The United States Federal Communications Commission certified three Sony-made devices earlier this week, with two of them being believed to be the Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact which the Japanese phone maker announced at Mobile World Congress last month. The third handset remains unidentified but with its FCC ID number (PY7-00718V) being close to the other two (PY7-21831A, PY7-24118Q), some industry watchers are speculating the company is working on a third addition to the Xperia XZ2 family of Android flagships.
While none of the certificates mention any model names, two out of three units are listed with dimensions that match those of the Xperia Xz2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact which Sony disclosed at the Barcelona, Spain-based trade show. The third smartphone hasn’t been detailed by the agency in such a manner, with its filing only including basic wireless test results that are similar to those of the other handsets. The Tokyo-based original equipment manufacturer was expected to use MWC 2018 as an opportunity to announce a successor to the Xperia XZ Premium which was introduced at the same event last year but failed to do so. The company later said it isn’t planning to follow up on its 2017 flagship just yet as part of its MWC 2018 FAQ page which also claimed the Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact lack headphone jacks because Sony wanted to make them “beautiful.”
The Japanese OEM witnessed its mobile business declining in recent times even as the company as a whole is still on course to post its best fiscal year ever this spring. Sony is still making money from its handsets and is performing better than the likes of LG and HTC but many industry analysts previously raised questions regarding its long-term prospects in the segment. While Sony isn’t expecting its mobile business to mount a major comeback in the near future, it repeatedly stated it has no intentions of dropping it as it believes mobile solutions will be the key to unlocking the next big thing in the technology industry, whether that’s virtual and augmented reality, on-device AI, or something else entirely.