Sony’s Cyber-shot W830 delivers 20 megapixels and 8x zoom for $120

It’s tough to stand out in the realm of budget point-and-shoots, but Sony may rise (slightly) above the crowd with its new Cyber-shot W830. The compact cam refines last year’s W730 with an even sharper 20-megapixel sensor (up from 16) while preserving the 8x, 25-200mm lens you’ll want for those long-distance family reunion shots. Optical stabilization and 720p movie-making also make the cut. The W830 isn’t a revolution, then, but it’ll be hard to object to the camera’s rock-bottom $120 price when it goes on sale in February.

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

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Source: Sony

Sony unveils VAIO Flip 11A convertible; arrives in February for $799

It’s almost as if Sony reads our laptop reviews! After testing out the VAIO Flip 15 convertible, we concluded that while the design was innovative, but didn’t quite make sense for a machine that large. At the time, the smallest machine in the line was the 13-inch model, but that came with a different trade-off: At $1,100, it was the most expensive of the bunch. Now, Sony’s going even smaller, and it’s lowering the price of entry too: The company just announced the 11-inch Flip 11A, which starts at a more reasonable $799.

Like its big siblings, the 11A has a 1080p screen that can flip back so that the display is facing away from the keyboard (yep, sort of like the Dell XPS 12). Speaking of the screen, this too uses Sony’s Triluminos color-reproduction technology, which first made its debut on the company’s Bravia televisions. All told, though, it might make more sense to compare the Flip 11 not to the bigger Flips, but to the VAIO Tap 11, Sony’s first Windows 8 tablet. Both have 8-megapixel cameras using Sony’s Exmor imaging technology, and both have an N-trig digitizer allowing for pressure-sensitive pen input. Also, both start around $800, which means you can expect similar specs on the inside, too. In this case, that means a quad-core Bay Trail (Pentium) CPU to start, though if you wanted, you could go all the way up to a Core i7 chip instead.

One other important (but perhaps obvious) difference: Having a built-in keyboard makes the Flip 11 quite a bit heavier (2.82 pounds versus 1.7). Then again, the typing experience will surely be better than what you’d otherwise get on Sony’s flimsy wireless keyboard, so keep that in mind if you plan on using this to get real work done. Look for this guy to ship sometime next month, though odds are, we’ll be getting hands-on before then (read: in a few moments).

Finally, in less headline-grabbing news, Sony also announced that its existing Flip 13, 14 and 15; Tap 11; Tap 21; Duo 13; and Fit 14E and 15E will ship with Windows 8.1, along with Adobe Photoshop Elements 12. Additionally, the Pro 11, Pro 13 and Tap 21 are getting upgraded with faster 802.11ac WiFi. If you’re interested in buying, you’ll want to mark your calendars: The Fit 14E/15E are coming later this month; the Flip laptops, Tap 11 and Tap 21 will ship in February; and the Pro 11, Pro 13 and Duo 13 will go on sale sometime in April.

Filed under: Laptops, Sony

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Sony announces seven HD Handycam camcorders at CES, priced from $230 to $1,500

Bear with us here; Sony’s announcing quite a few new Handycam models at this year’s CES. At the pricier end of the spectrum, the HDR-CX900 sports a 1-inch CMOS sensor, 50 Mbps XAVC S recording, and a boatload of other high-end features. In fact, it’s identical to the $2,000 AX100, though the CX900 excludes 4K-capture capabilities. That omission will save you 500 bucks, with this model shipping in late February for $1,500. Next up, the projector-equipped PJ810 will run you $1,100, and includes WiFi with NFC, 24.5-megapixel stills capture, a 26.8mm wide-angle G lens with hood, a 3-inch 921k-dot LCD and a 50-lumen projector. Meanwhile, for $700, you can pick up the PJ540, which sports a 5.1-channel mic, a 3-inch 460k-dot LCD, 32GB flash storage, WiFi, NFC, a 25-lumen projector and our favorite feature, Balanced Optical SteadyShot.

At the lower end, you can pick up the PJ340, which includes a 26.8mm wide-angle G lens with optical SteadyShot, 16GB flash storage, WiFi, NFC and a 13-lumen projector for $480. Next up is the cheapest projector-equipped model, the PJ275. This $400 shooter features a 29.8mm Zeiss lens, 8GB flash storage, WiFi, NFC and a 13-lumen projector. Meanwhile, videographers on a budget may want to check out the $330 CX330, which ships with WiFi, NFC and a 26.8mm G lens with optical SteadyShot. The $230 CX240, however, does not include WiFi. It does feature a 9.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, a 29.8mm lens with digital stabilization, full HD (60p) capture and a 2.7-inch LCD. All seven models ship next month alongside several new accessories, including a $100 shotgun mic, ECM-W1M and ECM-AW4 $230 wireless microphones and a $30 lens filter for the PJ540.

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

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Sony announces Xperia Z1 compact, a smaller flagship with full-size features

At last year’s CES, Sony introduced us to the Xperia Z, which would be its flagship phone for most of 2013, until the Xperia Z1 was unveiled at IFA. Here at CES 2014, Sony is giving the Z1 some company at the top, as it introduces the Z1 compact. Yes, don’t call it a mini; Sony is very keen to distance itself from the current trend of, what it considers, watered-down versions being sold as mini-flagships. As such, the Z1 compact is almost entirely identical to the original, with the same quad-core Snapdragon 800, the same 20-megapixel camera and the same waterproof design, just this time with a 4.3-inch screen, oh, and color options! We spent a few moments with it ahead of today’s announcement to find out if it lives up to Sony’s “no compromise” boasts. Head past the break to find out.

Usually at this point, we’d reel off the key specifications, but in this case we’re going to start with what’s different between the Z1 compact and the full-fat version. Obviously, the main distinction is the screen size, down from five to 4.3 inches. Given that the whole point is to make a smaller version, this key lower specification (numerically speaking) isn’t to be seen as a compromise. It’s worth pointing out that the smaller (now IPS) display also brings a drop from 1080p to 720p resolution (the ppi is still a solid 340 though). The next main difference is the battery. The Z1 compact comes with a 2,300mAh cell, down from the 3,000mAh battery in the larger version, but given the lower power requirements from that reduced amount of screen, Sony is confident you’ll get a similar amount of battery life overall. The Z1 compact also comes with Android 4.3 straight out of the box.

So, the rest of the specifications are just as you’d find in the original Z1. That means you get a 20.7-megapixel (1/2.3-inch) main camera, Triluminos display with X-Reality engine, 2.2GHz of Snapdragon 800 quad-core goodness, NFC (Sony isn’t shy when it comes to NFC), and 16GB of onboard memory (there’s a microSD card slot, too). All of the above with the same IP58 level of waterproofing — something of an Xperia trademark these days. But what about the color options we hear you cry? Well, there’s black and white for the monochrome fans, and a rather loud lime (which looked quite yellowish to us) as well as a fairly hot-pink hue. The colors look bright and bold, and even extend to the milled aluminum parts. So, where the plum-colored Z1 was broken up by the metal sections, this time around, the phone is one color throughout. The yellow lime version gets almost a goldish tone on its metal parts, and the metallic parts of the pink version also stand out.

Sony, and in particular the Xperia line of phones, isn’t noted for swift and dramatic design moves, and there is unsurprisingly even less deviation this time around. It’s clear the company wanted to make a mini compact version of the Z1 as faithfully as possible, and by and large, it’s done just that. That said, the Z1 compact is — gasp — a whole millimeter thicker than its sibling, but as you can imagine, that’s mostly down to cramming much of the same hardware into a more diminutive frame.

Our impressions, from the short time we had with the handsets, are that this is a promising step from Sony. The Z1 compact feels just as well-built as its larger counterpart, and the user experience is, obviously, much the same. The display is even arguably an upgrade (unless 1080p is a must for you), thanks to Sony plumping for an IPS panel, improving those much-maligned viewing angles. The choice of colors will only serve to broaden its appeal, and while it’s a little wild, we kinda like the lime.

The reduction in display size makes the Z1 compact feel a lot easier to use one-handed, and we can see this really appealing to folks who like the form factor of, say, the iPhone, but are in the market for an Android. While we’re on the subject, Sony is clearly hoping to steal a few of Apple’s customers along the way by providing a cable (potentially in the box) that will make transitioning from the iPhone to the Z1 compact a snap — literally by directly connecting the two phones. The software on the handsets we saw isn’t final, so we’re unable to pass full judgment, but given its hardware capabilities, and the few moments we did have with it, the Z1 compact promises to fly like a rocket. It also comes with all those social-camera goodies that were introduced with the original Z1, which is great news for those who want those augmented reality dinosaurs (or the other, more useful, camera tricks).

Most importantly, Sony has pleased us by taking the approach that many of the other big-name phone makers seem unusually reluctant to do — to make a mini compact flagship, with the same — or as reasonably close as possible — specifications as the handset it mimics. Some people will love the Z1 compact (it ticks a lot of boxes after all); others might not fancy it, but above anything else, we hope it steers the mini-mobile trend in the direction many would have liked to see it go in the first place. You can get your hands on one mid-February, and while Sony is keeping tight-lipped on the price for now, it’ll likely come in somewhere between other existing “minis” and the full-sized Z1.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony

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