AT&T today announced that the Sony Ion, the company’s first U.S. LTE 4G device, will go on sale June 24 with an on-contract price tag of $99.
The Ion is the first phone to ship from Sony without the Ericsson branding attached to it. The Ion is an Android phone with a 12-megapixel camera. It uses Sony’s Exmor R sensor. It boasts a 4.6-inch full 720p HD Reality Display with Mobile Bravia Engine. The front camera supports 720p capture, and the Ion includes HDMI-out, and is PlayStation Certified.
The Ion is also the first Sony device in the U.S. to include Sony Music Unlimited and Sony Videos Unlimited entertainment services, which can be used to consume music, movie, and television content on the device. The Ion will be boxed with several SmartTags, which are programmable NFC stickers that can be used to alter the Ion’s behavior or change its settings (similar to Samsung’s TecTiles).
The Ion ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but will be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich soon.
