Sony Xperia ion for AT&T made its way in front of the camera, here’s the hands-on

The AT&T exclusive Sony Xperia ion was the talk of CES six months ago. Developed specifically with the lucrative US market in mind, the handset one ups its sibling, the Sony Xperia S on a couple of major occasions – it packs a bigger screen and offers expandable memory. Boy, were we itching to get our hands on it when we saw it break cover.

Well, here it is folks. A cool six months later, sans the flagship aura, and with an affordable $99.99 price tag, the Sony Xperia ion made it to our office. Here’s what the handset has to offer.

The Sony Xperia ion features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S3 chipset with two Scorpion CPU cores, clocked at 1.5GHz and a gig of RAM. There’s 16GB of built-in memory, which can be further expanded via microSD card slot. A gorgeous 4.6″ screen with HD resolution and Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine, and a massive 12MP camera sensor with a dedicated button are also part of the specs. You can check out the full list over here.

Sony Xperia ion live shots

It might not be at most cutting edge in terms of hardware, but the Sony Xperia ion surely looks the part of a flagship. The handset’s understated design is coupled with a solid build quality.

The software of the smartphone is arguably its weakest point. As good as the Sony customization of Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread may be, we still don’t believe that a phone from such stature should ship with an Android version, which is quickly approaching its 2nd birthday these days. Here is the Xperia ion in action.

A full review is in the works. Drop us a line in the comments section if you want any specific questions answered.