Sony introduced the Xperia SP smartphone back in mid-March. At the time they had said the handset would be available during the second quarter, however they didn’t offer much in terms of where it would be available or how much it would be selling for. Well, flash forward till today and we now have word of Xperia SP pre-orders for those in the US market.

The pre-orders are available by way of the online Sony Store and at the moment, they are reflecting a shipping date of May 20th. The price of the handset is $489.99 and as we often see with unlocked Sony smartphones — that includes free two-day shipping. Sony seems to think high of the design of the Xperia SP. In this case they are referring to the handset as having the “brilliance of Sony in a stand-out design.”

You can get a look at the handset in the above image and judge that claim for yourself. In the meantime, lets talk specs so you can decide if the $489.99 price point is something you would consider fair. The Xperia SP specs include a 4.6-inch display at 1280 x 720, a dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. The handset will also arrive running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Remaining specs include a front-facing camera as well as an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera with an Exmor RS for Mobile image sensor. Network support includes HSPA+ on 850, 900, 1900 and 2100 MHz bands as well as LTE on bands I, II, IV and V. Of course, Sony also has the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL smartphones selling unlocked for those in the US market.

[via Sony] [device id=5786]