Sony introduced the Xperia Ion at CES last month, but now Sony Mobile President Bert Nordberg has announced that the handset will launch in markets around the world this summer. The handset has a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 display with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, NFC support, and 12-megapixel camera. There's no word on whether the LTE radio will be carried over into the global version, though.

In our hands-on at CES, we liked the Ion's solid feel and lightweight construction, and were impressed by the display and camera. Sony hasn't been any more forthcoming on when the Xperia Ion will see an upgrade to Android 4.0, but as things stand the software adds only a couple of light customizations over the stock Android 2.3.7 experience.

Check out our Sony Mobile liveblog from MWC 2012 right here!