Sony Xperia S coming to O2, Orange, 3, T-Mobile, Phones 4U

The major networks are lining up to sell the Sony Xperia S. O2, Orange, Three and T-Mobile, as well as retailer Phones 4U, will sell the saucy Sony smart phone.

Only Virgin and Vodafone are yet to confirm they'll be selling the S. Price and release dates have yet to be confirmed by the networks that have signed on, but Phones 4U expects to see the S on shelves in March. 

At launch the S will be powered by Android Gingerbread, but will upgrade to the latest version of Android -- Ice Cream Sandwich -- in the second half of the year, which is a bit of a letdown.

The S sports an impressive 4.3-inch, 720x1,280-pixel high-definition touchscreen. Inside is a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor and 32GB of storage. On the outside is a quirky touch-sensitive transparent strip at the bottom, allowing you to see through the phone.

As well as watching high-definition video, you can shoot your own HD movies with the 12-megapixel Sony Exmor R camera, which captures 1080p HD moving pictures. Even the second camera for video calling films 720p HD video.

The Xperia S and its US buddy the Xperia Ion are the first new phones to drop the Ericsson name from Sony Ericsson, after the Japanese giant Sony spent nearly £1bn buying out its Swedish partner. Sony has decided to only make smart phones from here on out, and with phones like the Xperia S will go on the offensive against johnny-come-lately phone-flingers like Apple, HTC and Samsung.

The Xperia S and Ion were unveiled on Monday in Las Vegas at international gadget trade show CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. CNET has boots on the ground, searching out the highlights of the show, and we've already got our hands on the Xperia S -- click here for our preview. For more on the techtacular CES, check out ces.cnet.com.

Does the Xperia S stand for sexy or shoddy? And which network gets your vote? Tell us in the comments or on our Facebook page.