Sony have announced two new handsets for the Japanese market. The first handset is pretty much of standard specifications. The Sony Xperia SX features a 3.7″ display with Sony Mobile Bravia and an 8mp camera, along with a 1.5GHz dual core processor. Other features will include mobile TV, mobile wallet and infrared connectivity.

Although Sony haven’t offered up definite information regarding the release of Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) for their Xperia S flagship smartphone lately, at least there is ‘news’ filtering down from support staff on the Talk Sony Mobile forums of a potential date for the update rollout of ICS for the Xperia S.

Perhaps this was just an admin slip up but, Sony have posted up what could be the start of a Google advertising campaign, clearly stating that the Xperia ion smartphone is due for a June 2012 release in the US and is available to AT&T customers exclusively.

Sony have revealed that there will be two new Xperia handsets available to purchase in the UK very soon, in the form of the Xperia P and Xperia U mobile smartphones.

Both handsets should be on the market by the end of May if the listings by UK retailer Clove are correct. The company has both models up for preorder with stock coming in on the 28th of May. As for pricing the Xperia U is priced at £204 and is available in white or black. The Xperia P is more expensive at £330 and comes in black or silver colour choices. Clove also have gel cases available to purchase for the handsets which will both come sim free/ unlocked to a carrier.

As most Xperia owners will know by now, Sony are busy rolling out the much awaited update to the Android operating software – namely Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich – on Xperia handsets that were released in 2011 or later eg the Xperia S, Xperia Arc, Xperia Neo and so on.

The Sony Xperia P has finally arrived in the United States, where it was spotted this week at a stopover at the FCC. According to a released filing, the handset comes with GPS, Wifi, and NFC. It further offers HSPA and GSM support. Other already-revealed features include a 4 inch display, 16 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, 2 cameras, and a 16 Hz dual core processor. The device runs Android’s Gingerbread 2.3.7.

Sony have released a beta, aka developer version of the upcoming Android update, Ice Cream Sandwich. The update is for advanced developers, who have extensive knowledge in how to install and switch between ROMs, there fore shouldn’t be installed by any one who doesn’t really know what they’re doing.

If however, you’re comfortable with this, you will need an unlocked Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V, Xperia Ray or an Xperia Play running 4.0.2.A.0.42 and an unlocked bootloader. WiFi and Bluetooth are two key features that aren’t included in the beta version of ICS, nor are Google Mobile Services, including Gmail, Google Maps and Face Unlock.