Sony (Ericsson) likes to accompany its phones with docking stations. The Xperia PLAY had the DK300 Multimedia Dock, whilst the rest of the 2011 Xperia line-up were catered for by the LiveDock multimedia station. It looks like at least one of the new 2012 Xperia handsets won’t be left in the cold either. Sony announced the SmartDock docking station for the Xperia ion at CES 2012.
The SmartDock is broadly similar to the LiveDock docking station, although it has one main difference – the inclusion of an HDMI port. This means that you can dock the Xperia ion into the SmartDock station, connect it via HDMI to your TV and look at photos, watch videos, listen to music or even connect a keyboard/mouse using the two onboard USB ports. It also, obviously, will charge your phone too.
As with the 2011 Xperia phones, you could also control the Xperia ion from your TV remote as long as your TV HDMI port is CEC compatible. There is no word whether a similarly compatible dock will be made for the Xperia S, although we’d be very surprised if Sony didn’t have something in the works. In the meantime, check out some hands-on videos of the Xperia ion SmartDock below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SypcMA9BooA
