Play announces shunt for Xperia S smartphone

by Steven Mostyn - Feb 1 2012, 09:40

Bad news for loyal Play customers hoping to snaffle an Xperia S smartphone: the heavyweight electronics seller has pushed back the shelf date attributed to Sony’s new handset.

Although initially expected to arrive on Monday of this week, the Xperia S device has now been issued with a tentative February 13 release via the official online store.

According to a report on The Inquirer, Play has blamed the shunt on scheduling problems with its supplier. It has also warned that high demand for the handset could see customers hit by further delays.

The store’s apparent ‘problems’ might simply be a way for it to avoid a climbdown on its prior claim of a January 30 launch—not least because Sony has always said the Xperia S wouldn’t hit the UK until March.

When it does finally arrive on UK shores, the Xperia S smartphone will offer a swift 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch touchscreen (1280x720), 1GB of RAM, 32GBs of data storage, and Google Android.

Out of the box, the Xperia S will carry version 2.3 of Google Android (a.k.a. Gingerbread), but it will receive a free downloadable update to version 4.0 (a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich) soon thereafter.

Other fixtures and fittings include an impressive 12 mega-pixel camera (rear) a 1.3 mega-pixel camera for video chats (front), HDMI out, HSPA, DLNA, GPS, NFC, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Update: Play has now changed its posted release date for the Xperia S to… you guessed it… March 6, placing it in line with other UK-based online device sellers.

Around the Web