14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson is reportedly gearing up for the release of its Xperia PLAY smartphone on the market in the UK as soon as March 31st is here.
The new mobile phone, which runs under Google's Android operating system, is the first handset in the world to be PlayStation certified.
Apparently, the handset vendor aims at having the PlayStation phone available for purchase at £500 if purchased SIM-free.
However, the device was already announced as being on its way to the local market on the airwaves of various wireless carriers there, which would offer it for free on monthly contracts, most probably.
In addition to confirming the near launch of this mobile phone in the UK, Sony Ericsson also confirmed that the device should hit shelves with six pre-installed games.
Bruce Lee Dragon Warriors, Crash Bandicoot, Fifa 10, Star Battalion, Tetris and The Sims 3 are the six mobile titles the company would sport at launch.
In addition to these gamers, the handset would also offer access to tens more via the PlayStation suite.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY was officially unveiled during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
It arrives on the market with a 4-inch touchscreen display boasting a 480 x 854 pixels (FWVGA) resolution, a 5.1 megapixel photo snapper on the back, with auto focus, flash and video recording, and a 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7 application processor inside.
The smartphone also includes up to 400 MB of internal memory, along with a microSD memory card slot for up to 32GB of additional storage space (an 8GB card included into the mix).
The phone's specs list also includes 3G connectivity, WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, Wi-Fi Hotspot, aGPS, and support for a wide range of Google Mobile Services and applications available for download via the Android Market.
According to Sony Ericsson, the phone would arrive on shelves with TrackID, PlayNow, Google Talk, Sony Ericsson Timescape, access to Google Maps, Google Gallery 3D, and YouTube, as well as for social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.