Expected Q2 2012
9th January 2012

The Sony Xperia ion is the first smartphone to bear the "Sony" name.. or it should be if Sony gets to finalise its takeover of the Sony Ericsson joint venture.

Heading exclusively for the AT&T network in the US, the Xperia ion is presumably a taste of things to come as far as the rest of the world is concerned. And if this is what Sony are offering the world during 2012, then it looks like it could be a very good year.

This is a powerful beast. Inside is a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor. On the front is a 4.6" 720 x 1280 pixel HD display and an HD camera for video recording. On the back of the Xperia ion is a 12 megapixel Exmor-enhanced camera with 1080p HD video capture capabilities. The Xperia ion is a 4G LTE device, one of a number of new 4G devices for AT&T and other US carriers.

Internal flash memory is 16GB, and the Xperia ion also comes with an HDMI port and can share media using DLNA or Sony's BRAVIA Sync service. The Xperia ion is also PlayStation certified and has access to a very large library of entertainment from Sony's media division.

This is an Android 2.3 smartphone, and although Sony have not said if an upgrade to Android 4.0 will be available, we would be shocked if it were not.

At the time of going to press we don't have any further information on the Sony Xperia ion, although we do know that lucky AT&T customers should be able to get their hands on one from Q2 2012.