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Is a top-notch photo-blower the new must-have for every aspiring phone-maker? It certainly seems like it. Pics and other purported details have appeared online for Sony’s rumoured Xperia i1 camera phone, and as well as its whopping 20-megapixel camera, it looks to take on the likes of the Nokia Lumia 1020 and Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom with some serious speccage.
These rumoured specs and the leaked pic above come courtesy of Taiwanese site ePrice, so let’s not treat them as gospel, but they’re not beyond the realms of possibility and paint an intriguing picture.
Let’s start with the camera. Its 20.7 megapixels are spread across a 1/2.3-inch sensor, which is the same size as you’ll find in many compact cameras. By comparison, the iPhone 5 (which is one of the best phones for photos at the moment) uses a tiny 1/3.2-inch image sensor, whereas the Lumia 1020 boasts an impressive 1/1.5 inch effort.
Its screen is similar to the one on the Xperia Z, a 5-inch 1080p display with some of Sony’s proprietary tech. ‘Triluminos’ and ‘X-Reality’ are the buzzwords attached to this one, although in reality that’ll mean very little.
Inside, we’re looking at a top of the range Snapdragon 800 quad-core chip, a real beast of a thing that so far has only appeared in the massive Sony Xperia Z Ultra, LG Optimus G2 and the Korea-only LTE-Advanced version of the Galaxy S4.
That’s backed up by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD. There’s supposedly a fairly hefty 3,000mAh battery and a decent 2-megapixel camera for Full HD video calls. 4G and NFC are a given.
ePrice reckons we’ll get our hands on this epic gadget at IFA, an annual tech show in Berlin at the start of September. CNET will be there mob-handed, and I’m very excited to see if Sony can continue its good run of recent Android mobiles. I’ll be even more interested to see how the Xperia i1 measures up against the S4 Zoom and Lumia 1020 in camera tests.
What do you make of these rumoured specs? Too good to be true? Too powerful to be affordable? Is the camera the be-all and end-all of a great phone? Show your thinking in the comments, or over on our photo-packed Facebook page.
Image credit: ePrice
