Sony’s Android 3.2 based tablets, named Sony S and Sony P, which were unveiled for Indian consumers yesterday, will come bundled with operator connections.

Masaru Tamagawa, managing director, Sony India, said to The Mobile Indian, “We are in talks with a leading pan India service provider to offer our tablets bundled with their connection and we will make the announcement regarding it in coming weeks.” He did not share any further details about the name of the operator or the details of the bundling offers.

Regarding Sony’s plan to launch tablets on other platforms such as Windows, Tamagama said, “We are currently studying other operating systems apart from Android and will share our plans when we finalise something.”

Sony has also collaborated with content providers to design applications for its Indian customers. Sony tablet consumers can watch latest episodes of shows from Sony Entertainment Television and SAB TV with an interactive social sharing feature using Videochaska.

To enjoy online video-on-demand users can explore Star Player and to get movies on demand across different languages and genres there is Big Flix, which will be free for two months.

To tap Bollywood fans Sony has tied up with BollywoodHungama.com to provide latest film news, Hindi songs and movies online. Apart from that the company will also provide a library of Indian karaoke music through Meragana.com, which will be available free for one month.

Sony’s tablets are the first PlayStation certified tablets on which original PlayStation games can be played. Notably, it comes preloaded with popular titles such as Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes. More services will be available over time.

Sony Tablet S has a wedge-shape, similar to a magazine that’s been folded over, and on the other hand, the dual screen design of Sony Tablet P enables users to watch video on one screen while using the other to control it, or to check email while using the other screen as a keyboard.

We have been hearing about Sony’s entry into the Android tablet domain for quite some time and the Sony tablets have finally docked on the shore of the Indian sub-continent. Although these new tablets fail to bring the wow factor because of their ultra-delayed launch, they still succeed in making a completely different style statement, for which Sony is well known. Sony has announced the launch of the Sony S tablet in India along with the amazing new concept of the folding Sony P tablet. Both tablets have been officially announced for the Indian markets, but availability of the 3G variant of Sony S and Sony P tablets will start only from mid-January. We had the opportunity to lay our hands on the Sony P tablet, which features a unique folding Clamshell design, and it looks highly impressive.

The Sony P tablet folds into a smartphone sized box that makes it very easy to carry around. Sony P tablet has a silver and black body which gives it a very neat look. On the outsides the device has a metallic silver finish that protects it from smudges and fingerprints as well. The inside of the tablet has a piano black finish, which looks superb but is a fingerprint magnet and in our kind of climate it’s very difficult to keep clean.

The device opens up into a mini tablet with a 5.5 inch display but divided in two parts. The device, when it is open, is slightly shorter than a normal 7 inch tablet but the bigger screen bands surrounding the screen provide ample space for thumbs to hold the tablet, thereby aiding usability as well.

The open device is slim but in a folded position the Sony tablet P feels like a geometry case. Nonetheless, the weight of the device has been kept at a mere 372 grams, which is surely a delight to hold even for longer hours or while travelling.

It is one of the most anticipated launches of this year, but Sony has delayed the launch too long. We would have expected Sony to announce the inclusion of ICS 4.0, along with the device launch but no such plans have been shared by Sony so far.

The operating system used in the Sony tablet P is a customised version of Google Android Honeycomb 3.2, which means there are no calling, SMS and MMS capabilities in this device. Considering the reduced size one would expect it to be a full-fledged communications device, but sadly it does not support many essential features. The performance of the device is good and the 5.5 inch display is quite responsive for tasks, and impresses on all fronts except the big black bezel, which definitely creates a visual deterrent while using the tablet.

The tablet is great for browsing and reading text but while gaming or playing video it pushes the video to one screen while putting controls on the other screen so you basically lose out on one screen. It is not an appropriate solution for most games as full screen games run on both screens and you end up cursing the black space in between.

The device has a 3.5 mm audio port and is DLNA enabled for playing content saved in the tablet on a TV screen. Sound output from the stereo speakers is good but you will definitely be using earplugs more often.

Overall, the device is great but the split screen is both a boon and a curse for Sony P. For this device the market response is expected to be divided into two main categories of people, one who love it and other who don’t and there is nothing in between. The price of the device, which is Rs 36,990, will not be liked by many users especially considering that the bigger Tablet S costs approximately Rs 30,000-34,000.

Perhaps to give users an early experience of the upcoming Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system, Sony Ericsson has announced new updates for its Xperia smartphones which will bring many features inspired from the latest Android operating system.

Notably, Sony Ericsson had in November itself revealed its plans to make available the Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 operating system for their Xperia range of smartphones.

The new update will bring features like Google Talk with video chat ability for smartphones with front-facing cameras and an updated version of the Facebook inside Xperia functionality with enhanced like, share and discover abilities. The software upgrade will enable consumers to turn their Xperia smartphone into a mini-mobile PC by connecting USB peripherals (mouse, keyboard or game controller) to a Sony Ericsson Live Dock multimedia station.

Xperia users will also get the 2D panorama sweep feature, which is standard in ICS 4.0. They will then be able to capture screen grabs and share them from anywhere in the phone.

The phones that will get the software update are: Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Pro, Xperia Ray, Xperia Active, Xperia Neo V, Xperia Arc S and the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman.

The update will be available for all unlocked phones and most operators. There are also some deviations on feature upgrades depending on the phone’s model.

Samsung is going launch a dual SIM version of its Galaxy Y Pro, a website has reported. The handset, named Galaxy Y Pro Duos, looks quite like the current Galaxy Y Pro and even sports a front facing camera.

Not much information about the device is available now. The price and availability of the phone is also not known yet.

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro is a budget smartphone targeted at those users who are heavily into emailing and texting. The keys on the QWERTY keypad of the phone are well separated, so the chances of accidentally pressing something are minimal. The display also works as touchscreen.

The display size is 2.6 inches when measured diagonally, and the Resolution of the screen is 320X240 pixels. Since the screen size is slightly on the smaller side, reading webpages on it is not that easy. But the virtual zoom in and zoom out facility takes care of this problem. The phone has 160 MB of internal memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB.

LG and Prada have lived up to their promise by launching the new LG 3.0 Prada smartphone. Also called LG Prada K2, this is the third branded smartphone rolled out as part of the LG and Prada partnership on the design level.

The new LG 3.0 Prada smartphone has signature Saffiano pattern Prada styling. It has a 4.3 inch touchscreen NOVA display that offers 800 nits brightness and WVGA 480×800 pixel resolution. That means, it is 100 nits brighter than the LG Optimus Black which comes with a 700 nits bright touchscreen. Under the slim 8.5mm chassis, the LG 3.0 Prada handset runs a dual-core 1.0 GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 mobile Processor with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics and offers 8 GB onboard storage.

At the rear rests an 8 Megapixel camera with auto focus and LED Flash. It is also capable of recording video at full 1080p HD resolution at 30 frames per second. There’s a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera usable for video calling. Besides, it has sensors like accelerometer, Proximity Sensor and compass. For wireless connectivity, it has WiFi as well as Bluetooth.

This 3G Network supporting, feature rich handset has a 1540 mAh battery, which is expected to deliver a decent performance. LG promises that the LG 3.0 would be upgradable to the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich whenever it is ready for the handset.

As of now, LG has not clarified the availability and pricing of this handset. But coupled with Prada styling, expect your jaw to be dropped.