Sony Ericsson 4G tablet prototype pictured

Sony Ericsson is rumoured to be working on a 4G, Android-running tablet, a prototype of which has been snapped by a Dutch blog.

Hiding in plain sight, the tablet was spotted on the TDIA stand over at Mobile World Congress.

The inclusion front-facing camera comes as no surprise – apparently it's a 3MP snapper – and that screen is estimated to be 6 or 7-inches.

Chubby Android

The TDIA representatives on the stand confirmed to NieuweMobiel.nl that it will run Android on release, although they did not specify which iteration of the OS.

There are three buttons on the prototype device – home, menu and back – which are pretty standard for Android phones but most tablets these days do away with as many buttons as possible.

Of course, there's no guarantee that all three buttons will make it to the final device, nor, we hope, will the enormous bezel or overall thickness of the tablet.
The unnamed Sony Ericsson tablet is branded TD-LTE; a 4G China Mobile network. Obviously, a 4G tablet isn't much good to us Brits at present, but there's a good chance we'll see a WiFi or 3G model launch as well if the tablet ever hits the market.

When we spoke to Nathan Vautier, MD of Sony Ericsson UK, last week, he denied that Sony Ericsson was working on a tablet at all; but these branded prototypes and comments from CTO Jan Uddenfelt suggest otherwise.