Photography News Blog: Xperia

Tuesday, 6 August 2013

The Xperia Z's successor should be out in at least one place by year's end

If that's really the Sony Xperia i1, there may be 20 megapixels jammed into that camera (credit: JustAMP)

Details of Sony's expected next flagship phone emerged today, and it seems that the Sony Xperia i1 (codenamed "Honami") may arrive in at least one country by the end of the year.

Sony Korea CEO Kenji Sakai said that the Xperia Z successor is due in the country before the end of 2013, Korean site Economic Daily reported.

The phone's main draw will be its 20-megapixel camera, according to rumors, though that still places it at half the MP of Nokia's recently unveiled Lumia 1020.

The Sony Xperia i1 "Honami" will supposedly be the first of many in a new line of Sony handsets equipped with high-quality cameras.

The Xperia Z is going on sale in the U.S. starting this week, while it's been in the U.K. for some time already.

Sony is apparently not content with the Xperia Z and the Xperia Z Ultra, the latter of which ups the screen size well into phablet territory at 6.4 inches.

Rumors of the unannounced next device popped up most recently at the end of June, when some alleged Xperia i1 photos materialized online.

The rumor at that point was the phone called "Honami" would debut on July 4, but that obviously didn't pan out.

Current speculation holds that Sony may lift the veil off the Xperia i1/Honami at its Sept. 4 press event during IFA 2013 in Berlin.

Via Phone Arena

Monday, 5 August 2013

Sony Xperia Honami's new camera UI may enable Facebook live streaming

AR dinosaurs!

Sony will debut its brand new, feature-packed camera interface to harness the rumoured 20-megapixel camera on its next flagship 'Honami' phone, leaked snaps seem to confirm.

The Gadget Helpline site, which brought us leaked snaps of the device (aka Xperia 1i) last week, has now posted pics of the new camera UI, previously outed by XDA developers earlier this month, running on the device.

The new pics showcase the new Timeshift Burst mode, which enables users to select 'the best moment' from a selection of pictures, while there's also a new Effects & Filters post-production screen.

The AR Effect mode, which will could enable Augmented Reality images to be superimposed onto pictures, is also pictured running on the device. The example pictured above showcases a dinosaur walking across the frame. Scary.

Another significant new feature mentioned, but not pictured, is Social Live which, TGH claimed, will facilitate live video streaming to Facebook.

There's also another look at a second AR feature called Info-Eye, which will enable users to discover more about their surroundings by using the device's camera.

Sony is yet to officially confirm 'Honami' or 'Xperia 1i' or whatever it decides to call it, but the device is likely to succeed the impressive Xperia Z phone.

Recent speculation has pointed to a 5-inch Full HD display, 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip, Qualcomm Adreno 330 graphics, 2GB of memory, 16GB of storage, microSD, LTE and NFC support.