Sony Xperia LT29i Hayabusa previewed before launch
The Sony Xperia LT29i Hayabusa (the international version of the Xperia GX) has teased the rumor mill with a few spy shots of the device and a couple of camera samples, but now someone at ePrice got their hands on an engineering sample and did an extensive preview of the phone, complete with 13MP camera samples. It's a bit odd, but the prototype bears the "Sony Ericsson" logo.
Anyway, the Hayabusa is 8.6mm thick - a hair thinner than the Xperia arc - and features a similar curved back. The weight is reported at 127g. Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 with a dual-core Krait processor, which will run at 1.5GHz at launch (the engineering sample is underclocked to 918MHz), 1GB of RAM and Adreno 225 GPU.
The screen is a 4.6" LCD with 720p resolution and there are no physical keys on the front. Here it's shown next to that of the HTC One X and exhibits color shifting when viewed at an angle (this is typical of Xperia phones).
The XPERIA logo below the screen is illuminated and even pulses in rhythm when there' music.
The Sony Xperia LT29i Hayabusa runs a customized version of Android 4.0.4. Check out the video below, which shows the task switcher that also launches floating widgets (similar to the mini apps in Samsung's tablets). The task switcher is at 1:30, but the rest is pretty interesting too.
The star of the show is at the back - a 13MP camera with LED flash that can record FullHD video. The camera samples look really good, though there's no decent video sample (only one shot in the dark and heavily compressed by the video sharing service).
Also on the back is a noise cancelling microphone and an NFC antenna. Below the back cover is a 1700mAh battery plus SIM and microSD card slots. Unlike some Xperia devices of late, the battery is removable, which is a relief.
We don't know for certain when the Sony Xperia LT29i Hayabusa will launch - the Xperia GX (that's the Japanese version of the phone) will launch on August 9 according to rumors, but the Hayabusa may come out as late as October.