San Diego- Sony Mobile Communications brought its ruggedized Xperia acro S Android 4.0 smartphone to the U.S but only as an unlocked model at a suggested $599.
The 3G HSPA+ 14.4Mbps phone is available at select Sony stores and store.sony.com, and Newegg and plan to carry it, Sony said. The phone already appears on Amazon.
So far this year, Sony has introduced four other smartphones in the U.S. market, three of which were unlocked. All feature 3G HSPA+ 14.4 Mbps technology. A fourth, the Xperia ion, was launched in June through AT&T at $99 with 4G HSPA+21 and 4G LTE technology. All four feature Android OS.
The other three Android phones are the Xperia P, U, and S in the NXT series.
Of the four previously launched Android phones, only the Xperia S launched with Android 4.0.
The Xperia acro S is a dust-protected, water-resistant device that survives immersion in water for 30 minutes, and it comes with scratch-resistant 4.3-inch 1280×720-pixel display.
The 5.2-ounce device PlayStation-certified phone operates in UMTS HSPA+ mode in the U.S. 850/1900MHz bands and in foreign 1900/2100MHz bands, making it suitable for AT&T activation and international roaming. It operates in 2G GSM mode in U.S. 850/1900MHz bands and foreign 900/1800MHz bands.
Key features include dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB embedded memory, 32GB microSD card slot, WiFi with DLNA certification, HDMI output, 12.1-megapixel 1080p camera/camcorder, 1.3-megapixel 720p front-facing video-chat camera, near field communications (NFC) for use with Sony Smart Tags to open up an application or set multiple settings automatically, and FM tuner with RDS.
