VAIO’s new Android phone isn’t all that new after all

You probably know VAIO as Sony’s PC division that thrived for a brief period of time in the early 2000s. In fact, Sony sold off VAIO three years ago, and ever since, the brand never fully re-emerged. Well, today, the company has announced a brand-new Android handset called the VAIO Phone A, and it looks just like the Phone Biz that launched last year.

Everything about the VAIO Phone A is a meh: from its generic name to its mediocre specs, VAIO’s new Android phone is obviously not supposed to be a flagship game-changer. It has an identical design to the Windows-powered Phone Biz that launched last year. And I mean, I literally cannot tell them apart – from the positioning of buttons to the two metal “covers” on the back. Even underneath, you find the same 5.5-inch HD screen, Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 13-megapixel camera. The only difference is that the Phone A seems to be running stock Android Marshmallow and that it will have a dual SIM slot.

The phone is specifically designed for the Japanese market, heading to the Japanese carrier Docomo although there’s no word on how much it’ll cost. The Japanese smartphone market is a curious one indeed: Apple’s iPhone accounts for 47 percent of the total market share, and that’s followed by none other than Sony at a mere 12 percent of the total market share. So whereas in other countries, VAIO would be facing fierce competition from companies like Samsung and LG as well, in its home turf, it looks like its biggest rival is going to be, rather ironically, its former parent, Sony.

What are your thoughts on the VAIO Phone A? Let us know by leaving a comment below!