The Sony Xperia P is the mid-range member of Sony's NXT line of smartphones that was introduced earlier this year. Already available in Europe for some time, the Xperia P can now be purchased in the U.S. direct from Sony and a handful of other retailers.

The Xperia P is a smaller phone than we are used to seeing these days, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The P's hardware is very solid, and it has some very cool design features that make it stand out from the many other smartphones on the market.

Unfortunately, interesting hardware design alone doesn't make a good smartphone, and the Xperia P is held back by a puny battery and Android 2.3 Gingerbread - a software platform from 2010. Sony has tried to make up for this with its custom interface that has some of the features found in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it isn't enough to stop the Xperia P from feeling terribly dated compared to other options on the market today.