Sony makes duckfacing official with Xperia C3, the first selfie smartphone

The (Oxford-approved) word “selfie” is a dirty one here at Gearburn, and conjures up images of tweens duck-facing and older people posing as they attempt to squeeze out the last remnants of their youth, and self-respect. Selfies are now also a marketable gimmick as Sony’s Xperia C3 demonstrates its powers as the worlds most powerful selfie-phone.

Sony’s just launched the Xperia C3, its first PROselfie smartphone with a 5MP front-facing camera and loads of apps aimed at the posing majority. It comes in white, black, turquoise (Sony’s calling it “mint”) and is a damn fine phone, minus the silly selfie gimmicks.

Let’s discuss the main feature first. The Xperia C3 front-facing camera has a super-wide angle lens — 25mm with 80 degree field of view — with a soft-focus flash for taking “flattering” photos “all day and night.” Sony’s also made selfie taking natural and easy, as users just need to double-tap the rear cover or use smile shutter to activate the front-facing camera.

Sony’s Superior Auto Mode, combined with a front-facing flash and HDR is part of the Xperia C3’s arsenal. It doesn’t end there though. AR effects, Portrait Retouch (one-touch makeovers) and Magic Beam (changing the freaking reflection pattern in your eyes) are all included to “elevate your images to a new level, to impress your friends via your favourite social media channels.” We can’t begin to make this stuff up.

Everything else is standard Sony Xperia stuff. There’s an 8MP rear camera, a 5.5-inch IPS display, 4G speeds, quad-core 1.2Ghz CPU and has a dual-sim. The Sont Xperia C3, which weighs in at a rather feather-light 150 grams, runs the latest version of Android Kit Kat, launches August, first in China and then hopefully the rest of the world because we apparently want that self-loving selfie action, and Sony’s got the technology to prove it.