Of all the Android devices flopping out of the CES technology uterus this week, Sony's new Xperia S smartphone has to be the loudest screamer of the non-tablets.

It's the flagship device in a new series of smartphones from Sony, and the "Ericsson" moniker is nowhere to be seen -- this is a Sony phone, and a Sony phone only. It's the first in over a decade not to be a Sony Ericsson.

At first glance, it's a technical monster-child. It's got a 109mm (4.3-inch) 1,280x720-pixel HD screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel camera on the back with a Sony Exmor R sensor (the kind found in some Sony Cybershot cameras) that shoots 1080p video, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera that shoots 720p video), with 32GB of storage to support all your media needs.


It runs Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" (old) but will get an update to Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" (new hotness). So onto the specs, you can add the Android Marketplace for all your application needs, as well as a PlayStation download store for original Sony games. It's also NFC-ready for your future contactless payments, has HDMI output for hooking the thing up to your TV, plus -- and wait for it, because this next feature will blow your ever-loving mind -- it can make calls.

To revert to the earlier, rather questionable metaphor, this phone is the result of Sony attempting to give birth to the world's most attractive, smart, fast and technically-capable baby. It's almost as if Sony said, "We badly need to compete in this race, so we simply must give birth to a great-looking child with nine legs, right now." The question is, can a baby with nine legs be considered a "good" baby? Or great-looking?

With that metaphor evidently exhausted beyond the point of being useful, we'll just have to wait and see to find out if the phone's any good or not. Do hot specs and a good OS immediately equal a winner of a phone? From Apple, yes. From HTC, yes. From Samsung, sometimes. From everyone else? Not always. We haven't had chance to go hands-on yet, but we'll have a review in due course. The phone will launch in March in the UK and will be available in black and white.

In the mean time, take a look at the gallery below for a closer look -- an inspection, if you will -- and let us know what you think in the comments.