Now that 2015 is coming to close, it is natural to start thinking forward to 2016 and imagining what delights Sony Mobile is in store for us. Unfounded rumours recently did the rounds talking about five new ‘Xperia Z6’ models that could land next year including a 4-inch Xperia Z6 Mini (X45), 4.6-inch Z6 Compact (X55), 5.2-inch Z6 (X60), 5.8-inch Z6 Plus (X65) and 6.4-inch Z6 Ultra (X50).
Suffice to say, we did not report on this as the news does not sync with what we have heard from our own sources. Plus, it would be quite unprecedented to launch a flagship model with five different screen sizes. We’re not convinced that consumers need to choose between so many screen ranges when choosing a flagship – a small, normal and larger models are good enough.
Anyway, the latest news here, goes against the above rumour validating what we have already heard. T-Mobile Poland recently held a press conference and included one very interesting slide. It shows a plan of when new smartphones from Sony, Samsung, LG, Microsoft and HTC will launch during the first half of 2016.
The slide confirms that new Samsung Galaxy and Microsoft Lumia models will launch in the middle of Q1 2016, with a new HTC One model launching at the end of that quarter. LG will then launch new models at the start of Q2 2016, with finally Sony releasing two new Xperia devices at the end of that quarter i.e. not before June 2016.
Of course, we may see a new Sony Xperia announcement sooner than launch, perhaps at the MWC tradeshow in Barcelona, which takes place in late February. But if they are truly going for a summer launch, we imagine Sony may opt to go for a dedicated event at a later date.
If this turns out to be true, would you be glad that Sony is pacing its flagship smartphone launches a bit better? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.
Thanks Cezary!
