Upcoming Sony Phones 2014: Sony's First Stainless Steel Smartphone Spotted In China's TENAA, Specs Incl. 720p Display, 1GB RAM, 8MP Camera

Sony is known for its glass and omnibalance design, but it looks like one of the upcoming Sony phones 2014 have a different breed - and it is made of steel. 

According to a report by GSM Arena, a Sony smartphone has appeared and passed through the TENAA, which is the Chinese equivalent for the FCC in the US. If this tells us something, that is the device is already almost in the finishing touches of its development and could be making its debut in the Asian country sooner rather than later. 

Dubbed as the Xperia T3 M50w, the Android-powered handset is reported to pack an HD (1280 x 720) resolution display, a quad-core CPU running at 1.4GHz, 1GB of RAM and an 8GB of built in memory, hopefully with microSD card support. 

Other specs of the device include an 8 megapixel primary camera at the back and a 1.1MP shooter to manage selfies and video call functions. The phone is powered by a 2,500mAh battery. 

However, in the report, the most notable thing to notice about the Sony Xperia T3 M50w is its stainless steel frame which is the company's first ever in a smartphone. At only 7mm, the Sony smartphone is surprisingly thin for something built with a premium material such as steel. 

In the report, the device is tipped to be priced at $350 and could be available in China beginning next month. 

In the past few months, Sony has been trying to expand its covered market from just Japan, the UK and Europe, to other Asian markets, particularly China, which has the most number of smartphone-using people in the world. 

The Xperia T3 M50w is not the phone that would take you at the top of benchmarks nor allow you to play with your phone in the water, but it has a build quality never before seen in a Sony smartphone - stainless steel.