Sony reportedly working on an affordable 5-inch smartphone with MediaTek quad-core processor

Sony is vying hard to capture lost market share in the smartphone space. In the recent past, we have seen a slew of interesting products being launched by the company and if a report in DigiTimes is to be believed, then Sony is looking at launching an affordable 5-inch offering.

There is no word in regards to what the company plans to call this entry level 5-inch smartphone but this smartphone is expected to see the light of the day in the third quarter of 2013. DigiTimes also notes that this 5-inch smartphone will be powered by a MediaTek quad-core processor which is manufactured by Arima.

The other details regarding this smartphone remain sketchy as of now.

Sony had recently launched its Xperia E and Xperia E dual in the Indian market. The Sony Xperia E sports a 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen and is powered by a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A processor. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. The smartphone comes with a 1,530 mAh battery that as per the company's claim can provide a talk time of up to 6.3 hours, or a stand-by time of up to 530 hours. The storage can be expanded by up to 32 GB via a microSD card. The smartphone also sports a 3.2-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus.

Sony Xperia E dual on the other hand is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) variant of this smartphone. This smartphone runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box. The price of Sony Xperia E is Rs. 9,999 and the Xperia E dual costs Rs. 10,990.

The Japanese smartphone maker is also offering Xperia tipo and Xperia tipo dual (Review | Pictures) in the sub Rs. 10,000 category.

The new rumoured device will help Sony strengthen its position in the entry level category. Additionally, if Sony can price its budget 5-incher model below Rs. 20,000, with decent set of specifications, then this device has the potential to give local handset makers such as Micromax, Karbonn, Spice and Xolo some run for their money.