Sony has been struggling with their mobile division for a while and while they could easily quit producing devices such as smartphones or tablets just like they did with their PC lineup, the company has stated that they will not exit mobile business. They have created some interesting devices with their Xperia Z lineup, since inception, these devices were some of the first ones to offer a certification against water and dust while looking very stylish and not rugged and ugly. They created what they call OnmiBalance design for their hardware, based on symmetry from every angle and they have actually perfected this design language over the years by including better materials in the construction of these devices.
Other aspect that has been key to these devices is the camera sensors they integrate, they inherited some features from their point-and-shoot cameras and while in automatic mode they don’t perform as well as others, the manual controls allow more experienced users to shoot some stunning pictures. They apparently have created an even better sensor with 192 autofocus points and phase detection technology, allowing to capture even moving objects without blur, but there’s still not a handset from the company to use it.
The company was criticized because of its strategy of releasing a new flagship device every 6 months, as there was no time to really innovate and really distinguish the new device to the one that was released a little before it, but since the mobile industry seems to be reaching a point where innovation takes a little longer, some other companies are doing something similar. There’s a new rumor about a new strategy from Sony in which two new handsets could be released before September. Details are very scarce but they are supposedly called Xperia S60 and Xperia S70 and they’re targeted to the high-end with the price of the latter being around 780 to 840 euros. The new names are supposed to simplify the current naming scheme with just the letter S and a couple of numbers to distinguish the price range, although these might as well be code names. Both handsets allegedly include 32 GB of internal storage and while there are no details regarding the design of their hardware, the S60 would be available in white, black, yellow and coral color options and the S70 would be available in white, black, gold and green. It could be a similar situation with the current Xperia Z and Xperia Z Compact families, while the former includes more sober shades, the latter includes more bold color choices. The report claims that the devices could be announced in August 18, so the wait should not be very long.