Sony Mobile today confirmed where, when and how the Xperia S will be available in Australia.
Optus will have the Xperia S available in Black from ‘early April’, we believe it will be $0 on the $49 cap.
Vodafone will have the Xperia S available in White from 11 April, also believed to be $0 on the $49 cap. A mini HDMI cable is included in the box when purchasing from Vodafone.
Crazy Johns will have the Xperia S available in Black and White from 11 April.
In a refreshing move the Xperia S will also be available outright from JB Hifi, Dick Smith Electronics, Allphones, Telechoice and Harvey Norman. The phone supports all Australian 3G bands and is unlocked for use on any mobile network, unfortunately it does not support LTE or dual channel HSPA. We believe the phone will be sold outright at these retailers from $579 – wow!
Sony Mobile have also included 2x rewriteable NFC tags in the box for the Australian release. This is an impressive phone and a solid release for Sony Mobile’s first handset in the Australian market. We hope to have a review of the Xperia S up within a week or so.
It will also be available to buy outright from Sony Centres.
Interesting, some trolls as usual, we will just have to wait for the verdict won’t we. Anyway will consider it for my next phone, just depends how long my Samsung Gio lasts. Not long I am guessing. Looking to go upmarket some day, at least I hope. My first android phone was the huawei ideos x5. But in the end will not want to spend more than 350-390. The Xpera S would be a real contender if it was reduced To that price. I tend to like mid range phones, For me the best in the long run for an… Read more »
Got an email from Allphones this morning to say “this handset is now available” (as of today), so rang around several nearby Allphones stores to see where I could pick one up (for the BF, but I still really want to play with it!) – everyone I spoke to didn’t the faintest idea what I was talking about, and hadn’t even heard of the phone before (no, not the Arc S). All completely unhelpful. Then called their ‘customer care’ to have them check their system, and was told they literally have FOUR handsets in all of Australia, with those four being at the WA head office, and no idea whatsoever… Read more »
Warning- Great phone terrible battery life. Even by Android standards this phone is meant to have a shocking battery life. I was going to buy it here in Europe but thank God I read the reviews. Most said it was a great phone but battery life was terrible. Its a shame that they messed up on this phone because it has real potential. However bad battery life is a deal breaker for me. Not too mention that it wont ship with Ice Cream Sandwich.
I currently own the Xperia S and it’s lasting at least 4 hours longer then my previous Galaxy SII, if you could handle the S2 battery life then your definately getting a better charge out of the Xperia S.
$488 is a bargain, Allphones tend not to sell unbranded phones though so I will get someone else to price match…
I was hoping Virgin were going to get it because they have Unbranded phones but I will have to hope Dick Smith/Harvey Norman gets an unbranded or I will be making a trip to the city to get one from Sony.
No networks really brand their highend handsets anymore though it may contain an app from the network in the menu so you shouldnt find their logo printed on the front or back. Just get it from all phone once its in stock which is only $499 when they get stock.
there may not be branding on the phone’s housing but you get a branded startup screen and carrier crapware. Plus it takes forever to get software upgrades because the carrier is ‘testing’ the upgrade.
All phones have it listed online for $488 + $16 postage, are there different sizes (16GB – 32GB etc) ?
The allphones one doesn’t specify an internal storage size.
The version I’m aware of has 32GB on board with no microSD slot. $488 + $16 is incredibly cheap!
Looks like they are specifically staying away from tthe Galaxy S III and HTC One X competition, very clever, its hundreds of dollars cheaper then a Galaxy Nexus but matches some specs while smashing it on others.
Somebody better tell MobiCity, they’ve got an amusing ad at the bottom of this article selling it for $699, $130 more than the price quoted in the article.
Good looking phone actually, very purposeful.
Any word on whether Virgin will be picking it up as well?
No Virgin won’t be picking it up. Nothing stopping you from buying it outright and using a Virgin sim though