Xperia S and Xperia ION to be announced at CES?

by XB on January 7, 2012

in News,Rumours

SEMC Blog has just revealed that the two Sony Ericsson handsets to be announced at CES 2012 will be the Xperia S (LT26i Nozomi) and the Xperia ION. We already know all about Nozomi, but we don’t know which specs correlate with Xperia ION. SEMC Blog says that the Xperia ion will have a 4.6-inch display.

By deduction, it may be easy to think that the Xperia ION is the Sony Ericsson LT28at Aoba. After all this is the only handset we have heard of that has a 4.55-inch display. However, one of our sources recently got in contact to say that the Sony Ericsson LT28 Aoba codename has now been assigned to a different handset. Aoba will in fact have a 5-inch display and will be available for NTT DoCoMo (Japan) and AT&T (US) only.

The 4.55-inch Xperia ION is instead expected to be the LT29i Hayabusa. It is meant to look very similar to the Xperia arc but will have specifications similar to that of the Xperia S (Nozomi). As always, this is all speculation for now. All will be formally revealed on Monday 9 January at CES 2012.

First images of Sony Ericsson MT27i ‘Pepper’ leak

by XB on January 7, 2012

in News,Rumours

We have just been sent the first images of what is believed to be the Sony Ericsson MT27i ‘Pepper’. The MT27i is believed to be the successor to the Xperia neo V and rumours point to this handset running a 1GHz dual-core processor (most likely the ST-Ericsson NoveThor U8500 chipset) with a 3.7-inch (480 x 854 resolution) display. It is supposed to have a 5MP camera and shoot 720p video.

There appears to be a certain theme running through the 2012 Xperia range, judging by what we’ve seen so far. Whilst it doesn’t have the same LED notification strip as seen in the Nozomi and Nypon, it still seems to share the ‘chin’ feature of the aforementioned handsets. It also shares the same straight lines of the Nozomi/Nypon rather than the curves of the 2011 line-up.

The front of the handset has three capacitive buttons for back, home and menu functions and the front-facing camera sits next to the notification LED. The back of the handset shows the camera lens surrounded by an embossed plastic ring, with a small LED flash sitting on top. Near this you can see a noise suppression mic too.

We can’t be sure what is sitting next to the prototype label, but we’d guess it is a speaker of some kind. We’re not exactly keen on the two-colour back cover, however as this leak is clearly labelled as a prototype we won’t read too much into the design at this stage.

This handset is meant to be the successor to the Xperia neo V. We doubt there will be a true Xperia neo successor in 2012 as we expect Sony Ericsson to employ greater differentiation between handsets this year. In 2011, the Xperia arc and Xperia neo sat too closely together in terms of features. This could be one of the reasons (along with component shortages) why SE decided to discontinue the neo with 8MP Exmor R camera and release the neo V with 5MP camera. We’re not sure if the Sony Ericsson MT27i Pepper will be announced next week at CES, however if not, then expect a reveal at MWC in February 2012.

 Rumours, Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson LT26i ‘Nozomi’ benchmarked and sized up against Xperia arc S

by XB on January 6, 2012

in News,Rumours

We have already seen some high-resolution leaked pictures of the Sony Ericsson LT26i codenamed ‘Nozomi’ in the past, but we’ve now got another round of shots that are worth looking at. These hands-on pictures are from ITProPortal and include some angles not seen previously.


The top of the handset had not been pictured before, it holds the power button and 3.5mm headphone jack. We’re glad to see the headphone jack back at the top of the phone, like on the Xperia X10, versus the side of the phone like the 2011 flagships (Xperia arc and Xperia PLAY). One side of the handset has HDMI, volume control and a dedicated camera shutter button, whilst the other side has the micro USB port. The pictures aren’t the clearest, but it looks like all ports will be covered by a flap.

The picture of the back of the handset confirms the use of a micro-SIM, sealed battery and no microSD support. There are more pictures that show Nozomi side-by-side with the Xperia arc S. Nozomi is boxier, taller and marginally wider too. It will be interesting to see how that extra handset length feels in the hand ergonomically.

This particular version was running Android 2.3.7 (which all 2011 Xperia handsets are likely to be updated to) running the 2.6.35 kernel. The phone scored 2219 on the Quadrant benchmark. Strangely the Quadrant benchmark shows the handset as running only one core at 1.5GHz. The benchmark does list the chipset as MSM8660, which we know is a 1.5GHz dual-core chip.

Other confirmed details include 1GB of RAM and a 720 x 1280 resolution display. We also expect the handset to feature a 12MP camera and at least 8GB of internal storage. There are rumours that Nozomi will officially be called Xperia HD on release. We expect it to be announced at CES 2012 next week. Stay tuned.

Via ITProPortal.

Picture of Sony Ericsson’s new Gingerbread UXP

by XB on December 12, 2011

in Featured Content,Firmware,News,Rumours

We were sent a screen capture of Sony Ericsson’s new Gingerbread UXP (the UX platform is the strategic framework for the core of Sony Ericsson’s portfolio) over the weekend. Interestingly the picture has a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, the same as the rumoured Sony Ericsson Nozomi – further evidence that this 2012 flagship will launch with Android Gingerbread.


The single image itself doesn’t give too much away. It shows the Android home screen using a new font for the clock widget. The small rectangles at the top of the screen on current firmware, showing which of the five home screens you are on, have been replaced by circles. Also the border around the four sticky icons at the bottom has been removed. The UI also matches that seen on the leaked Nozomi images from earlier today.



It is therefore looking more and more likely that Sony Ericsson has redesigned some elements of its Android Gingerbread firmware and that this will launch prior to the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update in H1 2012. We reported on new eDream6 firmware over the weekend. At the time we were wondering what had happened to eDream5, so maybe this is it? Given the date on the image below, could this new firmware be rolling out as soon as early January (along with a Nozomi release)? It shouldn’t be as farfetched as it sounds given all of the recent evidence.

Thanks X-Leaker!

Sony Ericsson LT26i Nozomi high-res images leak

by XB on December 12, 2011

in Featured Content,News,Rumours

 It was only last week that we were speculating that it won’t be too long before high-resolution images of the Sony Ericsson LT26i ‘Nozomi’ leak and here they are courtesy of GSM Arena. 

We have seen the front of the phone plenty of times, but now we get to glance the sides too. The left side has a micro USB slot (with cover) and the right side has HDMI slot (with cover), a volume switch in the middle of the phone and a reasonably sized camera button. The phone eschews the curves of the Xperia arc and has a very boxy design.

Strangely the glowing strip at the bottom looks like it is made out of see through plastic as the icons can also be seen on the back of the phone. GSM Arena’s tipster has verified a lot of the details we brought to you exclusively over three months ago.

This includes a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 4.3-inch (720 x 1280) display, micro-SIM, no microSD slot, 1GB RAM, 16/32GB of internal storage, 12MP camera and sealed battery. The tipster also confirms what our sources have told us i.e. that the phone will launch with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and then receive Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at a later date. We’ll bring you more details as we have it, but in the meantime check out the lovely pictures below.

Via GSM Arena. 

Sony Ericsson LT22i Nypon concept pic

by XB on December 7, 2011

in News,Rumours

If you remember those very nice looking concept pictures of Nozomi released at the weekend, well we have another one for you by the same guy. This time it is a concept render for the Sony Ericsson LT22i Nypon. This phone is meant to be sporting a 1GHz dual-core U8500 chipset from ST-Ericsson, 4-inch qHD display, 8MP Exmor R camera, 1GB RAM and 16GB ROM.

What we don’t know at this stage is whether the person who designed these renders has any inside scope at Sony Ericsson. The Nozomi render could very well have been based on some of the leaked pictures we had already seen. For Nypon, we’ve not seen any leaked images at all, so it’s difficult to know how faithful the concept will be to reality. The Nypon concept is a simpler affair than Nozomi, with no capacitive buttons on the front. Click through for a larger pic after the cut and let us know which one you prefer in the comments.

Via Concept Phones.

Black Sony Ericsson LT26i Nozomi spotted in the wild

by XB on December 7, 2011

in News,Rumours

The previous live pictures if the Sony Ericsson LT26i ‘Nozomi’ were of the white version, however as we revealed over the weekend a black version is also being planned. Now it appears that live pictures of the black Nozomi have been snapped in the wilds of Hong Kong.


The overall appearance looks similar to what we’ve already seen with the Sony Ericsson logo sitting above the ear-piece and a front facing camera to the right. We then have what looks to be a >4-inch display, with a slightly wider bezel than seen in the recent render.



The most revealing part of this new photo is the capacitive buttons which sit behind three small white illuminated dots, quite a nice touch in our view. Previously we had only seen the actual tiny icons (menu, home and back) that sit above the thin glowing strip at the bottom. We’re not sure what the small triangle towards that third capacitive button is (this could be a sticker and nothing related to the phone). We’re also not sure what the line of text is above the Xperia logo on the bottom. Although this could be a reference to this particular prototype, hence why it seems it has been blurred out.

Another photo has appeared from Concept Phones, but instead of being a render this seems to be a live model. It shows a silver trim on the side edge not seen in the other photos. Most of the features do seem very similar to the above photo, although there are small discrepancies when comparing both photos. However, the photo below may have been of an earlier prototype, or as the author points out, the guy that sent it in could have created this mould himself (must be a huge Sony Ericsson fan if true!) Either way, with leaks intensifying it shouldn’t be too long before we have some higher-res live shots of this beauty soon.

Via Techorz.

Sony Ericsson Nozomi press shot leaks; two new Xperia handsets unmasked? [Update]

by XB on December 4, 2011

in News,Rumours

We have heard (and seen) much of the Sony Ericsson LT26i (Nozomi), the company’s 2012 flagship, and now we have come across what looks like the first press shot for the device. The image matches what we have already seen, but this new high-res shot really shows what an attractive device it really is. The phone is still branded Sony Ericsson and you can see the front-facing camera on the top-right. You can also make out the small back, home, menu capacitive buttons on the bottom, highlighting that it will most likely be running Android 4.0 ICS out of the box.

As many of you know, this model is believed to sport a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 12MP camera, a 4.3-inch display with 720 x 1280 pixel resolution, 1GB RAM, 32GB ROM (no micro-SD slot) and a sealed 1750mAh battery. It looks like a handset to look forward to in this gorgeous white colour, but it will also come in black according to @Ricciolo1. Unfortunately this shot isn’t high-res, but you get the idea of what it will look like. Our money’s still on the white model.

As well as this, two new pictures have also emerged of what are believed to be new Xperia devices, but we question their authenticity. Both new models are branded ‘Sony’ rather than ‘Sony Ericsson’, but they look a bit like fan renders or concepts to us. The phones look very much like SE’s mid-range offerings if true, with one of them having an unusual teardrop profile in terms of its thickness. It reminds us of the wedge-shaped Sony S Android tablet, with a thicker bottom compared to the top.

Interestingly, the second Xperia render has the date of 12 January 2012 on its ICS lock screen. This could be in reference to the CES trade show in Las Vegas running from 10-13 January 2012. It is believed that Sony Ericsson will announce at least some of its new Xperia portfolio at that time. If you remember, Sony Ericsson announced the Xperia arc in January 2011 at CES, so we would almost expect at least one new phone announcement at CES 2012.

UPDATE: Looks like all three of these renders are concept photos only unfortunately. We managed to trace the original photos we were sent, which were originally posted by Concept Phones.

Sony Ericsson LT28at pops up in benchmark; suggests 1.5GHz dual-core Xperia heading to AT&T

by XB on December 2, 2011

in News,Rumours

The Sony Ericsson LT28at model has appeared in the AnTuTu benchmark. This is interesting for several reasons. Firstly the ‘at‘ part in the model number suggests that this variant will run on the AT&T network in the United States. More than likely it will be compatible with AT&T’s 21MBps HSPA+ 4G network, much like the Xperia PLAY 4G (R800at).


Secondly, the performance numbers from the benchmark put it on a near identical level to the Sony Ericsson LT26i (Nozomi), which also appeared on AnTuTu recently. This probably means that it will come with a dual-core 1.5GHz chipset like Nozomi and could even be the US version of that handset. However, if that were the case we imagine Sony Ericsoon would have used model number LT26at.

Even more confusing is that that the Sony Ericsson LT28i delivered a much, much lower score on the same benchmark (2443 versus 6240 for the LT28at). If the LT28at and LT28i are very different phones (as the benchies suggest), why are the model numbers so similar? If you look at the Xperia PLAY it has a consistent model number (R800i, R800a, R800x, R800at) across variants. We’re still scratching our head on this discrepancy, but we hope it all becomes clear soon.

Via AnTuTu & Xperiablog

More rumours on Sony Ericsson’s next-gen devices – LT22, LT26 and ST25

by XB on December 1, 2011

in News, Rumours

We were recently sent some information on some of Sony Ericsson’s next-generation smartphones that we thought we’d share. This mainly came in the form of a list of high-level specs for three phones: Sony Ericsson LT26 (Nozomi), LT22 (Nypon) and ST25 (Kumquat). We should point out that the source of this information is from a new and unproven contact, so please treat the following firmly as speculation.


The specifications for Nozomi look largely similar to what we’ve seen already. However, what caught our eye is that our source says the phone will launch with Android Gingerbread and be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at some point later. This seems suspect to us, unless Sony Ericsson is planning to launch the phone within the next 6 weeks. Also, we imagine the phone is being designed sans hardware buttons (at least that’s what the leaked photos suggest) and we’re not sure how this would play out with Gingerbread.



Our source also says that Ice Cream Sandwich will be out in May 2012, which is certainly not what Sony Ericsson is saying. The dates rumoured so far are March (by SE Italy) and January (from a Sony employee). May 2012 seems just too far away. However, we’re hearing so many different things at the moment it’s hard to know who to believe.

Moving on to the other handsets, the Nypon will apparently come with a 1GHz dual-core processor and a 4-inch WhiteMagic qHD display. This is the phone that we have been told by a different source will come with the ST-Ericsson U8500 1GHz chipset, so at least that part tallies. The WhiteMagic display is interesting, but we weren’t aware that Sony were mass producing these yet. The press release a few months back only talks of a 3-inch and not 4-inch display. The Nypon will also get 1GB RAM, 16GB ROM and 8MP Exmor R camera. Interestingly the battery capacity is listed at a capacity of only 1320mAh, which seems strange to us considering that near enough every other Xperia phone to date has come with 1500mAh capacity batteries.

Lastly, we have what is likely to be the Xperia mini successor, the ST25 (supposedly codenamed Kumquat). This will also have a 1GHz dual-core processor and will come with a 3.5-inch display. It will also have a 5MP Exmor R camera capable of 720p video recording. See the full spec list below, but as mentioned previously, please treat this all for exactly what it is for now i.e. rumours.

Nozomi (LT26)
1.5GHz dual-core processor
4.3-inch Reality display with Bravia Engine & HD (720 x 1280) resolution
1G RAM & 32G ROM
12MP camera with Exmor R, 1080p full HD video recording & 720p HD front camera
Android Gingerbread on launch and will upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich later
1750mAh battery

Nypon (LT22)
1GHz dual-core processor
4.0-inch Reality display with Bravia Engine, WhiteMagic display & qHD Resolution
1G RAM & 16G ROM
8MP camera with Exmor R, 1080p full HD video recording & 720p HD front camera
Android Gingerbread on launch and will upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich later
1320mAh battery

Kumquat (ST25)
1GHz dual-core processor
3.5-inch Reality display with Bravia Engine
5MP camera with Exmor R, 720p HD video recording
Android Gingerbread on launch and will upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich later

Thanks X-Leaker!

New Nozomi pic surfaces; to be called Xperia Cloud?

by XB on November 30, 2011

in News,Rumours

A new picture of what is supposedly the Sony Ericsson LT26i ‘Nozomi’ has emerged. It is a tiny photo (which we have blown up below) and looks like it was taken from a crop of a Sony Ericsson spec sheet. The picture looks very similar to the recently leaked Nozomi photos at the beginning of the month.

Interestingly, this new picture seems to suggest that the name of the handset will be called the Xperia Cloud (at least that’s what it looks like to us). You can also half-see a list of specs on the right side which includes the fact that this handset will have a candybar form factor and come with a dual-core processor. The picture appears to show the handset running Android ICS with typical SE UI colours. This could very well be a fake, you can judge for yourself below. We’ll bring you more news as we have it. 

Thanks adsada!

Exclusive: Sony Ericsson Nozomi landing in March 2012 with a powerful 1.5GHz dual-core, 4.3-inch 720p screen.

by XB on September 2, 2011
in News,Rumours

One of our insider Sony Ericsson sources has been in touch recently to give us some more details on what will be the company’s hero phone for 2012. Nozomi will be armed with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32GB internal storage and a monster 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution. This would give it a pixel density of 342 PPI, above that of the iPhone 4 at 326 PPI.

Nozomi will be the first Sony Ericsson phone to come with a micro-SIM and will have no memory card options. It will also come with NFC and a 1750mAh battery. The phone is currently scheduled for a March 2012 release , which would make sense as this is when the company normally launches its new ‘Hero’ phones i.e. the Xperia X10 was launched in March 2010 and the Xperia arc / PLAY was launched in March 2011.


It goes without saying that we’d classify all of this firmly under the rumour category for now and our source says that some of the specifications are subject to change. We wouldn’t normally speculate without hard proof but this source has given some credible information in the past so we have no reason to doubt.

Thanks tipster!

Rumour titbits: Sony Ericsson Nozomi is global phone

by XB on August 25, 2011
in News,Rumours

An anonymous tipster has got in touch with a few bits of information regarding future handsets. First up, he says that the Sony Ericsson Nozomi, the next Sony Ericsson flagship rumoured to run a 1.4GHz processor and sport a 4.3-inch 720p display, will not only see release in Japan (through DoCoMo with model number SO-02D) but will also be released globally. It will come with the model number LT26i / LT26a.


Secondly, we recently wrote about the Sony Ericsson SK19 suggesting it could be a Xperia ray pro. However, he says this model is now cancelled. It was a keyboard slide phone being developed for AT&T in the US and would have sat in between the Xperia mini pro and Xperia pro. The reason we trust him? He told us all about the Xperia neo V before today’s announcement including the difference between it and the Xperia neo. We’ll bring you more news as we have it.

Thanks tipster!

Sony Ericsson SK19i unearthed – Xperia ray pro in development?

by XB on August 21, 2011
in News,Rumours

It may hard to believe but yet another new Sony Ericsson model number has been discovered via a benchmark. The AnTuTu Benchmark registered a ‘SK19i’ handset, a model number we’ve not come across so far. What we can tell from the benchmark is that the handset runs on Android 2.3.3 and has a 1GHz processor, very much in line with the current Xperia line-up.

 We would guess that this handset has a 3-inch display and sits slightly above the mini family. In fact if you look at the Xperia ray model number (ST18i) and compare it to the Xperia mini (ST15i) and Xperia mini pro (SK17i) – we can make a sensible guess that the SK19i is a possible keyboard variant of the Xperia ray.

If true, it would be a bit unusual given that one of the virtues of the Xperia ray is its thin aluminium chassis. However, the SK19i could be altogether a different handset. We’ll keep you posted with further developments.

 Via juggly.