Sony’s just announced a new handset will be joining its Xperia line-up this year: the Xperia M. Much like the Xperia L, it’s aimed at the lower end of the Android spectrum, with far from benchmark-busting specs. It’s got a 4-inch FWVGA (854 x 480) display seated behind a panel of stcratch-resistant glass, and a dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4 SoC (MSM8227) inside, paired with 1GB of RAM. There’s only 4GB of on-board storage, but a microSD slot supporting up to 64GB cards will allow you to bolster that. The rear camera has a 5-megapixel Exmor RS sensor and companion flash, while the front-facing shooter is only a VGA offering. There’s no LTE radio in the Android 4.1 handset, so HSPA+ will be taking care of data, with Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC for pairing and sharing. While it’s no transparent element, the OmniBalance design includes a notification light for, well, notifications. A 1,750mAh battery powers both the the single- and dual-SIM versions, which will be available in black, white and purple (yellow also for the single-SIM variant) when the Xperia M becomes available globally “from Q3 2013.”

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