Sony has confirmed that it would be showing its latest innovations at its press conference at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 later this month. Previous rumors have stated that the Japanese tech giant would be unveiling a flagship smartphone at the event. However, a leakster has now confirmed that the company is indeed working on a premium flagship and it is expected to be shown to select at MWC 2017.
Ricciolo, a leakster who is known for revealing details on upcoming devices has referred to this high-end smartphone as “premium flagship” and he has included hashtags for Xperia, Sony, Z5 Premium and successor indicating that its 2017 edition is in works.
He has also stated that the alleged Xperia Z5 Premium 2017 edition won’t be unveiled to the public at MWC 2017. Hence, Sony may showcase its prototypes to the media and investors in a secret meeting.
PREMIUM flagship is coming… but don't hold your breath for #MWC #mwc17 , except the secret rooms… 😉 #xperia #Sony #z5premium #successor
— Ricciolo (@Ricciolo1) February 1, 2017
Related: Sony Xperia XA (2017) Features in a New Leaked Video
In the previous month, a Georgian tech blog had revealed that Sony would be releasing 5 smartphones soon and one of them that is codenamed as Sony Yoshino will be arriving with premium specs. It is expected to feature a 5.5-inch screen that offers a 4K resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. The Xperia Z5 Premium that was released in 2015 also includes a 5.5-inch 4K display.
Yoshino is rumored to be powered by a Snapdragon 835 SoC and it may either feature 4 GB or 64 GB of LPPDD4 RAM. For topnotch photography, it will be equipped with the latest Sony IMX400 sensor.
Speculations have it that since Qualcomm will be driving the initial stock of Snapdragon 835 chipset to power Samsung’s Galaxy S8 smartphone that will be unveiled in March, other flagships running on the same SoC will not be released in the market before April. Hence, after getting secretly unveiled at MWC 2017, the Xperia Z5 Premium 2017 may become available for purchase by the end of Q2 this year.
As far as Sony’s MWC 2017 event is concerned, the company is likely to unveil midrange Android smartphones that are codenamed as BlancBright, Keyaki, Hinoki and Mineo. The Sony press conference will begin at 8:30 AM CET on Feb. 27.
