Back in May, Sony Mobile and NTT Docomo announced they would launch the Xperia A4 Android smartphone sometime in mid-June.

Today, the carrier confirmed the mid-ranger would be available for purchase beginning June 18 for no less than 77,760 yen, which is about $630 or €560 outright.

That's quite a high amount considering the fact that this is a mid-range smartphone that comes with rather old hardware inside.

The only advantages would be the powerful 20.7-megapixel advanced camera on the back, as well as the fact that it ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system right out of the box.

We also know the smartphone should be upgraded to Android 5.1 Lollipop later this year, but apart from that the Xperia A4 packs specs similar to those of the Xperia Z3 Compact.
Plastic instead of glass

Keep in mind though that design-wise, the Xperia A4 is made of plastic, whereas the Xperia Z3 Compact is coated in glass, XperiaBlog notes.

As for the rest of the smartphone's specs, Sony Xperia A4 is equipped with a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card slot.

We already mentioned earlier that the mid-ranger boasts a 20.7-megapixel camera on the back which features a Sony module, autofocus, LED flash and 4K video recording, while in the front there's a modest 2.2-megapixel camera for video calls and selfies.

The smartphone is powered by a 2,600 mAh battery, which should provide up to 900 hours of standby time or up to 12 hours of talk time.

It's also worth mentioning that Sony Xperia A4 sports a 4.6-inch IPS LCD TRILUMINOS capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution and features shatter proof glass.

That's about all there is inside the Xperia A4, a carrier-branded version of Xperia Z3 Compact that's just made its debut in Japan.