The second in Sony's trio of smartphones announced at IFA is the Xperia V. While not being quite as exciting as the flagship Xperia T, there is still a lot to like about this handset. In fact the two are very similar.

Internally, both have the same 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait processor and 1GB of RAM. The V also throws in LTE for good measure. Just as its bigger-screen brother, the Xperia V seemed to handle very quickly indeed and gave away no indication as to its less-than-powerful processor. Don't forget that dual-core is more than enough to keep Ice Cream Sandwich happy and it definitely shows on the Xperia V.

sony xperia v pictures and hands on image 4

As for the screen, which is just 4.3-inches this time round (gasp), it is still 720p and is a Reality Display, so you get the viewing angles. We can't fault this display and, to be honest, the size difference is so negligable, we would say go for this phone if you are after LTE. 

As for design, it looks good, although the plasticky buttons on the side leave something to be desired, as does the phone's actual shell which looks cheap at the best of times. The hot pink version in particular screamed budget phone to us more than a top-of-the-line piece of kit.

sony xperia v pictures and hands on image 6

NFC works the same as NFC does everywhere else, in that it lets you connect to things instantly. As we said in the hands-on with the Xperia T, this is great if you own a lot of NFC-capable Sony products, but we can't really see ourselves using much of the rest of the time. 

What is particularly good is that the Xperia V takes the same stellar camera from the Xperia T, so you get absolutely top-quality smartphone photos with 1080p video recording. 

Quite a package then. Depending on the price, if this is a mid-range phone then Sony might just have a winner with the Xperia V.

Like the sound of the Xperia V? Let us know in the comments below ...