Sony to unveil 5 new phones at MWC, including another 4K one

[Aniallation]

Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony-said-to-unveil-a-4K-Snapdragon-835-Xperia-flagship-phone-at-MWC-4-more-phones-in-the-works_id90400

 

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Sony is said to bring out the big guns at the world's biggest mobile tech show of the year, MWC 2017.

 

The big highlight of Sony's MWC announcements might be a new flagship phone with a 4K display and the latest and most powerful Snapdragon 835 system chip on board, according to information obtained by Georgian (the country, not the state) blog Review.ge. We can't vouch for the authenticity of the information, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

Sony Yoshino

The flagship phone is said to have a 5.5-inch 4K display (3840 x 2160 pixels), powered by the Snapdragon 835 system chip working along with either 4GB or 6GB of LPDRR4 RAM. On top of that, the phone is expected to come with the new Sony IMX400 image sensor that should deliver a noticeable improvement in image quality.

 

Sony BlancBright

Another upper-tier phone, the Sony BlancBright is also said to feature a 5.5-inch screen, but this one is said to have a more reasonable Quad HD resolution (2560 x 1440 pixels). Rumors say that it could be powered by either the Snapdragon 835 or the Snapdragon 653, along with 4GB of RAM. This phone is also said to have the new Sony IMX400 camera sensor.

 

Sony Keyaki (zelkova)

This here Sony Keyaki is said to be a mid-range device with a more compact, 5.2-inch diplay with a Full HD resolution (1080 x 1920 pixels). The system chip used here will be a cheaper MediaTek Helio P20 with 4GB RAM, with the highlight feature being the inclusion of a plentiful 64GB of on-board storage. This handset is rumored to come equipped with a 23MP main camera, and a 16MP front camera.

 

Sony Hinoki (cypress)

Sony is also expected to show two affordable phones. The Sony Hinoki will be the first one, with 5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixel) display, running on the MediaTek Helio P20 system chip with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It is also said to have a 16-megapixel rear camera and an 8MP front camera.

 

Sony Mineo

The last phone on this rather big rumored phones list is a mysterious device codenamed Mineo. The only thing known about this rumored phone is its expected price of $350, putting it the mid-range territory.

 

If Sony does indeed reveal five new phones all at once at MWC 2017, this will certainly become one of the biggest events at the show. What we are not so certain about, though, is whether Sony can indeed ship a smartphone with a 4K display and the Snapdragon 835 system chip in meaningful qualities in the near future. We are certainly not fans of the idea of "announce a phone in February, ship it in July", but given recent reports that Samsung has hoarded Snapdragon 835 orders for months to come, we suspect that - if those rumors are indeed true - it will take a while for Sony to ship its futuristic flagship.

 

A decently priced 5" model with a Helio P20 definitely has my attention. Hopefully it has stereo speakers and good battery life like Sony phones of the past. Maybe they'll bring back waterproofing too?

[Hunter259]

Why 4K? Who can honestly tell a major difference between 1080p and 1440p at this size anyway? You're just wasting battery life Sony.

[BingoFishy]

2 minutes ago, Hunter259 said:

Why 4K? Who can honestly tell a major difference between 1080p and 1440p at this size anyway? You're just wasting battery life Sony.

Probably 1080p for normal use, 4K for media.

[WolfDeville]

8 minutes ago, BingoFishy said:

Probably 1080p for normal use, 4K for media.

Yeah that's what they've done since the Z5.

[Aniallation]

17 minutes ago, Hunter259 said:

Why 4K? Who can honestly tell a major difference between 1080p and 1440p at this size anyway? You're just wasting battery life Sony.

What the Z5 Premium does. In normal use it gets rendered at 1080p (1/4 scale, therefore scales perfectly), when you actually play 4K content it switches display resolution to 4K. Yes it does waste more battery for a rather small increase in fine detail, but you definitely can see it, and whether it's worth it or not is up to you.

[VerticalDiscussions]

20 minutes ago, Aniallation said:

-snip-

Wasnt it only for Sony's proprietary applications? I presumed Youtube wouldnt render content at 4K on that phone, only the image and video media player.

[JoostinOnline]

37 minutes ago, Hunter259 said:

Why 4K? Who can honestly tell a major difference between 1080p and 1440p at this size anyway? You're just wasting battery life Sony.

I can't tell the difference between my S4 (1080p) and my S7 Edge (2K), unless I take screenshots and zoom way in.

[Prysin]

@Dackzy

 

[Guest Kloaked]

55 minutes ago, Hunter259 said:

Why 4K? Who can honestly tell a major difference between 1080p and 1440p at this size anyway? You're just wasting battery life Sony.

VR

[Aniallation]

27 minutes ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

Wasnt it only for Sony's proprietary applications? I presumed Youtube wouldnt render content at 4K on that phone, only the image and video media player.

I think they fixed that, but I'm not 100% sure. On release though, yes only the stock apps would render content at 4K.

 

What they should really have is a manual override switch. 

[Prysin]

22 minutes ago, Aniallation said:

I think they fixed that, but I'm not 100% sure. On release though, yes only the stock apps would render content at 4K.

 

What they should really have is a manual override switch. 

the Z5 Premium was always locked to stock apps + LOCAL media files only as 4k. Later on 4k web content was allowed to play at native res.

[Dackzy]

neat, hope that they are good

[Trixanity]

42 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

neat, hope that they are good

This is Sony we're talking about. They won't be.

[goodtofufriday]

2 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

This is Sony we're talking about. They won't be.

I use sony phones. Highly disagree. 

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

This is Sony we're talking about. They won't be.

they have made some pretty decent phones...

[VVoltor]

Again no Compact with flagship specs? That's disappointing...

[Magnetorheological]

1 hour ago, Aniallation said:

I think they fixed that, but I'm not 100% sure. On release though, yes only the stock apps would render content at 4K.

 

What they should really have is a manual override switch. 

Yup, I'm using a Z5p right now, and I wish they had a resolution toggle, like my brother's honor 8. 

[Matu20]

2 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

I can't tell the difference between my S4 (1080p) and my S7 Edge (2K), unless I take screenshots and zoom way in.

1080p and 2k are same exact thing. Use 1440p if you ain't sure.

[dizmo]

The BlancBright looks pretty promising, hopefully they don't completely castrate it by throwing in a tiny battery and pricing it higher than it's worth.

I'm also glad that they push the limits with their top tier phones. If no one experiments with that stuff then we'll never see improvements, ones that can trickle down to improve the lesser models as well.

 

59 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

This is Sony we're talking about. They won't be.

They've made quite a few good devices. They just make some stupid decisions based on region, like getting rid of the finger print reader in NA.

55 minutes ago, VVoltor said:

Again no Compact with flagship specs? That's disappointing...

Guess it shows they don't sell that well..

[Mr.Humble]

Why don't they just make a phone that I can actually USE WITH ONE HAND! Why doesn't it mention any Compact versions?

[Mr.Meerkat]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Guess it shows they don't sell that well..

I know 5 other people with a z3 or z5 compact...(not including myself and my z3c...)

 

[Mr.Humble]

9 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Guess it shows they don't sell that well..

 

4 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

I know 5 other people with a z3 or z5 compact...(not including myself and my z3c...)

 

" more compact, 5.2-inch diplay"

 

 

[dizmo]

13 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

I know 5 other people with a z3 or z5 compact...(not including myself and my z3c...)

 

I know many, many more people that own 5.5"+ phones. Virtually everyone I know, actually.

8 minutes ago, vojta.pokorny said:

 

" more compact, 5.2-inch diplay"

People always seem to miss that "more compact" bit, they just focus on the 5.2" bit.

Like the new S8. Yes, it has a 5.7" screen, but it's supposedly smaller in height and only slightly wider than the 5.1" S7.

[Mr.Meerkat]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I know many, many more people that own 5.5"+ phones. Virtually everyone I know, actually.

I know more people with a sub 5.5 inch phone than over 5.5 inches  

[Mr.Humble]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I know many, many more people that own 5.5"+ phones. Virtually everyone I know, actually.

For me it's the other way around.