Sony Ericsson Launches Sturdy Feature and Apps Rich Xperia™ active

Doubles as Round-the-Clock Digital Personal Fitness Coach
Dust, Water and Scratch Resistant Smartphone Powered by Android

Dubai-UAE: 19 October, 2011 – Sony Ericsson today unveiled the feature rich Xperia™ active that includes a plethora of fitness and sports apps to monitor health levels. The sturdy and lightweight phone also offers a seamless communication and entertainment experience making it ideal for power-users with an active lifestyle.

The Xperia™ active monitors heart rate and pulse in real-time through its built-in ANT+ wireless technology. Users can set their ideal training route by using the embedded GPS, barometer and compass in combination with the iMapMyFitness app to track their day to day performance. For ease of storage during exercise and adventure activities, the phone comes bundled with a host of accessories including a detachable ear hook for the hands free headset, an arm case and a wrist strap.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia™ active runs on the latest Android platform, Gingerbread 2.3, and comes with a dust and water resistant design IP67 allowing the phone to be kept under 1meter of water for nearly 30 minutes.

Rudiger Odenbach, General Manager, Middle East, Sony Ericsson, said: “Sony Ericsson styles an upgraded presence in the smartphone market with the Xperia active’s ability to merge advanced connectivity and computing ability of a smartphone with the utilities of effective health monitoring devices. With sports enthusiasts in mind, the smartphone is built to handle everyday bumps and jolts without suffering damages. The Xperia active endeavors to make exercise sessions much more comfortable and productive for its customers.”

The phone features a 3-inch LED-backlit LCD screen powered by the Sony BRAVIA® engine that supports 320×480-pixel resolution and can accurately display up to 16 million colors. The scratch resistant touch screen uniquely incorporates wet finger tracking to ensure the phone works perfectly when either the screen or a user’s fingers are wet.

Weighing at just 110g, the compact and lightweight model comes with an internal memory capacity of 1 GB and an additional 2 GB card that can be utilized within the available micro-SD card slot.

The unit comes with a 5.0 megapixel camera that not only captures effective imagery but also provides video recording capability at 720 pixels with the benefit of a video light. The smartphone is also equipped with a front-facing secondary camera for video calling. Xperia™ active packs a stereo FM radio with RDS, an MP4/MP3 multimedia player as well as track ID music recognition. A flashlight, a digital compass, an array of Google related features, a document viewer and Facebook inside Xperia™ allow consumers to stay connected with work, friends and entertainment.

Maria Sharapova, a three time grand slam winning tennis player, is an avid user of Xperia™ active. She says, “I love this smartphone as it perfectly meets both my professional and personal needs. It keeps me in touch with my friends as I travel the world on the pro tour and tracks my fitness both on and off the court.”

Available at leading electronic stores in UAE, the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ active is priced at AED 1399 and comes with two exchangeable covers in stylish black and white colors.

About Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson celebrates its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011. Over the years Sony Ericsson has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia™ line of the ‘most entertaining smartphones’ in the mobile handset industry. With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California. For more information, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/press.