The deal requires customers to sign up for a new 24-month plan

May 25, 2012 21:31 GMT  ·  By

Four days after Three UK introduced the Sony Xperia U, T-Mobile announced the immediate availability of the smartphone on its airwaves.

Customers can grab the Xperia U for free from £15.50 a month (24 months), which will net them 100 voice minutes, 500 texts, 250MB of mobile data and Unlimited Booster.

The Xperia U is shipped with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform out of the box, but Sony Mobile has just confirmed the smartphone would receive an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in Q3 2012.

Hardware-wise, the smartphone is powered by a dual-core STE U8500 processor clocked at 1 GHz and packs 512 MB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory, which cannot be expanded further via microSD card.

The device embeds a 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated by the manufacturer for up to 260 hours of standby time (472 in 3G mode) or up to 6.5 hours of talk time (5.5 hours in 3G mode). Check it out here.