A couple of weeks ago, we reported about one of the upcoming Sony phones for 2014, the selfie-oriented smartphone Xperia C3. 

While we did not have a clear idea how much it would cost, we already have now as the Android-powered handset goes live in China. 

The Sony Xperia C3 only costs $323 in China, which is a little surprising considering the phone's specs. 

At 5.5-inches, the Xperia C3 is already in phablet territory, and with it comes HD or 1280 x 720 resolution which is pretty decent. Other notable specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset, and quad-core CPU clocked at 1.2GHz, which make it clear that the device is a midranger. 

However, the star of the show is the 5-megapixel front camera which is paired with an 8-megapixel primary shooter at the back. 5MP front snappers are not anything to be celebrated at in China, where the competition among local brands is particularly tight. 

But in case you may want to name a few contenders to the Sony Xperia C3 selfie phone, the Huawei Ascend P7 which was announced more than a month ago has an 8MP primary camera together with high-end specs including 2GB RAM, Huawei's Kirin chipset, quad-core CPU, and a 13MP primary camera. It costs less than $500.

If the Ascend P7 is not much of a competitor against the Xperia C3, then wait until the Xiaomi Mi4 becomes available this month. The high-end smartphone packs a Snapdragon 801 chipset, 5-inch 1080p display, 3GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera, and the same 8MP front cam. But it costs a much cheaper $320 for the 16GB non-expandable memory edition. 

Sony really hopes it can battle the Chinese heavyweights in its home country, and as a result the Japanese maker has lowered the price for its selfie phone. However, we don't expect the device to get a similar price tag elsewhere.