It looks like the Android Army is going to add another top-tier handset to its ranks, as Sony Ericsson is preparing to announce a new phone Nov. 3. All signs point to it being the latest version of its high-end Xperia line running the Google-backed operating system with a custom user interface.The company had previously said it's in no rush to release an Android market because it wanted to craft a unique user experience rather than just be one of the growing crowd. Now, the company has put up a teaser page about an announcement for next week, and their Twitter account says this may be "project Rachel," which has long been rumored to be their code name for an Android handset.

If you've ever seen the company's Xperia smartphone, you know that it's some high-quality hardware. Rumors suggest the Android-powered Xperia will have a 4-inch touch screen with an 852 by 480 resolution, slide-out keyboard, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, assisted GPS, 8.1-megapixel camera, and it will have a smoking-fast 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. There's still no official word about what type of screen we'll get, but I'd assume it's capacitive if it's running Android.

The processor is going to be very important because Sony Ericsson will likely throw on a fancy UI on top. You can check out the reportedly leaked video below, but it looks like there will be a lot of animations during the transitions. While it definitely looks very pretty, there's a chance it could also bog the phone down, or just get in the way of your normal flow. I've yet to see an Android phone that really zips along with a custom UI (the HTC Hero is really nice, but does lag after a while). Hopefully, Snapdragon can give Android the horsepower it deserves.