Trend-setting Sony Xperia 1 IV gets cryptic teaser and official announcement date
Even though the Snapdragon 888-powered Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III were barely released stateside in August 2021 and January 2022 respectively, the time has (almost) come for Sony to unveil its next direct rival(s) to Apple's premium iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy S family.
Today's confirmation of a new Xperia product announcement on May 11 doesn't come as a big surprise, however, given that the two aforementioned high-end handsets were formally unveiled all the way back on April 14, 2021 alongside the mid-range Xperia 10 III.
As if teasing the arrival of the "Next ONE" in the company's line of super-premium mobile devices didn't make it clear enough what we should expect to see showcased for the first time in a couple of weeks, Sony is quickly recapping the world-first achievements of the Xperia 1, 1 II, and 1 III in the short video embedded below.
This all but guarantees the recently rendered Xperia 1 IV will be the protagonist of the May 11 launch event, presumably bringing with it a unique or unrivaled feature or technology of some sort. Curiously enough, there's no mention or allusion here of the Xperia 10 IV, which was itself leaked in high-quality and high-confidence renders not long ago, or a high-end Xperia 5 IV rumored at one point to pack a next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus processor.
While it's probably too early to jump to conclusions, that might mean the Xperia 1 IV will fly solo to this event, which wouldn't exactly hurt the flagship's chances of grabbing more attention than its forerunners and maybe even making a quicker commercial debut.
Barring a huge surprise, this bad boy should be powered by the same "regular" Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 silicon as Samsung's Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra while more or less retaining the trend-defying design of the extra-tall 6.5-inch Xperia 1 III.
If that sounds interesting to you, Sony unsurprisingly plans to live-stream its May 11 announcement on YouTube starting at 4 pm Japan time, which is 9 am CEST, midnight Pacific, and 3 am on the US East Coast. Clearly, this is not an event meant to generate a lot of American buzz, but if history is any indication, the Xperia 1 IV is surely destined to go on sale stateside... sooner or later.
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