1. It's a Sony. The Xperia S is the first handset shipped by Sony Corp. since it bought out Ericsson from its smartphone joint venture. Sony, despite its current woes, has been notable for its groundbreaking electronic devices and its huge entertainment and electronics portfolio. The Xperia S allows users to connect, share and control content on multiple screens whether it's a TV, smartphone, laptop or tablet using HDMI, DLNA or BRAVIA Sync. The device has access to Music Unlimited, which offers a global catalogue of 15 million songs, and Video Unlimited has the latest Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows from all major studios. It is also PlayStation-certified, thus allowing users to access PlayStation console classics.

2. Unique Design. The Sony Xperia S is not some Android phones that can be accused of imitating the design and functionality of Apple iPhone, as the new flagship phone from Japan's tech giant has its own "Iconic Identity." It's thicker than an iPhone 4S (by 1.3 mm) or the Motorola RAZR (3.5 mm) but the touch-screen phone has futuristic design that makes it stand-out from the rest. The Sony Xperia S sports a sharp, minimalistic design with angular corners and a curved back case. It has a clear plastic strip separating the main body of the phone from the antenna section at the bottom. When turned off, the screen blends in with its black front. At the bottom, there is a transparent element which provides a nice contrast in the design. The transparent element at the base creates an iconic silhouette where the display is emphasized and underlined.

3. Amazing Display. The Android smartphone delivers a stunning HD viewing experience with a high resolution screen on brilliant 4.3" 720p HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA engine. Colors from the Xperia S are incredibly crisp and the image is sharp as the device sports a massive 720 x 1280 resolution display, featuring 342 pixels per inch (ppi). The iPhone 4S's Retina display features a mere 640 x 960 resolution at 326 ppi. It also beats the new iPad, which has a 264 ppi from its 2048 x 1536 resolution.

4. Powerful Camera. The Xperia S has a 12 MP fast capture camera that goes from sleep to snap in just over a second with a single key press. The front has a 1.3 megapixel camera (720p video at 30 fps) for Skype or Google Plus's Hangouts. The back has a 12 megapixel camera with an Exmor R sensor that allows you to shoot 3D panoramas. The device can shoot up to a 12 MP resolution image in a 4:3 screen ratio and a 9 MP image with a 16:9 screen ratio. The device also touts features like autofocus, 16x digital zoom, LED flash, check quality, geo-tagging, image stabilization, smile detection and many more. The device can also shoot Full HD video at 1080p at 30 fps and can use the LED light for extra lighting when shooting video.

5. Other Outstanding Features. The device doesn't have a quad-core processor but its 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor, Adreno 220 graphical card and 1 GB of RAM is neat. There's no microSD slot but the 32 GB of internal storage and cloud storage are more than enough to store documents, songs, movies and other data. It has a micro-USB connector and a HDMI port for viewing pictures and videos from the device on a TV screen. It is also NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled which can be used with Xperia SmartTags, or for low value financial transactions. The Xperia S is not running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, highlighting how the Android remains fragmented and unstable. The Xperia S's Android 2.3 platform would be upgraded to ICS in the second quarter of 2012. Nonetheless, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread enhanced by the Timescape UI and its connection to the PlayStation Network and the Sony Entertainment Network.

Full specifications of the Xperia S:

Measurement:

* Weighs 144 grams

* 128.0 mm height x 64.0 mm width x 10.6 mm depth

System

* Processor: 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Dual Core processor

* OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) (Upgrade to Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, planned in Quarter 2 2012)

* Internal phone storage: 1 to 1.5 GB

* RAM: 1 GB

* Flash memory: 32GB eMMC

Display

* 4.3", 1280×720 pixels at 341 ppi, 16,777,216 colour TFT

* Reality display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine

* Scratch-resistant, shatter proof sheet on mineral glass

* Capacitive touchscreen with on-screen QWERTY keyboard

* Screenshot capturing

Camera & Video

* 12.1 megapixel camera with LED flash and Auto focus

* Sony's Exmor R for mobile CMOS sensor

* 16x digital zoom

* f/2.4 Aperture

* HD video recording (1080p)

* 3D Sweep Panorama

* Image playback, supported formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WBMP

* Image capture, supported format: JPEG

* Video playback and recording, supported formats: 3GPP, MP4

* Accelerated Adobe Flash Video

* Front-facing camera (1.3 megapixel, 720p)

* Face recognition and Smile Shutter

Connectivity & Network

* USB High speed 2.0 and Micro USB support

* WiFi and WiFi Hotspot functionality

* HDMI Support

* DLNA Certified

* Synchronisation via Exchange ActiveSync, Google Sync and Facebook

* aGPS

* WebKit web browser with Pan & zoom

* Bluetooth technology

* Native USB tethering

* NFC

* GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900

* UMTS HSPA 850, 900, 1900, 2100

Battery - 1750.0 mAH

* Talk time: up to 8 hours 30 minutes

* Standby time: up to 420 hours

* Music listening time: 25 hours

Entertainment

* TrackID music recognition

* xLOUD Experience - audio filter technology from Sony

* FM Radio with RDS

* 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones

* Audio playback, supported formats: MP3, 3GPP, MP4, SMF, WAV, OTA, Ogg vorbis

* Audio recording, supported formats: 3GPP, MP4, AMR

* 3D and motion gaming

* Timescape with Twitter integrated

* Facebook inside Xperia 2.0

* Sony Entertainment Network (selected markets only)

* Clear stereo and clear bass

* 3D surround sound

* PlayStation® Certified

* TV launcher

Pre-loaded apps:

* Google Voice Search

* Google Talk with video chat

* Google Mail

* Google Calendar

* Google Gallery 3D

* Google Maps with Street View and Latitude

Release - March 2012

Price - $679; GBP459.99 in the United kingdom

To contact the author, e-mail: c.fernandez@ibtimes.com.au