With its sleek curving lines and glossy finish, Sony Ericsson's new Xperia Neo differentiates itself in a world crowded with Android offerings.

With its curvy rounded body, it manages to be elegant in carrying a signature Sony Ericsson look and feel, resembling that of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz. The LED-backlit LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels defines the experience on the Xperia neo. Powered by Sony's Mobile Bravia engine, the 3.7-inch screen provides strikingly bright and sharp visuals and more saturated colors when viewing pictures or video.

In terms of functionality, the Xperia Neo has similarity with the Ericsson Xperia arc. The Xperia Neo is powered by a 1 GHz qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 application processor and 512MB of RAM and ROM. This is fit for Xperia Neo's Google Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), the latest and fastest version of the operating system, which is designed for serious gaming and running heavyweight apps. With its Next G network, the Xperia Neo also allows you to upload your images to the internet in a flash.

The downside is that Xperia Neo's sunlight legibility is below average. The screen also easily picks up smudges and fingerprints, and light scratches. Despite its graceful curves, the plastic back cover, instead of a metal one or higher-quality plastics, may be repulsive to some. It also has a poor default keyboard. The Sony Xperia neo has a 'so so' internal memory of 320 Mb, although it has the capacity to expand to 32GB of memory via microUSD, which would allow users to download movies. With a 1500mAh rechargeable li-ion battery, the Xperia Neo's batterly live is almost average -- maximum of 6 hrs. 55 mins talk time and up to 31. hrs of music playtime.
Other than the minor drawbacks, the Xperia Neo is worth every dollar.

Among other distinct features, the Xperia Neo can also be connected to an HD TV using the built-in HDMI connector. Upon connection, the TV's remote to browse photos and videos, or you can browse the web and check out the flavour of the day on YouTube.

The Xperia Neo also features a 1.9-megapixel front facing camera along with proximity and light sensors, good for video chat and taking self-portrait pictures. The back has an 8.1-megapixel auto-focus camera equipped with LED flash and autofocus. The back camera is capable of recording 720p HD video and, with an Exmor R for mobile CMOS sensor, it can take high quality, pristine images even when there are low light conditions. In contrast, the iPhone 4 has a 5-megapixel back camera and an 0.3-megapixel front camera.

Sony Xperia Neo touch phone also has these features:
* FM radio,
* Wi-Fi connectivity,
* Google talk,
* Music player,
* Facebook inside, which requires only a sign in during start- up, and Facebook events update in the phone's calendar.
* Greenheart; and
* Android Market for downloading apps.

Sony Ericsson's new Xperia neo phone will be coming to Australia exclusively on the Telstra Next G network in July. The Xperia neo will be available in Midnight Blue.

With the excellent features of the phone, and the minor drawbacks, you should purchase the Xperia Neo when it hits Telstra's shelves.