It has literally been a few days, and not even a few week after IFA, and the rumour mill is buzzing again. The latest rumours suggest that Sony is gearing up for a larger phablet-sized smartphone in the Xperia Z5 lineup. The phone will supposedly be called the Xperia Z5 Ultra, and like every other rumoured flagship phone presently, might be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.
The Sony Xperia Z5 Ultra is suggested to get a 6.44-inch display with, of course, 4K resolution. Sony recently put a 4K display panel on the Xperia Z5 Premium – one of the main highlights at IFA 2015. Alongside, the Xperia Z5 Ultra is rumoured to have the same 23MP camera sensor, and a larger 4000mAh battery.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 has been rumoured to power almost all of the flagship phones that might come next year, and a lot seems to be at stake for Qualcomm and supporting OEMs. Its current generation flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 810, does perform well, but has been infamous for its heating issues. Because of these, Sony’s previous flagship, the Xperia Z3+, failed against other flagships. The OnePlus 2 featured a different version of it, Snapdragon 810 v2.1, which fared better on the heating front.
Sony has lately faced declining sales in its mobile ventures, and rumours of Sony folding up its mobile business completely had surfaced. However, with the new Xperia Z5 lineup, Sony has released a statement of intent which practically negates the previous rumours. The three newly-launched phones are targeted at the ultra-premium segment.
The current lineup of Xperia Z5 uses the infamous Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, with Sony employing dual heat pipes to dissipate the heat. The rest of the specifications of all the three phones in the Z5 lineup are similar, featuring 32GB of storage, and 23MP camera. While the Xperia Z5 Premium and Z5 do come with 3GB of RAM, the Xperia Z5 Compact runs on 2GB of RAM. Screen size and resolution is what primarily distinguishes the phones, increasing from the 720p, 4.6-inch display on the Z5 Compact to the 4K, 5.5-inch display on Z5 Premium.
While the Z5 lineup is scheduled for October 2015 release, dates for the India launch are yet to be stated. Prices are expected to be high, as usual, which may be a negative aspect in the Indian cellphone market. As for the SD820-powered Z5 Ultra, the wait will probably go on till 2016.
Source: @leaksfly, Xperiablog