According to a recent report, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play handset - which is also called the PlayStation Phone - has become available for sale in mainland China.

As per The Register Hardware report, Taiwanese website ePrice was informed by a reader that the Xperia Play had appeared for sale in Shenzhen, China. A subsequent check by the website's Shenzhen-based correspondent revealed that the information forwarded by the reader was correct.

Going by the Xperia Play's images and videos appearing on the ePrice site, the handset, and features a 4-inch multi-touchscreen and a 1GHz CPU; and it runs the Android 2.3 `Gingerbread' version.

Furthermore, the ePrice details indicate that the layout of the Xperia Play is fairly akin to that of the PSP Go, though the Xperia Play features touch pads rather than traditional joy pads. Incidentally, making a mention of this change to touch pads during a December interview with the New York Times, Sony President Kazuo Hirai had actually hinted that the change will feature on the PSP2.

With the Xperia Play PS phone apparently set to hit the markets, it is being speculated that the official launch of the handset may come at the Mobile World Congress next month. Rumors are also making rounds that Orange will likely carry the handset in the UK.