Sony Ericsson has been very quiet lately in regard to the Xperia X1 high-end smartphone, although its release date is getting closer and closer. Said to hit the market in September, Xperia X1 might actually be delayed a month or two.

According to TechDigest, the new Sony Ericsson smartphone will be offered by 3 UK starting November this year, which might mean that all the other European carriers are going to release the handset on about the same date. But this might as well not happen, as carriers launch new handsets on different dates all the time, so let's hope that 3 is the only operator that will release the X1 with a two month delay.

The retail price of Xperia X1 is not known for the moment, but we do know that 3 will offer the smartphone only with a contract agreement and a data plan of at least 30 GBP (38 Euros or $60) per month.

Despite the fact that it's only the fifth largest UK operator, 3 has a pretty solid line-up of high-end handsets, which includes Nokia N95 8GB, LG Viewty and Sony Ericsson C902. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Xperia X1 will surely be a nice addition to 3's offering, and its subscribers should look forward for its availability.

If the November release for the first Xperia handset is a "global thing" (meaning that 3 as well as all the other operators will offer the handset starting said month), the X1 will hit the market at about the same time as the three new Walkman phones unveiled by Sony Ericsson today: the 5 Megapixel W902, the W595 slider and the basic-featured W302.

But let's hope that Sony Ericsson will actually release Xperia X1 in September, because it's already been 5 months since its official announcement and fans might soon lose their interest in the smartphone.