Sony’s upcoming flagship smartphone won’t be coming to Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 as Samsung is stocking Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 system-on-chips for its upcoming Galaxy S8, industry sources say. Due to that state of affairs, the Japanese phone maker is unable to secure a large quantity of Qualcomm’s chips and is forced to delay its successor to the Xperia Z5 Premium that’s reportedly codenamed Yoshino and was initially scheduled to debut at the Barcelona-based trade show in late February. Samsung already confirmed that the Galaxy S8 won’t be unveiled at MWC 2017, but the company already acquired large quantities of the Snapdragon 835 and is sitting on them until it starts mass-producing its next Android flagship. Even though Sony likely won’t be unveiling its high-end phone this month, industry sources say that the company might show its prototypes to partners during the trade show.
The Sony Yoshino is rumored to be powered by the Snapdragon 835 and between 4GB to 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The device will sport a 5.5-inch 4K display and Sony’s new IMX400 sensor, previous rumors suggest. Apart from the Yoshino, another high-end device that Sony was said to be bringing to Barcelona is codenamed BlancBright. Previous reports suggested that the BlancBright will be powered by either the Snapdragon 835 or the Snapdragon 653, so if that phone is still coming to Barcelona, the fact that Samsung is hoarding Qualcomm’s most powerful chipset to date suggests that the BlancBright will be fueled by the Snapdragon 653. Apart from the BlancBright, the Japanese phone maker is also expected to unveil three more mid-range devices at MWC 2017.
As for Samsung, the South Korean tech giant is reportedly planning to unveil the Galaxy S8 in late March before the device hits the shelves in mid-April. This also isn’t the first report suggesting Samsung is causing shortages of the Snapdragon 835. According to a report from January, the upcoming LG G6 might ship with the Snapdragon 821 instead of Qualcomm’s flagship chipset due to the fact that Samsung is stockpiling the chip and LG isn’t willing to delay its next premium device like Sony is. In fact, LG is reportedly adamant to beat the Galaxy S8 to the market by any means necessary.