Saturday, January 28, 2017

Sony to launch 5 smartphones at MWC 2017, including flagship with 4K display, Snapdragon 835 SoC

Sony is hosting its MWC 2017 event in Barcelona on Februry 27. Up until now, it was rumored that Sony will launch two smartphones, one of which is suspected to be the successor to the Xperia XA. But the latest report claims that the Japanese tech giant will now launch as many as five smartphones. All five smartphones are currently recognized by Japanese codenames, and the leak reveals key specifications as well.

Considering how the news comes from a leak, it is best advised to take the following information with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, the five smartphones expected to be launched by Sony are codenamed Yoshino, BlancBright, Keyaki, Hinoki and Mineo.

Sony’s upcoming flagship, which could include a 5.5-inch 4K display, has the codename Yoshino. It will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4GB or even 6GB of RAM along with the new Sony IMX400 camera sensor. This would be the newest image sensor for smartphone cameras, with the likes of the Google Pixel smartphones using IMX378 sensor.

Then there is the Sony BlancBright which will have the same display, only with a QHD resolution. It could be powered by a Snapdragon 653 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM and the same IMX400 camera sensor.

Moving down the line, the Sony Keyaki (Zelkova) will have a 5.2-inch Full HD display, MediaTek’s Helio P20 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and a 23MP rear and 16MP front camera setup.

Lastly there are a couple of budget offerings, the Sony Hinoki (Cypress), with a 5-inch HD display, MediaTek Helio P20 chip, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 16MP rear and 8MP front cameras.
As for the smartphone codenamed ‘Mineo’ there is no information except for its pricing which is placed around $350 (approximately Rs 23,900).

There’s currently no word on when Sony’s smartphones would hit the market. But considering the report about Samsung hoarding all the Snapdragon 835 processors, chances are that the ‘Yoshino’ and ‘BlancBright’ will only launch sometime around April.