Xperia S to be debut smartphone from Sony

First handset from the company following its acquisition of Ericsson to go on sale in March Sony has announced details of the Xperia S at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It will be released in the UK in March and will be the first smartphone from the company following the announcement in October that it was purchasing Ericsson for £869 million. The Xperia S is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and will initially launch on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, although this can be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich during Q2. It comes with a 4.3 inch HD resolution screen with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, which uses some of the same imaging processing technology as the company’s TVs to reduce noise and increase picture clarity. There is a rear 12 megapixel camera with Sony Exmor R technology, which the company said enhances still images in low light conditions. Shots can be taken in 1.5 seconds directly from standby mode. There is also a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling. Users will also have access to the Sony Entertainment Network. This will offer them a route to Music Unlimited, which offers a global catalogue of 12 million songs, while Video Unlimited offers the latest Hollywood films and TV shows from all major studios. The Xperia S is also PlayStation Certified and will offer access to the PlayStation Store for games. Consumers can watch content from the Sony Entertainment Network by connecting the Xperia S through HDMI to a TV or share photographs wirelessly. In addition to ranging the black Xperia S, Phones 4U has announced that it will also exclusively sell the white colour variant of the handset. Further details on a release date, availability and pricing details for the UK will be announced in due course. Sony also announced a further three Xperia handsets at CES. The Xperia ion will be available exclusively in the US from AT&T in Q2. The Xperia NX and Xperia acro HD will be available in Japan this spring.