Sony’s Mobile World Congress plans seem to have leaked out ahead of time: details for its new flagship Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact smartphones have hit the internet a few days early, according to Evan Blass at VentureBeat.
According to Blass, Sony will be announcing the 5.7-inch XZ2 (a follow-up to last year’s XZ model) alongside a smaller 5.0-inch XZ2 Compact model (which had a prototype show up online earlier this week).
Both phones are said to offer Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 845 processor and ship with Android Oreo. Sony will reportedly be offering the same 19-megapixel, ƒ/1.8 camera from the XZ Premium. (That might not be a good thing, given that my colleague Vlad Savov found it to be fairly unreliable in his tests last year.) Also included is a rear fingerprint sensor, as opposed to the button-based sensors Sony has used in the past. Hopefully the company will continue the trend from the Xperia XA2 and offer fingerprint functionality in the US.
There are a few differences between the larger XZ2 and smaller XZ2 Compact beyond size, though. The XZ2 will apparently offer glass on both sides of the phone and support wireless charging in addition to USB-C, while the XZ2 Compact will feature a polycarbonate case back instead and lack the wireless charging found on the larger model.
Additionally, the full-size XZ2 will apparently have a new unique feature that adds haptic feedback to audio, allowing the device to sync vibrations to sound. (That could be what Sony’s mysterious teaser from the beginning of the week was alluding to, if the report is correct.)
More details on the two devices should come when Sony officially announces them at MWC during its press conference on Monday.
