Sony has been in the mobile market for a long time, but its Xperia Z smartphone lineup is only a couple of years old. Back at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013 Sony announced the original Xperia Z, introducing a brand new design that was balanced in the hand while providing a water and dust proof chassis. This was a huge departure from the previous Sony smartphones and high-end smartphones in general as water and dust proof phones are normally relegated to entry-level and mid-range phones with significantly more bulky designs. Over the years Sony has enhanced their design by reducing the bezels on the sides of the screen, making the device thinner, and of course upgrading the internals and other important components with each new generation.
Unlike many smartphone manufacturers that release phones on a yearly basis, Sony has been on a 6-month cycle for quite some time now, meaning the Xperia Z4 announcement is due any day now. The Xperia Z4 Tablet was officially announced just a few days ago, featuring an incredible looking 2K display and an ultra-thin frame. While we’re expecting the Xperia Z4 announcement practically any day now, we expect the phone to follow in the footsteps of the tablet by offering an even thinner design that may come at the expense of water and dust proofing. Now it looks like Sony may want to keep that waterproof design if for no other reason than to cool the device down, if recent rumors are correct.
We’ve seen alleged problems with Qualcomm’s latest chipset before, the Snapdragon 810, specifically related to rumors of extreme heat generation. These problems and other factors allegedly led Samsung to move the Galaxy S6 to Samsung’s own processor lineup, the Exynos 7420, and have supposedly plagued the designs of the LG G Flex 2 and HTC One M9 which are both powered by the Snapdragon 810. Now we’re hearing Sony is facing the same issues with the Xperia Z4, which have been exacerbated by the thin metal frame the phone is supposed to sport. This news comes from leaker @Ricciolo1 from Twitter who’s leaked out Xperia news before. All these rumors of heat problems with the Snapdragon 810 likely have Qualcomm investors worried, but it’ll remain to be seen if this actually affects the Xperia Z4’s launch. Then again this could explain why we haven’t seen the phone just yet but the much larger tablet with better heat dissipation is already using the Snapdragon 810.