Sony teases a long-overdue return to Xperia gaming phones
Just last week, Sony made waves at IFA 2022 with theXperia 5 IV— one of the few phones at the event that really caught our attention. While we already have our concerns about howless-than-competitive pricing could deter buyersfrom picking up that model, Sony may be considering an even more premium (and more expensive) tier for its next Xperia. It’s been years since we’ve seen a proper gaming phone from Sony, but it sounds like a new one could be right around the corner, according to a new Twitter teaser.
Sony tweets that it’s gota new Xperia device announcementslated for Monday, September 12. The teaser shows off a member of the Japanese e-sports team Scarz using the device — but of course stops short of letting us get a good peek at the hardware. The company talks about making the device for professional gamers and streamers, but reveals nothing about the technical specifications or any noteworthy features we might expect.
It seems likely that whatever Sony’s planning, it will be pretty far removed from the old Xperia Play — and even thatprototype follow-up we never got. Based on the brief look we get here, it appears that there could be some kind of shoulder-trigger button input, though the implementation is unclear. Others have noted that the silhouette sure seems to resemble the handheldcooling accessorySony teased earlier this year. Whether that might finally arrive alongside this upcoming gaming phone, we can’t say, but taken together this all feels like evidence towards the company’s growing interest in capitalizing on the gaming-smartphone market.
Will Sony end up introducing some hardware that feels a lot like theASUS ROG Phone 6Dor theNubia RedMagic 6S Pro Ghost? Like we said, this probably won’t be a direct sequel to the decade-old Xperia Play, and we expect either a refreshed gamer-y design of an existing Xperia model, or some entirely new hardware.
One thing seems certain, though: Based on how Sony has positioned its most recent Xperia phones, this one’s probably going to cost a fair chunk of change — a four-figure sticker price does not sound at all out of character. Hopefully we’ll get the full picture on release plans early next week.
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