Giving Sony phones hands-on time before they're even announced must be in vogue this year. Hot on the heels of its look at what's now called the Xperia T, Mobile-review has given the entry-level Xperia J a full inspection without even the hint of a press release in sight. The very, very early review makes clear that cost-cutting is the rule of the day: a 2010-era Snapdragon chip, 512MB of RAM and a fairly low-grade 4-inch LCD don't afford much in the way of bragging rights. The absence of a microSD card slot doesn't win any fans, either. Still, the Xperia J looks to be carrying a lightweight instance of Android 4.0 that keeps it reasonably up to date, the battery life is good and the 5-megapixel camera will capture some memories in a pinch. Sony could supposedly have its starter phone on the market as early as September, and for as little as 150 euros ($186) outside of a contract -- no doubt the real selling point if it's at all true, as the cost would be roughly half that of the already budget-minded Xperia U.

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Xperia J gets a pre-unveiling hands-on, suggests we'll get exactly what we pay for originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.