14 DAY TRIAL // Sony is finally getting ready for the release of Xperia ion, its LTE-capable handset headed for AT&T’s network in the United States.
The smartphone was made official in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it is expected to become available for purchase at the wireless carrier sometime this summer.
Featuring a large 4.6-inch HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine and a dual-core application processor inside (complemented by 1 GB of RAM), the handset should prove a fast seller, although quad-core devices are already available for purchase.
Unfortunately, Sony hasn’t provided specific info on the phone’s landing in the United States as of yet, although it did launch it in Hong Kong and Taiwan and is expected to make it available in Europe in September.
However, it should not be too long before the official info on Xperia ion’s launch at AT&T is made available, now that the handset has received the necessary approvals from the FCC.
It was spotted on the Commission’s website featuring support for 700MHz and 1700MHz 4G LTE bands, as well as with 850MHz and 1900MHz HSPA 3G frequencies included inside.
While these bands make it a perfect match for AT&T’s network, it comes as a surprise that it also offers support for 1700MHz 3G bands, which are usually reserved for T-Mobile.
At the same time, the smartphone can be admired in a couple of promo videos that Sony has already made available online, and which offer a glimpse at its most prominent features.
The Xperia ion arrives on shelves with a 12-megapixel photo snapper on the back, capable of recording videos in full HD, a 1.3MP camera on the front for video calling, 16 GB of internal memory, and a microSD memory card slot for additional storage space.
It should be running under Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system right from the start, rumor has it.
