Sony Xperia 2014 Flagships 'Sirius' and 'Avatar' Separate Models?

We’re weeks into 2014 and we still don’t have firm plans from Sony on the next Xperia flagship. But there are many rumours.

Xperia Z2, ‘Avatar’, ‘Sirius’ – which is which? There is a glaring detail about one of these rumours that connects with how Sony launched the Z1 S. The latest news on the ‘Sirius’ helps tell them apart.

Read on to find out why the next Sony flagship is still hidden from view.

Mobile World Congress is just weeks away and the latest rumour suggests that Sony may use this event, the largest mobile exhibition in the world, to unveil the new king of the flagships.

The trouble is that there are all sorts of rumours running around and it’s hard to tell which is really the flagship. Time for a recap.

Xperia Z2 retail name

Sony has been adopting a numerical addition to selected models indicating and improvement, revised edition or a full update. The Xperia Z2 follows straight after the Z which was shown at CES 2013. Our coverage here follows rumours of the Z2.

‘Avatar’ codename

The same coverage linked in the Z2 is suggested to be the Z2. So, the codename is ‘Avatar’ internally and the retail name would be the Z2 to you and me.

‘Sirius’ codename

This would may prove most revealing. A tweet from a popular leaker says that this is Verizon-bound. If there is a powerful device codenamed ‘Sirius’ heading to Verizon in the US, is it also heading for other markets? A flagship isn’t bound to just one major carrier in one country, that would be a model for one market.

So what next?

Here, you can see that Sony made a special edition of the current flagship – the Z1- for the US. That’s the Z1 S model. This proved confusing before we knew that Sony was reinvesting in the US, since it matched the specs of the Z1 flagship already. If the rumour is true that the ‘Sirius’ is heading for the US, then maybe it’s not the Xperia Z2/’Avatar’. But now that we have seen Sony rebrand a flagship and dedicate it to a particular market, perhaps this will be the case with some of these flagship rumours.

You read this here first! There is firm belief in the tech-world that these are all one phone. But most of the same news sources also said with certainty that the next Sony flagship would be unveiled at CES this year – and we said it would not. How did we know? It was on Sony Mobile’s news blog: (Z1)

It is our strongest selling smartphone to date and will continue as our flagship into 2014.

You can be sure that we read all the latest news directly from Sony Mobile’s official news blog when figuring out which smartphones come next.

The information that we’re getting from a source is that the Xperia Z2 flagship is destined for the second half of 2014, from June onwards and will be a global release, including on multiple US networks. Perhaps this means that the ‘Sirius’ device will be launched at MWC but the Avatar/Z2 comes later in the year. Check back here for more on this.

You can keep up to date with our 2014 Xperia coverage and about ‘Sirius’ here, our Z2/’Avatar’ rumours here.