On September 4th, this year’s IFA mobile industry trade show will commence in Berlin – with press conferences beginning as early as September 1st. Sony has always taken the stage at IFA to announce one thing or another, usually something big, like a new mobile flagship. Since recent leaks have revealed a few new Sony devices, one with a unique design, rumors have been swirling that Sony is going to make the at least one big reveal from this family at IFA. As far as which one, if any, many people’s money is on the uniquely designed, metal-clad F8331.
After showing up on a Croatian classifieds website with a user trying to sell the unreleased device, the F8331 got a few more small leaks, resulting in a number of pictures and a hazy specs sheet painting it as a sort of low-end flagship device. Some of the leaked specs include 3GB of RAM and a screen size of either 5.1 inches or 5.2 inches, with the resolution likely set at 1080p. The camera array supposedly matches the Xperia X flagship lineup, with a 23-megapixel sensor in the back and a whopping 13 megapixels on selfie duty. Decked out in a metal body with curved sides and flat top and bottom, the phone also bears a USB Type-C charging port. The oddball phone is also the first Sony model to ever feature dual LED flash. The whole package is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, according to a leaked romp around GFXBench. Details about the phone’s battery are missing in action, but given the rest of the spec sheet, are likely to be comparable to the Xperia X family.
As with any rumor, this should be taken with a grain of salt, but logically, with recent leaks and the time since the release of the Xperia Z5 and the Xperia X family, at least announcing new flagships in a different family seems pretty likely. The other devices that were leaked in limited capacity alongside the star of the show may also make an appearance, but not much is known about them at this time. New flagships in the Xperia Z and Xperia X series are extremely unlikely, though a new Compact is certainly within the realm of possibility. Whatever Sony announces at IFA, the tech world will be waiting with baited breath.
