SONY

EXCLUSIVE: The first leaked image of the Xperia 1 V

Sony's Xperia 1 V may or may not go official at the MWC in Barcelona later this month. While we wait to see if that actually happens, let's enjoy the first leaked image that supposedly shows off the upcoming flagship smartphone.

If you compare this camera island with that of the Xperia 1 IV, you'll instantly notice that the ToF camera and IR RGB sensor are gone. Thus, we are left with three large sensors (they seem larger than in the 1 IV), of which the lowest one houses a periscope camera. The LED flash moved into the island on the next model, while it was outside the island, above it, on last year's handset.

You can spot the NFC logo to the right of the camera island, which means this leaked unit is the international version of the Xperia 1 V - had it been the one intended for the Japanese domestic market, we would have gotten the Felica logo.

According to a Chinese leaker on Weibo, the Xperia 1 V will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is no surprise. It will also be the thinnest smartphone to use this SoC, and that could make it the hottest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 device on the market. Literally. Sony is of course expected to have some sort of cooling solution in place, and hopefully that will alleviate the thinness, but that remains to be seen.

mundophone