Sony has announced the Sony Xperia U, a third handset to complement the newly launched Sony Xperia P and the flagship model, the Xperia S.

The smallest of all three handsets, the Xperia U will come with a 3.5-inch reality display touchscreen, 1Ghz dual core processor and have a 5-megapixel camera around the back.

In the hand the phone is "cute" with the same see-through element found on the Xperia S.

sony xperia u pictures and hands on image 14

This time, however, rather than just being a bit of clear plastic at the bottom of the phone, it will change colour to match the colour on the screen in the same way Philips does with its Ambilight televisions.

If that all sounds a bit mad, that's because it is. Thankfully, you can set the colour to be static. If you like purple you can make it purple.

The Sony Xperia U will be highly customisable, offering a range of changeable caps - hence the "U", or "you" name, but otherwise it offers the same design as the Xperia S launched at CES 2012.

If you liked the Xperia S but were worried that the display was too big, this might just be the phone for you.

Orange has said it will be stocking the white model exclusively when the phone launches, sometime before the end of June.