 1GHz dual-core processor. As we’ve come to expect from modern premium smartphones it offers front and rear cameras, the latter providing full 720P HD video recording, geo tagging, face detection, self-timer and smile detection.
Android 2.3 Gingerbread seems to be a safe option for many handset makers these days and the Xperia Sola has it preinstalled but we can expect an Ice cream Sandwich update later this summer. Additionally the device is enabled for NFC (Near field communications), DLNA and tethering. No pricing information is available just yet but stay tuned for a second quarter launch.
