While it doesn’t come close to the hype surrounding an Apple Keynote or Samsung Unpacked event, the upcoming announcement of the Sony Xperia 1 V smartphone has many users anticipating its release. After all, this device is quite unlike the other range-topping smartphones we have right now in the market. Here’s why that is so, as well as some leaks of its design.

The Sony Xperia 1 V is following up on its predecessor which was also a unique pick in the market. Most notable is its unusually narrow and tall display dimensions, with a resolution of 1644 x 3840 pixels, and a 21:9 aspect ratio. It’s also the one of, if not the very last flagship device that comes with microSD card expansion – a feature that others consider a considerable matter of importance.

Its camera system shocked many last year when it was announced to be the first smartphone to have “continuous optical zoom.” What this meant was that its focal range of 85mm to 125mm (3.5x-5x optical zoom) allowed users to select their own focal length between the short end and long end of the telephoto camera just like in a normal camera.

This upcoming Sony Xperia 1 V model is touted to come with either the IMX 989 or 858 in-house sensors for the main cameras. Since the marketing jargon on this leaked billboard claims that the smartphone will have a “next-generation Double-Low Noise Sensor,” most are leaning towards the 858 and its more optimized low-light performance. It’s expected to come with increased dynamic range and reduced noise in more difficult conditions. Check out the leaks by ONLEAKS and GREENSMARTPHONE above.

The leaked design suggests that a camera system upgrade is imminent due to the increased size of the module.

Besides that, the design is expectedly similar. We can also expect the Sony Xperia 1 V to come with the usual flagship specs for this year including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and other slight improvements over its predecessor.

What do you think?