Sony Xperia Sola vs Apple iPhone 4S

The Sony Xperia Sola, previously rumored as the Sony Xperia Pepper, has now been officially launched in London but how does it match up against the iPhone 4S.

Sony announced the Xperia Sola Android smartphone with floating touch navigation for "magic" web browsing without the need to touch the screen. Sony has also promised to include floating touch features in more apps with future software updates and open it up for developers to use in their own apps.

The standout feature of the smartphone is the easy way it opens apps and launches actions in an instant through the combination of NFC and Xperia SmartTags. In fact the two SmartTags included with the Xperia Sola can be personalized with up to 10 commands - such as turning on Wi-Fi, launching a browser or checking your emails.The phone boasts a sharp Reality Display powered by a Mobile BRAVIA Engine, xLOUD and 3D surround sound audio technology to deliver "crisp and loud sound."

Sony will launch the phone globally in Q2 in black, white and red. Although there is no word on official pricing, the phone is set to retail in Europe for €329, meaning the phone will be targeted towards the budget end of the market.

Here is a look at how Sony Xperia Sola compares to the Apple iPhone 4S:

Display:
Sony's new smartphone has a display of 3.7in with a resolution of 480 x 854 giving around 265ppi pixel density, whereas the Apple iPhone 4S has a 3.5in IPS screen with a resolution of 640 x 960 which comes with ~330 ppi pixel density.

Storage:
iPhone 4S comes in a choice of 16/32/64GB storage capacities and has 512MB RAM while the Xperia Sola features 8GB (5GB user accessible) and 512MB RAM. Sony's handset also has microSD support to allow you expand the on-board storage.

Connectivity:
The Xperia Sola has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 2.1 with A2DP and EDR along with NFC and microUSB version 2.0 support. Apple's smartphone has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 4.0 with A2DP along with USB version 2.0 support.

Camera:
When it comes to the cameras, Sony's phone has a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection features including 3D sweep panorama and image stabilization. And it can capture videos at 720p but it lacks a secondary camera. The Xperia Sola also comes with fast capture to take the camera from sleep to snap in a little over a second with a single key press.

Apple iPhone 4S on the other hand has an 8 megapixel camera with touch focus,face detection, HDR, LED video light, video stabilization and geo-tagging feature. Also it can capture videos at 1080p and there is a secondary VGA camera on the front.

Operating system:
Although Android OS version 2.3 (Gingerbread) is available as of now on the Sony Xperia Sola, it is upgradable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Apple's phone comes with iOS 5 operating system but is upgradable to iOS 5.1.

Processor:
The Xperia Sola is powered by the NovaThor U8500, dual-core, 1GHz processor which is similar in basic terms to the iPhone 4S which has an A5, dual-core, 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor inside.

Battery:
The Xpoeria Sola includes a Lithium-Ion 1320mAh battery which promises up to 5 hours of talk time on 3G compared to iPhone 4S's Li-Po 1432mAh battery which promises up to 8 hours of talk time.

Dimensions:

The Xperia Sola measures 116 x 59 x 9.9mm and weighs in at 107g, whereas the iPhone 4S measures 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm and weighs 140g.