Sony has announced a pair of new mid-range Xperia smartphones, the C5 Ultra and M5, promising (as it often does) that its devices will offer consumers "camera brilliance" — the holy grail for Android handsets. The Xperia C5 is being sold as a "pro selfie" smartphone, with twin 13-megapixel front and rear cameras and an enhanced front-facing flash. The Xperia M5 also offers a 13-megapixel front-facing camera, but has a 21.5-megapixel camera on the rear that Sony claims will be a market leader for mid-range devices. We're withholding judgement until we try the devices ourselves, as Sony's attractive specs have a habit of translating into not-quite picture perfect cameras. It's also unlikely that the C5 Ultra and M5 will have enough clout to save Sony Mobile from its heavy financial losses.

Sony is touting both the Xperia C5 Ultra and Xperia M5 (pictured) as perfect for selfies. (Sony)

When it comes to the rest of their hardware, neither the C5 Ultra or M5 hold too many surprises, offering the same attractive Xperia stylings and some decent specs. The C5 Ultra has a 6-inch 1080p display, a 64-bit 1.7 GHz processor, and 2GB of RAM, while the M5 is a smaller, more powerful device, with a 5-inch 1080p display, 64-bit 2.0 GHz processor, and 3GB of RAM. Both devices run Android Lollipop 5.0 and offer 4G connectivity and up to two days of battery life, but there's only a paltry 16GB of internal flash memory apiece. The smaller M5 has the added benefit of being both waterproof and dust-tight, with IP65 and IP68 certifications. There's no word from Sony about pricing on either device, and the company says both phones will be available "in selected countries across emerging markets" from the middle of August.