Sony has come out swinging at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) currently running in Las Vegas, showcasing four new Xperia phones.

 

The launch comes in the wake of Sony’s acquisition of Sony Ericsson last year, in which Sony explained that it wanted to consolidate its range of products.

 

To this end, the company introduced the Xperia S, which is the first smartphone in the Xperia NXT series, alongside the LTE smartphone, the Xperia Ion (which is unfortunately exclusive to the US) and the Xperia NX and Acro HD, both of which are aimed at the Japanese market.

 

Nonetheless, the Xperia S still looks promising enough to pique the curiosity of South African users, especially since the launch of the Xperia Arc, which took second place in our Top 5 smartphones of 2011.  

 Experia unwrapped

 

The new Xperia S sports a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 4.3” display and HD resolution screen (1280 x 720). Also of interest is the 12 megapixel camera, which is capable of capturing images in 1.5 seconds from standby, along with a front 720p camera.

 

Oddly enough, Ice Cream Sandwich will not be the default OS at launch; rather the phone will run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). However, it will receive an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the second quarter of the year.

 

In line with Sony’s stated intention to consolidate its devices, users will be able to connect the Xperia S through HMDI to their TV, and the phone is PlayStation certified, and thus will have access to the PlayStation Store.  Additionally, the phone is NFC (near field communication) enabled.

 

One of the nifty uses of the NFC technology will be accessible through the newly announced Xperia SmartTags. This will apparently enable users to switch their smartphone settings with a single swipe. The company elaborated that the token-sized tags will launch a pre-configured profile in the phone, such as the alarm clock for a SmartTag by one’s bed or a GPS application for a SmartTag in the car.

 

The Xperia S will also showcase a new design approach that apparently will be replicated across the Xperia NXT series in a bid to create a “instantly recognisable appearance”.

 

Sony added that the user Interface has similarly been redesigned to match the minimalistic design of the hardware.