Sony and AT&T have announced the Sony Xperia Ion, a new Android smartphone boasting a healthy spec sheet. Xperia Ion was one of the rumoured devices in the run up to CES 2012.

The new handset will offer a 4.6-inch display with an HD resolution of 1280 x 720, so is up there with the recently launched Galaxy Nexus.

The display isn’t the only HD on offer as around the back you'll find a whopping 12-megapixel Exmor R camera capable of capturing Full HD video. A forward-facing camera will offer you good 'ol 720p.

Internally you'll find a respectable 1.5GHz dual core processor and 16GB of internal memory. It's an LTE phone, so those on AT&T will enjoy lightening fast data speeds on the move.

It's also PlayStation Certified, so you'll get access to any games that Sony push out to its expanding line-up of PlayStation happy devices and you get the niceties of DNLA and HDMI.

Glancing at the image, it runs Gingerbread, but it devoid of all the usual Sony (ahem) Ericsson interface like Timescape and Mediascape. Previous Xperia handsets are due to be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, so we wouldn't expect this to be any different.

Cited for a release in Q2, it does clear up some of the mysteries of exactly what Sony are up to with the newly rearranged mobile arm and we should have a clearer picture soon of exactly what will be launching here in the UK, which we suspect will offer the same sort of specs.