AT&T Sony Xperia TL incoming with 007 cred

AT&T is playing secret agent this morning, with news that the Sony Xperia TL – the official phone of incoming James Bond film SKYFALL – is headed to its 4G LTE network. The 4.6-inch Android smartphone has a 13-megapixel camera and a 1080 x 720 display powered by Sony's Mobile BRAVIA Engine, and will run Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box with the promise of a Jelly Bean update post-launch.

There's also a 720p HD capable front-facing camera, and Sony has fettled the camera app itself so that it loads up and takes its first shot in 1.5s. Full HD 1080p video recording is supported with the main camera, and there's an MHL output which, unusually, doesn't require a separate power supply be connected before you hook up an HDMI display.

There's also NFC which will be used for "one-touch" sharing: basically a way of easily setting up an impromptu peer-to-peer connection with another device or with an accessory. AT&T and Sony will supply one Xperia SmartTag in the box, though you'll need to buy more of the programmable NFC tags yourself if you want to do more.

Inside there's a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor running Sony's own customized UI on top of Android 4.0.4; that also gets you mapping integration in the "Album" gallery app, as well as a "Walkman" app and "Movies" app the functionality of which should be pretty self-explanatory.

Unfortunately, what AT&T isn't saying is when, exactly, the Xperia TL will go on sale, nor indeed at what price.