High street retailer Phones 4U has made the mid-range, yet highly impressive Sony Xperia SP handset available for pre-order in the UK, with a shipping date of May 3.

The more affordable iteration of the flagship Sony Xperia Z was unveiled last month with a 4.6-inch, 720p display, a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera and 4G LTE radio.

The SIM-free version has been available to reserve form Expansys since last month, but Phones 4U's offering brings a range of pay monthly options from some of the UK's leading networks.

Top of the pile, of course, is EE which is able to provide 4G LTE service for a pretty penny.

Buyers can grab a two-year deal, with 500MB of 4G data for £31 a month, with a free handset, while the 8GB allowance will set folks back an wallet-emptying £56 a month.

Big boys on board

The Android 4.1 Jelly Bean device, which also boasts Sony's Battery Stamina app and 8GB of onboard storage is available for £25 a month with Vodafone (300mins 250MB, unlimited texts, free phone).

However, the £28.50 a month tariff on Orange seems a better deal with 1GB data, 600 mins, unlimited texts and a free phone.

O2 and Three mobile had previously indicated that they will be selling the device, while the SIM-free price on Expansys is listed as £339.

In a recent hands-on review, TechRadar's Gareth Beavis summed up his early verdict by saying: "With this spec list wouldn't look too out of place on a new flagship phone from another firm right now – and with a lower price, that's an ace notion."

If you're struggling to scrape the pennies together for a flagship handset like the Xperia Z then you could do a lot worse than the Xperia SP. Check back in the coming weeks for the full, detailed review.

It may seem like we've been anticipating the Motorola X, the first collaborative smartphone from Google and Motorola's partnership, for a while, but reports of the phone arriving later this year bode well for the new power duo.

Though it's believed to carry the next version of the Android operating system (Key Lime Pie), very little else is actually known about Motorola's upcoming phone.

We may have a better idea of what to expect thanks to Moto's design chief Jim Wicks however, who recently spoke with PC Mag about the company's next generation smartphones.

No concrete details were divulged, but Wicks painted a picture of a mobile device that could be "just right" for every user.

Size matters

With more and more smartphones like the Galaxy S4 and HTC One taking the bigger is better approach, Wicks promised that size was important, but not in the way competitors would have you believe.

"Certain people like a large screen," Wicks said. "But there's a sweet spot for consumers that we're currently exceeding in the market. There are some people that like a big display, but there's also a lot of people that want something that's just about right."

"I think 'just right' is important, and we're designing so we don't disappoint those people."

Wicks too cautioned size in relation to extraneous software included on a device, adding he hoped the next-gen phones from Motorola wouldn't be as gluttonous with pre-installed apps.

"People don't want all that stuff pre-populated on their devices," Wicks said.

"They really want to define these things themselves. We're focusing on simplicity and the power of the consumer."

United front

A lot of what Wicks is excited about springs from the solid relationship he claims Motorola and Google now share, adding the "wow" factor comment was taken out of context.

"We've been spending the past eight months on this next generation of phones, and we've all seen positive feedback and collaboration around things," Wicks said.

"From a software and UI perspective, our strategy is to embrace Android and to make it the best expression of Android and Google in the market."

It would appear Google shares these sentiments, as executive chair Eric Schmidt called Moto's new phones "phenomenal" during a talk at the Dive Into Mobile conference.

Wicks added he believed moving away from the specification wars, and focusing on the consumers instead, was the answer for Motorola's success.

Brand awareness

With so many different exclusive phones at so many different carriers, it's hard to pinpoint an specific vision to Motorola's smartphones.

The next generation devices like the rumored Motorola X should change all that according to Wicks, as Motorola will be adopting similar strategies as HTC and Samsung for its new phones.

"We are going to try to drive a more singular expression of our brand across multiple carriers," Wicks said. "It's a fundamental change in the model."

Don't take that to mean the Droids will be disappearing though, as Moto still has plans to support the line in the future alongside its new, focused vision.

Facebook floated the idea of building a brand new mobile operating system for its new Home platform, a senior company engineer revealed on Tuesday.

The social network considered three ways to introduce Home; a custom-built OS, a forked version of Android as many had expected, or the recently-launched custom UI that sits neatly on top of Android.

Of course, the company went with the final option, but Facebook's director of mobile engineering Cory Ondrejka admitted that prototypes existed for all three eventualities.

He said: "[Home] was about making an experience that flows through friends and people. We saw three ways that we could do this. One, we could go and build an operating system. Second, we could dig into Android deeply in order to see how we can we fundamentally change / fork Android to make it different. Or, we could build an app to make it different."

Something for everyone (on Android)

Speaking at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference, Ondrejka said the first two options were ditched out of a desire to reach as many people as possible with Facebook Home.

"The OS path was the least fleshed-out of the paths. Mark [Zuckerberg] talked on launch day that he wanted to build something for everyone. It's hard to get to the type of scale that's necessary for us [when building an OS]. We wanted Home in front of hundreds of millions of people - even a successful OS would only give that experience to a few of them," Ondrejka, who was joined on stage by Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, added.

The pair also discussed the plans for future roll outs, admitting Facebook Home has been tested on tablets, but will not arrive until it becomes common place on all Android phones.

They also revealed that the first Facebook Home update for Android is coming in May.

Earlier today we brought news that the company was releasing the Facebook Home suite for select Android devices on Google Play stores around the world.