It will be available for around £450 (715 USD or 535 EUR) outright

Mar 1, 2012 12:42 GMT  ·  By

Sony Xperia S is about to make its debut in the UK. After numerous delays, the smartphone is reportedly due to arrive in stock on March 6.

Major UK-based retailer Expansys has just confirmed that Sony Xperia S will be available for purchase for around £450 (715 USD or 535 EUR) beginning March 6. Customers can now pre-order the Xperia S, but they will receive their devices next week around this date.

Unveiled back in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Xperia S was confirmed for a Q1 2012 release, but the handset maker did not specify any exact release dates.

However, during last week’s MWC 2012 press event, Sony stated that the Xperia S would be available starting this week in Barcelona, Spain. The company also unveiled two more Xperia smartphones, the Xperia P and Xperia U, which should be available in mid-Q2 2012.

We had the chance to visit Sony’s booth at the Mobile World Congress exhibition and took the Xperia S for a spin. Design-wise, the smartphone is among the best-looking handsets launched this year, but Sony still has to do some work on the phone’s software.

Sony Xperia S crashed after we ran a game and needed about one minute to reboot. Perhaps this was simply bad luck or the devices showcased were just unfinished samples.

Overall, the phone is snappy while browsing the menus. The Timescape UI is pretty amazing and works like a charm. On the inside, the smartphone is equipped with a dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz.

Unfortunately, the phone lacks a microSD card slot for memory expansion. Instead it offers 32GB onboard memory and 1GB of RAM.

There’s also a stunning 4.3-inch LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen that supports 720 x 1280 pixels resolution, and is based on Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine technology.