14 DAY TRIAL // More Android phones are slowly rolling out in Blightly. HTC and Sony are expected to introduce the latest additions to their portfolios within the next few weeks.
The entire HTC One series will be available for purchase in the UK starting from April, as well as some of the recently announced Xperia phones, such as Xperia U and Xperia P.
SoMobile reports that the former has already been listed by online retailer intomobilephones, so Android enthusiasts who want to purchase the Xperia U will be happy to know that the device is now up for pre-order.
As usual, Sony Xperia U is available for free on select plans from O2, T-Mobile and Three. Prices start at £16.17 monthly on 24-month contract, but customers willing to commit to a long-term contract can choose other plans as well.
Sony Xperia U is aimed at youngsters, which is why the phone comes with exchangeable bottom caps in yellow, pink, black and white. However, the smartphone is only available in two colors: black and white.
The bad news is that Sony Xperia U will be shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board. However, Sony plans to upgrade it to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in Q2 2012, though no exact time frame has been confirmed yet.
Hardware-wise, Xperia U is a mid-range device that packs a 1GHz dual-core STE U8500 processor and a DB8500 graphics processing unit. There’s also 4GB of internal memory and 512MB of RAM inside.
Unfortunately, Sony Xperia U lacks a microSD card slot for memory expansion, and the 4GB onboard memory may not enough by today’s standards.
The Xperia U also sports a decent 3.5-inch LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen display, which is based on Sony Mobile Bravia technology and supports 480 x 854 pixels resolution.
There’s also a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash and HD (720p) video recording, as well as a secondary VGA front-facing camera for video calls.