BARCELONA—As it dawns on smartphone makers that—after years of healthy upgrades—consumers are perfectly happy with their existing phone, they've started to pile on the features instead. LG has its wacky upgradable G5, Samsung has its Gear VR headset, and Sony... well, it's got the Xperia Ear, a Bluetooth headset-cum-virtual assistant that it hopes will take away the need for everyone to keep pulling their smartphones out of their pockets.

You can take calls with Xperia Ear, send messages, get the latest traffic updates, and it'll even send you directions using GPS (via the phone it's paired with). None of that is particularly innovative as such, but the Ear's USP is the way its packaged up into a neat, and arguably more reliable package that your traditional virtual assistant along the lines of Siri or Google Now. For instance, when a call comes in and you pick up the Ear, it has a proximity sensor that automatically answers the call and flings it to your earlobe.

If you're stuck for the perfect cupcake recipe or want to know who invented the Burrito (sorry, I have the MWC hunger), the Ear can find that stuff out too via voice activated Internet searches. Again, this is functionality most people already have access to via their phone, but Sony hopes that by removing the need to pull out their phones altogether, and instead reach for the Ear, people will won't be quite as shut out from the outside world.

OK, so the concept is clearly a strange one, and there's evidence to suggest that such devices—like the similar Motorola hint—have struggled to find a market. There's also something of a stigma attached to wearing Bluetooth headsets, particularly given the popularity they received from the suit-wielding BMW set. On that front, the Ear is small enough to be considered discrete, and comfortable enough to wear for extended periods of time. I tried on a non-functional unit here on the MWC show floor, and it was indeed comfortable. The included carry case is also neat, containing a battery that tops up the three-and-a-half-hour run time of the Ear.































The Xperia Ear launches later this summer for an as yet undisclosed price, but for those willing to wait, Sony has a few Xperia devices in the works—and those, while only concepts at the moment, are very interesting indeed. First up there's the Xperia Eye, a rectangular camera that Sony showed being worn around the neck during its press conference, resulting in more than a few giggles from the MWC audience. Odd looks aside, the Eye is intended to work alongside the Ear, using its 360-degree lens to capture images for use with Sony's personal assistant app.

There's also the Xperia projector, a small box with a speaker and camera on top that lets your browse the web or view your schedule via a touch-enabled projection. The best thing Sony had, though, was the Xperia Agent, a cute robot-like device that's essentially the personification of Sony's Assistant. Aside from the blinking eyes and quirky movement of its head—which are, yes, totes adorbs—the Agent is able to project your daily schedule, weather, news, and other information onto a nearby surface using a surprisingly sharp laser projector.

For those interested in more regular mobile products, Sony also introduced the Xperia XA, Xperia X, and Xperia X performance (the latter in Asia only) phones. We'll have more on Sony's new phones up on Ars soon.