Sony recently launched its new flagship, the Xperia XZ1 at IFA 2017 in Berlin. Although the phone has top-notch specifications and a promising camera, the design of the phone is still reminiscent of all Sony devices since the 2013 Xperia Z. When all the big smartphone manufacturers are moving towards a bezel-less display, the Sony Xperia XZ1’s design looks dated. However, it seems like 2018 will be the year when Sony finally ditches the top and bottom chins and launch a flagship Android smartphone with an 18:9 aspect ratio display.
A recent leak on GFXBench reveals that the new Sony smartphone, named Sony H8151 will have a tall display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone will have a 5.8 inch 2160 x 1080 px display. In the display column, there is another 11.5-inch 4320 × 2160 resolution display listed, which will be a 4K display and succeed the Xperia XZ Premium next year. The smartphone will run Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. The CPU column mentions a 2.6GHz octa-core processor, but, the Snapdragon 835 is clocked at 2.4GHz. This means that the new device might have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 chipset, should Qualcomm change their mind and announce the chipset before the launch of the Sony smartphone. The phone will have 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage.
On the camera front, it looks like Sony will continue producing smartphones with a single camera. On the back will be a 17MP camera which will record 3840 x 2160 px (4K) videos. The front camera will have a 12MP sensor with 4K video recording capabilities as well.
The design of the smartphones will be marketed as the ‘Mirai’ design, which means ‘the future’ and will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2018.