We've been hearing whispers of a September launch for the Sony S1 tablet ever since Thomas first broke the story back at Engadget, and it appears that things are more or less on schedule: we've just seen documents indicating that Sony Centre stores in the UK will be taking S1 pre-orders starting September 1st. That's just a little later than the late-August pre-order date we'd previously heard, but nothing too major -- and Sony will still be among the first to ship a themed and skinned Honeycomb tablet, which we suppose is something of an accomplishment.

We're told that Sony Centre stores will be making a major push to be the preferred retailers for the S1, with staffers instructed to know the device inside and out, but we still don't have final pricing yet, nor any more details on how exactly that PlayStation Suite compatibility is going to work. We also don't have any word on US availability, but the S1 did just hit the FCC last month, so we're hoping for a similar timeline on this side of the pond. We'll be on the lookout for more as we get closer to launch, we'll let you know.