O2 has put up a landing page for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, its forthcoming top of the range handset, saying that it will be available in April 2011. The landing page gives no more details regarding the exact launch date.

The phone has yet to be priced at O2, but we suspect that it will be a slot in replacement for the current top of the range Sony Ericsson smartphone, the X10.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, otherwise known as the X12, has already been put on pre-order at Play.com for a mere £460, less than the X10 at launch.

The phone, which gets its name from its arc shape, packs a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB memory, an eight-megapixel camera with flash, Exmor R sensor and autofocus, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB.

Sony Ericsson has upped the screen resolution of the handset to 4.2-inch and threw in Sony's own Mobile BRAVIA engine which ought to improve image quality significantly.