During my tenure writing about smartphones so far there has always been one hot commodity and that is a front-facing shooter with an underwhelming megapixel count. Even on the flagships during 2014 that have megapixel nearing the 16 range for the rear-facing shooter, the front is always lackluster because people use it as a ‘selfie’ snapper. But is that reason to not give the world great quality photos of ourselves? According to Sony, who is launching the new Xperia C3, the answer is a resounding “no,” and they are about to launch a C3 ‘Selfie’ smartphone.

There are two different phones coming in the C3 range and only one of them is focussed on the media. The one you want to buy for the camera mounted on the front is the D2533, and the other option labelled D2502 comes as a Dual version. Both variants come with the ability to use a new Superior Auto mode, giving fine-tuned images.

Xperia Selfie phone

The C3 D2533 is launching with a 5 megapixel front-facing camera, 702p video recording, 1,280 x 720 pixels screen resolution, 5.5-inch display and a Snapdragon 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Soc combined with a Quad-core processor. It also comes with an Adreno 305 graphics processor, 1 GB RAM and built-in internal storage of 8 GB’s. Moreover, it does offer the extra 32 GB of space externally via the MicroSD card option.

None of that sounds flashy to me so don’t expect this handset to appeal to the high-end devices. Even comparing some of those specs to mid-range handsets doesn’t leave it looking outstanding either. It is clear there is one market for this only: giving people better social media profile pictures and better happy snaps arriving in your lovers inbox. However, sporting only 5 megapixels in its own right leaves it sounding rather gimmicky.

What makes it sounds more appealing is lowering the rear cameras megapixel count to 8 so that there isn’t as big a discrepancy between the two. There is also an autofocus feature belonging on the backside giving 1080p video recording capabilities.

In addition to this the new C3 handset is fully compatible with 4G LTE network so faster data speed is coming your way. It’s almost a must to shop for a handset that has this now if you are shopping today and into the future.

Moreover, the battery capacity is 2,500 mAh and it lasts for 30 hours of talk-time and over a thousand hours stand-by time.

If we go back in time to May we heard rumors of a Media-Tek based smartphone coming to China and many assumed it was the C3. That wasn’t spot on the money, but reports suggest that this device will begin selling in China first before it eventually makes its way around to the rest of the world.

Read More from the Xperia Blog