Sony is a huge brand, and not just for smartphones. Purveyors of the Walkman and the best TVs in the world, it has in recent years fallen down the pecking order when it comes to the best smartphones. Its Xperia Z3 was debatably the pinnacle of its vision of flagship phones with full waterproofing and two-day battery – but that was in 2014.
Since then, Sony has confused us (and probably you) by releasing the Z3+ , the Z5 , and then scrapping the Z altogether with the X , XA , X Compact and then the XZ (which is still an X series really). So – what’s next? Our money is on the Sony Xperia X2 debuting at MWC 2017 in Barcelona in late February.
Sony Xperia X2 release date: February 2017
Sony Xperia X2 on sale date: May 2017
The Sony Xperia X was announced on 22 February 2016 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It was a decidedly just-below flagship phone, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, when flagships are currently touting the 820 or 821.
Sony loves a six month cycle of announcements, but has recently staggered them to go midrange/flagship, and IFA in September 2016 saw them launch the Xperia XZ to replace the Z5, effectively killed the Z branding. Despite this they confusingly added a Z to the model to make XZ. The XZ became the flagship, with its 820 processor in tow.
So (keeping up?), we expect Sony to release a new Xperia X at MWC 2017, which may be called the X2. MWC runs from 26 February to 2 March.
Keep your eyes peeled though, as Sony could surprise us and announce a flagship device at MWC instead of or as well as an X2. It’s all quite exciting for us smartphone fans really, but hard to determine what’s next.
In terms of sales, you’ll have to wait a bit. If Sony follows the pattern of last year’s X announcement, we expect the X2 to go on sale in May 2017.
Details are scant on the top secret announcement we expect at MWC 2017 at the end of February from Sony.
