It looks as though a new Sony Xperia phone is on the way that will feature the latest Android OS, 4.0 ICS. It appears that it will be a respectable cheap handset and the upcoming smartphone is currently dubbed the Sony Xperia ST21i.

The compact phone was leaked online and if the leak is to be believed the Xperia ST21i has a nicely-portable 3.2-inch display with a rather low resolution of 480 x 320 so it wouldn’t be great for web browsing. It also has an 800MHz processor and 3-megapixel camera and what appear to be three standard Android touch-sensitive keys on this somewhat stocky-looking phone.

The specs are not exactly high-end, vastly different from the Xperia S or Xperia ion for example, so it’s rather a surprise that this budget phone will apparently be an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device. Cnet makes an excellent point when it says that other manufacturers, Samsung for instance, have avoided using Android 4.0 ICS on phones at the lower end of the market because the hardware may not cope with this software.

It will certainly be interesting to see how Sony tackles this problem then. The original source of the leak was Greek website Techblog, which claims to have been emailed details and also pictures of the Xperia ST21i. The pictures in our story are courtesy of Techblog. We’ll be keeping a close eye on developments of this leaked Sony Xperia phone and will bring more as we hear it.

Would you be interested in a budget Xperia smartphone? How much would you be willing to pay for this low-end handset? Maybe you would have concerns about this low-power phone being able to handle Android 4.0 ICS? Send your comments to let us know.