14 DAY TRIAL // Unveiled last week during the International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, Sony Xperia S was confirmed by many UK-based carriers but none have been able to reveal any info on the phone’s exact launch date and pricing options.
However, a few days ago major retailer Clove announced the upcoming availability of the Xperia S on its online store.
According to them, the smartphone would be up for grabs starting the week commencing March 5. Sony Xperia S is available for pre-order at Clove UK for £468 (720 USD or 565 EUR) outright.
Earlier today, another UK-based retailer came forward and stated that the Xperia S would be available for purchase much earlier than expected. Play.com claims that the Android-based smartphone is due for release on January 30.
Furthermore, the online retailer is now taking pre-orders for Sony Xperia S for only £450 (690 USD or 540 EUR) off-contract.
Also known as the Xperia arc HD or Nozomi, the Xperia S is the first Android device to be released under the Sony brand. In addition, it’s also among the first to feature Sony’s “Iconic Identity” design layout.
Although the smartphone lacks a microSD card slot for memory expansion, the Xperia S packs 32GB onboard memory, which can be expanded via cloud storage.
The smartphone comes with an impressive 12-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as secondary 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.
Equipped with a 1.5 GHz dual core processor and an Adreno 220 GPU, the Xperia S is one of the most powerful Android-based devices that will soon be available on the market.
Initially, Sony Xperia S will be delivered with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board, but the handset maker officially confirmed plans to deploy the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the first half of the year.