The latest Android smartphone from Sony, the Xperia sola, takes the touch out of the touch screen – although we’re not yet sure how.

One of the device’s key features is “floating touch” navigation, which enables web browsing without touching the screen.

“Sony’s unique floating touch lets consumers navigate the web by hovering their finger above the screen so it acts like a moving curser, without actually having to touch the screen,” Sony claims, adding that the technology will evolve through “software updates and engagement with developers.”

Other than that, the device is a fairly standard Android 2.3 handset (upgradeable to Android 4.0 during summer 2012), with a 3.7” Reality Display, a 1 GHz dual-core CPU, NFC and Xperia SmartTags support, as well as “3D surround sound.”

The device should hit the market globally in three colors – black, white and red – in the second quarter of 2012.