Sony, after unveiling the Ion smartphone at this year's CES, took almost half a year to finally release the phone in the US. The affordable $99.99 Xperia Ion is the company's fist phone to hit the US market after breaking partnership with Ericsson and it's also Sony's first 4G LTE phone.
The phone will be supported by AT&T network for a two-year commitment. Ion is available at AT&T, Sony and Best Buy retail and online stores.
"This is not just about launching a device," said Peter Farmer, Vice President for marketing for Sony Mobile in North America. "It's about establishing credibility and visibility for Sony in the smartphone space."
The 4.6-inch Xperia packs in a HD Reality display (1280 x 720), runs on Android Gingerbread (2.3.7), a dual-core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S3 processor, 16GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 32GB with microSD card and 1GB of RAM. The phone also comes with 1900mAh non-removable battery, a 12MP primary camera with Exmor R sensor and 720p video capture capability, front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video chat, NFC and PlayStation certification. Moreover, Ion links into Sony's large library of music and movie content.
However, smartphone reviewers are not overtly impressed with the look and feel of the phone and also criticized the company's decision of still sticking to the old Gingerbread instead of the latest Ice Cream Sandwich. But Sony has cleverly added many of the popular ICS features to its latest phone.
As an Android device, the phone brings the standard applications like Gmail, Maps, and Navigation. Google Play is also there to provide the digital entertainment stores for Books, Music, and Movies. Third-party apps like Amazon Kindle, OfficeSuite and so on are also there in the phone.
Moreover, Sony Entertainment Network gives AT&T customers a 30 day free trial of Music Unlimited premium service with a catalog of millions of songs.
