Leaked images of the Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X10 (aka X3 or “Rachael”) have been making the rounds lately. Unlike the mock ups of the unannounced device that were floating around previously (see below), these are shots of the actual handset.

Will it sport the pretty UI that was glimpsed early last summer? It’s expected to, though these pics aren’t showing it. (For a refresher, or if you didn’t catch it to begin with, click here to see the BGR vid from a few months ago.)

Sony Ericsson's first Android offering, the handset has also been highly anticipated as the first Android phone with an 8 MP camera and 4-inch screen. Add the presumed 1GHz Snadragon CPU, and you’ve got lots of Android fanboys eagerly awaiting this. Sadly, there’s still no release date on this, but lots of industry watchers are thinking it will be early 2010.

But — as Noah points out — the HTC Dragon (aka Passion) also has Snapdragon on board, and it’s rumored to launch before the end of the year. Could this steal some of XPERIA X10/X3’s thunder? Will it be HTC Dragon/Passion FTW, or are you going to hold out? Lay your bets — the line forms here.

[via Phone Arena, Mobile Crunch]

UPDATE:
An official sales brochure of the Sony Ericsson phone has appeared online. (Here on YouTube.) Even better than its mere existence, it also shows off an interesting detail: The Android handset’s going to carry 32GB of onboard memory, as well as a memory card slot for extra storage. That’s just huge, putting it at Nokia N97’s record.

With the official brochures set to go, how soon do you think the launch will happen? Up until now, most of the industry was pegging next year, but in light of this, that could be a wrong assessment. Personally, I hope it does happen in time for the holidays. An Android smackdown would be the gift that keeps on giving.

[via GSM Arena]