Ever since it was first leaked last year the internet has been buzzing about the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which some of you may know as the PlayStation Phone that will soon be out for Verizon. We’ve stopped by the Sony Ericsson booth today at CTIA and were able to catch a few minutes with this long-awaited phone. What do we think? Read on!

When it comes to design the Xperia Play is very top of the line– with a sleek curved look, sharp screen and of course that slide-out PlayStation gamepad. When we held the phone it felt great in our hands– not too big, not too small, just right. The 4 inch screen is also very sharp and responsive, and even before we got into the gaming everything looked sharp and clear on it.

But of course you’re really wondering about how the games really looked and played on this thing. We’re proud to say games played great on the Xperia Play, so great that you’d think it was a new PSP (though not NGP) and not an Android phone. The graphics were sharp (as you can see in the pix above and below) and the gamepad had a great feel to it and controlling games like Asphalt and Madden were exactly how they should be, smooth and easy.

Beyond the PlayStation side you’ve got a normal Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone— one that except for the PlayStation software seems to be pretty much un-customized (meaning there’s no Sony Ericsson homescreen or a bunch of preloaded non-Google apps– though you do have Verizon’s VCAST pre-installed)– with a speedy 1 GHZ processor and 5 megapixel back camera with a second front camera (though seeing as this is not a Verizon 4G LTE phone and still only uses WiFi and 3G there doesn’t look to be video chatting from Verizon. Though seeing as it is Android, you could probably go to the Market and pick up a Qik, Skype or other video chat app and video chat away).

We still couldn’t get a firm launch date or price out of the Sony Ericsson rep we spoke with, but you can expect it “this Spring.”