IFA 2016 rumors: Sony to unveil new flagship phone this September

Sony will be employing a new business strategy for its smartphone line. And based on the latest word of mouth, the first smartphone to break the ice may be in attendance when IFA 2016 kicks off this coming September.

Sony made headlines last month when word came out that the company would be killing off some of its Xperia lines. Yibada reported on such and mentioned that the company would be focusing on one series which is the Xperia X.

Included at the time was the believed demise of the Sony Xperia Z series which meant the exit of the Xperia Z6, Mobipicker reported. It didn’t take long for that belief to be scorned through a report from NSEAVoice. It turns out that the Z Series is simply taking a breather

Fast forward to the present, new rumors suggest that Sony will be slowly getting back into the smartphone race with a mystery phone known only through its model number “Sony F8331”, Android Headlines reported. This is the same phone that showed up at GFXBench which all the more backs the belief.

With that in mind, anticipation starts to swell a bit with belief that Sony may end up showing more than just one phone at IFA 2016. There is another mystery phone bearing a fairly similar model number in the “F8332”, ramping up belief that there may be at least two handsets on the horizon.

There is no official word on the specs that either phone may carry. The best reference for now would be the specifications included in the GFXBench listing.

Among the features detailed include a 5.1-inch 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, a 21 MP main camera, a 12 MP front-facing shooter and something that would run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box.

IFA 2016 will take place in Berlin from Sept. 2 to 7 as it showcases a whole new line of devices for the consumer technology market.

For those who are not fully familiar with the Sony Xperia X, here is a video refresher.