Sony is bringing yet another new Xperia model to the Japanese market. The newly announced Sony Xperia VL is a mid-range Android smartphone and will launch via Japanese carrier KDDI by the year's end.

The Xperia VL has a rather nice 4.3-inch display with a 1280 x 720 resolution. The phone is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and has 1GB of RAM. The rest of the specs include a 13MP camera, NFC, a 1,700mAh battery, microSD, 16GB storage and LTE. Unsurprisingly, there is no Jelly Bean here. The VL runs Android 4.0.4.

Another feature mentioned by Sony is dust and water resistance, so the Xperia VL can handle a little rough handling. As for software? The Xperia VL includes many of the usual suspects you would expect to find on similar Sony smartphones such as a Sony Walkman application, an Album app and a Movie app. The camera itself also has a few new modes such as a low-light snapping option.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. The Xperia VL is already coming to Japan through DoCoMo as the Sony Xperia AX. Both of these handsets are actually variants of the upcoming Sony Xperia V. Why is it that carriers and phone makers feel the need to rename the exact same phone so many times? Your guess is good as mine.

No exact release date or pricing information have been unveiled yet. The Xperia VL is expected to arrive to KDDI in blue, pink, black and white varieties.