Earlier this month we told you that Sony Ericsson had confirmed that all of its 2011 Xperia range would be getting the Android update at some time in the future. But unfortunately at the time no date was given when it would actually be landing. Now what seems like a growing trend Phone Arena is reporting that news of the update has again came from Italy.

The Marketing Manager of Sony Ericsson in the country Maurizio de Palma has said the operating system update is expected to land around March 2012. This is the same month that the company normally releases its new Xperia handsets to the world.

According to Maurizio de Palma the code for the new Android operating system was only released on the 15th of November, and it could take quite a while to code everything to update the 2011 Xperias. March may seem a little too soon but hopefully that won’t be the case.

The company have previously said it had made mistakes with Android updates before, and promised it had learnt its lesson with them. Sony Ericsson may even beat the likes of HTC and LG and bring out the updated software to its 2011 handsets. Hopefully as we get nearer to March we may see some actual dates released by the company with specific information for each handset.

More About: Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Sony Ericsson Xperia

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

We first reported about rumors that the Xperia lineup would be tasting Ice Cream Sandwich last month, and now according to The Next Web the mobile manufacturer have confirmed the news. There will be many owners of recently purchased Android devices hoping their device will be getting the new OS, and is possibly the biggest fault of the platform with many handsets deserted by manufacturers.

But that won’t be a concern for owners of any of the 2011 Xperia line up following the announcement by Sony Ericsson. This will mean the Xperia Arc, Xperia Arc S, Xperia Pro, Xperia Active, Xperia Ray, Xperia Play, Xperia Mini and Mini Pro, Xperia Neo and Neo V, and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman are all set to get a taste of the Ice Cream goodness.

Unfortunately the company have not revealed when the updates will start landing on the devices, but they have promised more information on this “in due course”. The new operating system will provide users with a new look interface, and have a new Face Unlock feature as well as NFC support on certain devices. It also has an upgraded camera app among its many new features that have got Android fans excited.

Are you pleased to hear that Android 4.0 is comi9ng to the Xperia lineup?

More About: Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson Xperia

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

We are led to believe that the Nozomi LT26i features a 4.3-inch display which outputs at 1280 x 720 (with a 320dpi pixel density), if you check out this blog post you will see that the guys over at Just Another Mobile Phone Blog suggest that it features 1GB of RAM and a dual-core 1.5GHz chip – for now this must be treated as a rumor.

The images below give you a quick glimpse at the LT26i, the design is pretty desirable in our opinion, also if you look closely you can clearly see that there is a front-facing camera. The image on the right shows that it is running release 2.3.5, which suggests that it runs Gingerbread, we think it needs to ship with Ice Cream Sandwich to see success, how about you?

The comments over at Engadget are very complimentary of the job which Sony Ericsson’s designers have done, one person points out that there seems to a transparent band just below the display, is this some sort of LED notification system? Other people are very happy to see a minimalistic design, we just can’t wait to find out how thin it is and whether the internal hardware is as impressive as we believe it to be.

As and when we hear more about this smartphones tech specs, release date and price we will keep you posted – do you think that this has the potential to be the best-ever Sony Ericsson smartphone? We do…

More About: Android, Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson Xperia

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Orange has managed to get itself an exclusive for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc; they will have a special black edition available for customers. T-Mobile will also be stocking the Xperia handsets after recently confirming the news according to EuroDroid.

The carrier have also announced some changes to its Android Home screen, which will now include Live Wallpapers according to an article on TechRadar. The images move as your go through home screens, and also have device functions. One of the wallpapers candles, is connected to the device battery life. A candle appears on the screen and slowly burns down as the battery runs out.

According to Orange it wanted to provide customers a more accurate battery life indicator, as it feels the Android icon is not reliable enough. There is also the option to program gestures for various apps and shortcuts. This will save room on the home screen, and there are twenty seven gestures available which can be put on any of the home screens.

More About: Orange UK, Sony Ericsson Xperia

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Below we have embedded an image showing the Xperia Arc seemingly running “Android version 2.4″, according to Engadget Google is not yet ready to roll-out Honeycomb, therefore this may well mean that Honeycomb will be Android version 3.0 and Gingerbread will be Android version 2.4.

I’m sure that by the end of CES 2011 things will be a lot clearer, hopefully we will be able to confirm which Android release the Arc will run as standard (Gingerbread / Honeycomb)and which version numbers will be given to the Android releases.

To be honest with you I would much prefer Android 2.4 to be given to the Gingerbread release and Honeycomb to be given the Android 3.0 version number, let’s face it we have heard that Honeycomb will not require physical buttons (for things like Home, Search, Back and Menu), therefore this significant change requires a significant change in version number, what do you think?

More About: CES 2011, Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson Xperia, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

As you can see the Arc is a good-looking smartphone, details are not confirmed, however rumors suggest that there is a huge 4.2-inch display which supports a resolution of 854 x 480, a 1GHz Qualcomm processor and an 8 megapixel back camera capable of HD video capture. Engadget also say that it will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The image embedded below shows just how thin the Arc really is, it his a curved back which makes the smartphone just 8.7mm thick at its thinnest point, which makes the center of the handset slightly thinner than the iPhone 4.

These specs are good but not great considering as we saw similar specs in smartphones at CES 2010, that said if it does come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread the software side of things should be great, however I can’t help but think Sony Ericsson could have pushed the boat out and used a 1.2GHz+ processor, AS 1Ghz chips seems to be the norm for today’s high-end smartphones.

You get a better look at the Xperia Arc’s design below (scroll down) in the official promotional video, hopefully this smartphone will appear at CES 2011 and we can confirm some of the specification rumors.

Do you like the look of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc?

More About: CES 2011, Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson Xperia, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad