Sony has announced that a new Xperia is coming on May 13 – but much of the teaser for the upcoming camera phone focuses instead on Sony’s flagship mirrorless camera.
The brief teaser doesn’t offer many solid details for the next Sony Xperia, outside the official launch date and a brief glimpse at the back of the smartphone. But the teaser’s focus on the Sony A1 II could spark some speculation on the phone’s camera specifications.
The teaser opens with a brief outline of a smartphone, but then moves into a view of a Sony mirrorless camera. The A1 label is clearly visible in the teaser, and the camera’s grip looks more similar to the A1 II than the original.
ABOVE: The Sony Xperia announcement is set for May 13
The teaser then goes into a glimpse of a Sony G-series telephoto lens, before showing a close-up of the aperture dial on a 50mm f/1.2 lens. The video then shows a brief glimpse of the back of a smartphone, before announcing the launch time as May 13 2025 at 04:00 EST / 09:00 BST / 18:00 AEST.
While Sony doesn’t explicitly state the name of the smartphone model, the launch time is timed a year after the launch of the Sony Xperia 1 VI. The teaser also uses the tagline “next ONE is coming”.
Sony has borrowed tech from its Alpha mirrorless series for its phones before. The Sony Xperia 1 IV webpage includes photos of the smartphone with the Sony A1 and some lenses in the background. That smartphone boasts 20fps AF / AE HDR burst shooting and Sony’s Real-Time Eye AF.
While the teaser implies that the next smartphone launch could be heavily focused on photography features, the comparison could refer to software, hardware, or a mix of both. The Xperia 1 IV already boasted shooting speeds up to 20fps in HDR, but perhaps the next model could edge more towards the 30 fps of the A1 II.
But the inclusion of the different interchangeable lenses is even more curious. One of the more impressive features on the Xperia 1 IV is the 85-120mm zoom lens; the inclusion of a Sony telephoto lens in the teaser suggests more of the same.
Does the close-up of the aperture ring on a 50mm f/1.2 lens imply a brighter lens? Or perhaps a physical control like the iPhone’s camera control button?
Of course, the allusion to the Sony A1 II could be about video features, not just still photography. The lack of a pro-grade video mode was one of the complaints we had in our Sony Xperia 1 VI review – fans probably wouldn’t mind if the latest smartphone edges more towards the A1 II’s 8K 30p specifications.
While the teaser is some serious fodder for speculation about Sony’s next smartphone, the brief glimpse of the back of the camera shows a camera bar with a similar placement to the Xperia 1 IV.
The video closes with the smartphone in the center of a triangle with the Sony a1 II on one point, a TV, and what looks like a Walkman on the other two points – making it likely that the camera isn’t the only product that Sony is borrowing from for the upcoming smartphone.
Fans won’t have to wait long to see if the teaser-feed speculation is on track. The next Sony Xperia launch is planned for May 13 on the Xperia YouTube channel.
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