Next Sony Xperia flagship: What’s the story so far?

It might come as a surprise to Sony Mobile fans, but the company’s next flagship isn’t going to be called the Xperia Z6. Sony announced a new range of smartphones at MWC 2016 called the X Series, as well as confirming in a statement that the “Z line has reached its culmination” and the “X series represents a new chapter”.

We’ve been tracking rumours about Sony’s next flagship handset – formerly known as the Z6 – for some time. Here’s everything we know or think we know about Sony’s future flagship.

Next Sony Xperia flagship release date

Sony is known for releasing a couple of flagships a year. This was rumoured to be changing but 2015 still saw both the Xperia Z3+ and the Xperia Z5 launch, along with the Xperia Z5 Compact and 4K display Xperia Z5 Premium.

The next Sony Xperia flagship has been rumoured to be coming in the second half of 2016, which would make sense if Sony is finally changing things up to launch just one flagship per year.

The company announced the Xperia X Performance as part of the X series line up at MWC. This device features flagship specs including improvements on the Xperia Z5, packaged in a luxurious metal design. It could very easily have been the next Xperia flagship but it is destined for Asia only. 

The X and the XA announced alongside it were the models launched for other territories instead and while these two devices still offer good specs, they aren’t quite flagship meaning a successor to the Z5, even if it won’t be called the Z6, is still on the cards.

The Xperia Z5 was announced at IFA 2015 so we would expect the next Sony Xperia flagship to appear at IFA 2016 in September. The bigger question is: what on earth is it going to be called?

What will Sony’s next Xperia flagship be called?

With Sony confirming, via a rather circuitous route, that the Z family of devices has reached its end, there will be no Z6. Sony maintains that the X series is the future, so it may be that the next Sony flagship is simply the Sony Xperia X Performance, following the device we’ve already seen.

However, Sony’s naming policy has been a bit of a mess recently, with the Z4 launching in some regions and the Z3+ in others, so it’s difficult to guess which direction the company is going to step next.

We’re sure a lot of people will continue to call it the Z6 until a name is found; we imagine that some people will simply call it the X6; it might be the X Performance, or it could be something entirely new. We suspect it will be something entirely new.

Next Sony Xperia flagship design

Just like its release cycles, Sony has been pretty consistent with its design, especially across the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3+ devices. Yes, things got a little slimmer and overall a little better looking, but the general scheme of things remained the same.

The Xperia Z5 changed things up a little, moving away from rounded edges to flatter and squarer. A fingerprint sensor was added to the signature side power button that changed shape from circular to a flatter oblong and overall, the Xperia Z design improved significantly.

The newly announced Xperia X series takes the Z5’s design and runs with it. The rear material moves from glass to metal and the result is fabulous. The OmniBalance design remains intact, as does the side fingerprint sensor on both the X and X Performance but the new design gives Xperia a new lease of life.

Where will that leave the next Xperia flagship? Well, we would predict it will look almost identical to the X Performance, perhaps with a few refinements here and there. We’re almost glad the Z line is stopping with the Z5 as the X series has a much better finish so it would have been disappointing to see a Z6 appear without the design changes the X series offers.

Next Sony Xperia flagship display

Display is an area Sony stuck to its guns with when it came to the Z series. While many of its competitors hopped on the Quad HD bandwagon, Sony continued to opt for Full HD for its 5.2-inch Xperia Z5 and previous devices. The only place it changed things up was the Xperia Z5 Premium whereby it skipped 2K altogether and went straight for a 4K resolution.

Will the next Xperia flagship have a 2K display? Well if it does, it would go against everything Sony has been saying for the last couple of years. It’s always said that at that size, you wouldn’t be able to notice the extra pixels per inch and customers don’t want to trade battery life for display resolution, so we suspect a 2K display is unlikely. The X Performance improved on the Z5 in other areas but the display remained at Full HD.

It might be that Sony will need to play the numbers game to stay in the game, in which case a 2K display kind of needs to happen to stay in the same boat as competition from LG and Samsung. That said, the X series launched with Sony focusing on design, camera and battery life so higher resolution displays are not something Sony sees as vitally important features of a smartphone.

The slightly lower-specced XA did launch with an edge-to-edge display though, which was beautiful despite being 720p. To see the next Sony flagship arrive with the same edge-to-edge display but with a Full HD or Quad HD resolution would be amazing.

There were also rumours suggesting Sony will introduce its version of a force touch display, like Apple and Huawei have both done in 2015. Pressure sensitive displays allow users to perform quick actions or various tasks based on how firmly they press the screen. It’s a technology that is becoming more discussed so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see Sony introduce it for its next flagship.

Next Sony Xperia flagship camera

The Sony Xperia Z5 saw the rear camera jump from the 21.7-megapixel sensor, which was introduced on the Xperia Z1 and remained for the succeeding devices, to a 23-megapixel sensor. Sony made slight adjustments to incremental devices, such as a wider angle lens and software updates, but the sensor itself stayed the same until the Z5.

Given that it took a couple of years for the sensor to change, we don’t expect things to change again for the next Xperia flagship, especially as the Xperia X and X Performance both feature this sensor. We’d place our bets on the same 23-megapixel rear sensor but with the addition of the Predictive Hybrid Auto Focus at the very least. This feature tracks and predicts movements in order to ensure moments aren’t missed. It launched on the X series but we expect it to be a feature that will move onto the next flagship too.

The Xperia Z5 comes with a 5-megapixel front snapper but with the X and X Performance both offering 13-megapixel front snappers with ISO 6400 sensitivity, we expect to see the same in the next Xperia flagship, perhaps with a few extra software enhancements.

Next Sony Xperia flagship hardware

Sony is one of Qualcomm’s most loyal fans. From the Xperia Z1, Sony opted for the chip manufacturer’s latest processor each time, even when some of its competition went down their own routes for 2015 following overheating concerns about  the SD810.

Sony followed the same path for the X series, with the top-of-the-range X Performance featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip. It was suggested by Digitimes that Sony will start producing its own processors for its smartphones like Huawei and Samsung have done in the past but we can’t see that happening. We’d expect at least 4GB of RAM though as this would fall in line with competition.

We suspect there will also be a big focus on battery as that is an area Sony really thrives in and an area the company were keen to promote in the new X series. The X Performance has a 2700mAh capacity but this will probably increase for the next flagship, especially if the display is larger than the X Performance’s 5-inch screen.

We are confident that microSD support will be on board the new flagship too as Sony offers this on all its recent smartphones. Sony has previously offered 16GB and 32GB internal storage capacity options, although as Android 6.0 Marshmallow allows you to combine the internal and microSD storage, the 32GB might not be necessary. We would certainly be surprised to see anything above 32GB if microSD is on board. The X Performance comes in one variant offering 32GB, which indicates the next flagship will do the same.

Next Sony Xperia flagship software

The next Sony Xperia flagship will come with Android Marshmallow and it will more than likely have the company’s bloatware over the top. We’d love for the extra apps to be reduced slightly and perhaps offer it in a less-so-in-your-face way, like Motorola do, but this probably won’t happen.

The X series smartphones on display at MWC didn’t feature final software, suggesting there is an update coming that may change things up slightly. When these devices appear in the summer, we may have a better indication of what to expect software-wise on the next Xperia flagship.

Next Sony Xperia flagship conclusion

So what do we expect from the next Sony Xperia flagship? Well, we’d say an IFA 2016 release date is likely, as is the continuation of the OmniBalance design but with the metal build found on the new X series.

A pressure-sensitive display seems like a reasonable suggestion and we’d place our bets on Full HD over Quad HD. An edge-to-edge display like the one on the Xperia XA would be lovely to see and we will certainly put money on the SD820 processor making an appearance, as well as a side fingerprint sensor.

We don’t expect many hardware changes for the next Xperia flagship’s rear camera, but we do expect to see the 13-megapixel front snapper from the X and X Performance appear along with a few software changes. We will update this feature as more rumours appear so keep checking back for the latest on the speculation surrounding the next Sony Xperia flagship.