According to a blog post by Mobile Fun, the Birmingham based UK company will be selling the Sony Xperia Ion which has been stated as a US only release and an exclusive for American network carrier AT&T. The Xperia Ion is due in the US in Q2 of 2012, so any time between April and June and should be released in the UK shortly after. An exact date is currently unknown for the Sony Xperia Ion in the UK, as is pricing information.

The Sony Xperia Ion features a 4.6″ Reality Display with a HD resolution of 1280×720 which will allow you to watch HD content in it’s native resolution. The Xperia Ion, like the Xperia S will feature a 12 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording and a 1.5GHz dual core processor. The Ion also comes with NFC support and is PlayStation certified.

Several PlayStation Portable (PSP) titles for ‘PlayStation Certified Devices’ have appeared on the ESRB – Entertainment Software Rating Board that will add to the previously released PlayStation One titles that are currently available through the PlayStation Certified program.

Titles such as flOw, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Daxter are listed along with a range of Pinball Heroes games inspired by previously released Sony titles including UnCharted, Hot Shots Golf, ModNation Racers and MotorStorm. The games should be available to play on the Xperia Play, Xperia Arc, Xperia Acro (and Acro HD), Xperia S and Xperia ion along with the two Sony tablets , the S and the P tablets, which are both PlayStation Certified devices.

Alongside the other two ‘hardware’ additions to the Sony Xperia Smart Extras range, Sony have also announced the arrival of exciting new product – Xperia SmartTags into the Smart Extras family.

SmartTags are basically tags that use NFC (near field communication) technology to communicate with any Android smartphone capable of using NFC. The Xperia SmartTags can be configured to change the profile on a mobile handset when the phone touches the tag. As an example, you could take one tag and configure it so that when you swipe it with your phone, the tag changes the phone profile to turn on WiFi, turn the phone onto silent, open an app and so on.

What will become Sony’s first LTE smartphone release in the US has now been officially confirmed by the company. The all new Xperia ion handset will not only be an AT&T exclusive but, a US exclusive release.

Specifications are confirmed to include a huge a 4.6-inch 720×1280 reality display, a powerful 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 Processor, 1GB of RAM, NFC support and a 12 MP Exmor R camera. Android 2.3 will come preinstalled with an expected update to Android 4.0 soon. Obviously the handset will feature full 4G LTE connectivity and the modem is configured to work with AT&T services.

The Xperia ION will be available from the Spring in the US and will come in only a black colouration.

There’s still a few hours until Sony present their press conference at CES 2012 in Las Vegas but, AT&T who have just held their press conference have announced several new phones coming to their network, including the Sony Xperia ION.

Firstly, from AT&T’s side this is the first Sony [Ericsson] Xperia phone to feature LTE technology in the US and will be exclusive to AT&T.

The Sony Xperia ION features a 4.6 inch display, with a HD Reality display, outputting a 1280×720 resolution. The ION also packs a 12 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording and a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, capable of recording in 720p. Like the Xperia Arc, the Xperia ION features Exmor R technology.