Sony is set to announce new Android smartphones on February 26th, with the Japanese tech giant confirming its intent to be present at the 2018 iteration of the Mobile World Congress. The Barcelona, Spain-based happening is the mobile industry’s largest annual trade show and Sony has a long history of attending the event; last year, the company used MWC 2017 as an opportunity to announce a variety of new offerings such as the Xperia XA1 and the high-end Xperia XZ Premium. The original equipment manufacturer provided no hints in regards to what can be expected from its next MWC conference but recent rumors suggest the company is planning to unveil multiple devices, with at least one of them being a full-fledged flagship possibly marketed as the Xperia XZ Pro.
The Tokyo-based phone maker is also expected to unveil a new product design language at MWC 2018 and detail the successor to the OmniBalance aesthetic which served as the basis for its mobile offerings for many years, touting its unique focus on symmetry and minimalism. The new design language is rumored to be called “Mirai” and place a large focus on minimizing bezel size but may not pair full-screen looks with an elongated 18:9 aspect ratio like most other OEMs did over the course of 2017, according to recent reports. The successor to the Xperia XZ Pro is also widely expected to feature a 4K screen, much like many other Sony-made flagships released in the last three years. The biggest change on the mobile display front may arrive in the form of a decision to embrace OLED technologies which high-end Xperia offerings avoided until now.
While Sony’s next Android flagship is almost certain to be powered by the Snapdragon 845, its chip of choice will likely push its release to mid-2018. As was the case with the Xperia XZ Premium, Sony will presumably be forced to wait with commercializing its premium offering as the initial batches of Qualcomm’s latest high-end chip were reportedly already reserved by Samsung for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, both of which are now rumored to be announced on the day of Sony’s MWC 2018 conference.