New Sony Xperia Flagship to Launch in Fall?

File this purely under the rumor mill but there have been some strong whispers about a new flagship smartphone from Sony Mobile. While Sony working on a followup to the Xperia Z3+/Z4 shouldn’t be surprising to anybody, the fact that we’re hearing about it so early is.

In fact, the Xperia Z3+ still hasn’t launched in many territories and this rumor pegs the release date, if not reveal date for early Fall. Let’s talk more after the jump.

According to rumors, the new Sony flagship smartphone could launch prior or during IFA which takes place in Berlin on September 4-9th. Sony and other mobile carries regularly use the event to reveal new devices so that part makes sense.

Where things start to get bizarre are in the specific details. If the rumor does pan out, it means that Sony will likely have to use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset that it currently uses in the Z3+ and not the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. Many have already claimed overheating issues with the Snapdragon 810 chip which Sony among others uses so going at a new phone with the same chip seems like a strange move. Then again, these could be modified versions of the chip.

From there, it’s believed the new phones, which use the S50, S60, and S70 codenames, will start with a 32GB of internal storage and potentially be even more expansive than the Z3+. Though a completely different model scheme than we’re used to, the three codenames could point to a flagship, compact variant and tablet which will likely share a similar design language and internal architecture.

As it stands, I wouldn’t read too much into this as Sony has always had a history of not being able to keep a product secret for long. That means if it’s true, we should start to hear more and see more leaks. Also, this seems like business suicide for Sony who has a rocky relationship with carriers and retailers at best. To have sold some on the Xperia Z3+/Z4, only to unveil a new device months later that they will then need to convince them to carry and support seems like something that Sony cannot do.

Then of course there is all the people who bought into the new flagship model from Sony, only to find out that a few months later, another, perhaps more premium model is launched. While it’s clear that the Xperia Z3+ isn’t the phone that will save Sony’s mobile operations and that the company needs to internally refocus their efforts, I’m not sure a new smartphone so soon is the right answer.

Please note that the above image is purely a concept rendering that’s not from Sony.