Sony has unveiled its latest smartphone, the Xperia ZR. Based on a similar concept as the Xperia Z flagship, the Xperia ZR is also waterproof and dust-resistant and can be actually used under water. The new 4.55-incher is also smaller than the Xperia Z flagship and still retains the same 13-megapixel camera.

Spec wise, the new Xperia ZR is built around a 4.55-inch 1280x720 LCD touchscreen with BRAVIA Engine 2 and OptiCOntrast panel. The new OptiContrast panel actually features one layer less as it integrated the touch sensor to the panel. The heart of the Xperia Z is Qualcomm's Snapdragon APQ8064 chip with 1.5GHz clocked quad-core CPU part and Adreno 320 GPU which are paired up with 2GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, has 8GB of internal storage expandable by microSD card slot and, as noted, features a 13-megapixel main rear snapper.

Sony went an extra mile with Xperia ZR as it advertise it as the smartphone that is not only waterproof but can be actually used under water for taking some neat pictures and videos with its 13-megapixel main camera. In case you wonder, it has both IP55 and IP58 certification which means that it can be submerged up to 1.5 meteres for up to 30 minutes.

The Xperia ZR is expected to be available in Q2 2013. Unofrutnately, Sony did not reveal the precise date or the actual price of the new Xperia ZR.