Sony Xperia Honami

Sony Xperia Honami specs, price, release date rumours

We check out all the latest rumours surrounding the Sony Xperia i1 'Honami', including specs, price and release date

According to rumors, it has a 1/1.5 inches 20MP Exmor RS camera with Xenon and dual LED flashlights, based on Cyber-shot camera UI. And the Honami also feature 5 inches 1080p display, 2.3GHz snapdragon MSM8974 processor, 2GB RAM/32GB ROM, 3000mAh battery, Android 4.2.2 and LTE 4G supports.

The Honami features a 5" 1080P display, Snapdragon 800 processor, F/1.6 20MP camera, and 2.1MP front-facing camera and irremovable battery.

Much of the spotlight is currently on Sony’s forthcoming 6.4-inch Xperia ZU or Xperia Z Ultra phablet device, but that’s not the only thing the company’s got cooking. When the Xperia ZU first leaked (as the ‘Togari’) it was side-by-side with the ‘Honami’, a device more recently known as the Sony Xperia i1.

The Xperia i1 might not have the fancy stylus input or be large enough to balance a kitten on its glass fascia, but it’s still boasting a premium spec line-up, a sizeable 5-inch 1080p display and its party trick is that is has a much better set of camera tech than the Xperia ZU.

Design

New photos of the Sony Honami have leaked online, showing off a completely different design to the leaked render detailed below.

The newest leaks show off a single flash, rather than the double flash in the very PR-looking render, a camera shutter key on one side alongside a power button and a microSD card slot and microSIM card slot on the other.

There also seems to be some kind of contact charging solution, but this may be an unfinished port that will be finessed before the launch of the device.

• Sony Honami prototype pictures leaked

Here's the PR render we spoke about above for a comparison:

However, there may yet be differences from the Xperia Z and Xperia ZU, if some claims made by leak's sources are correct. According to svartling.net the Xperia i1 is the first handset designed under Sony’s ‘One Sony’ mantra – an approach intended to tie in its entire product range from here-on out. We’d previously heard of the One Sony concept but to be honest we weren’t aware that the Xperia Z and Xperia ZU weren’t already part of it. Only Sony knows for sure.

At any rate you can expect something pretty slick and premium looking. Sony’s allegedly using glass, metal and carbon fibre for the bodywork and as with the company’s other recent offerings it’ll be IP55 and IP58 certified up the wazoo for water, dust and impact resistance.

• Sony Honami will have 20-MP camera, metal and glass body
• Sony Honami smartphone and Togari phablet details leak

Update 25/06/2013:

A render has emerged online which may or may not be a genuine Sony product snap. The new picture shows a a Sony Xperia branded device with a large camera sensor on the rear panel and a virtually edge-to-edge display.

• Sony Xperia i1 Honami render emerges online

While the handset, believed to be the Xperia i1 Honami, does have some similar design features to existing Xperia models it does look to sport a smoother, sleeker design with less silver trim. Although with that said, it does still have a very angular profile with sharp corners.

Pictures alleged to be official product renders of the Xperia i1 Honami have emerged, said to have come from a system dump from the device itself. 

Interestingly they pretty much match up with the PR render leaked previously and show a very angular device with a fairly prominent lip on the surround, this time coloured silver.

Display

Being a Sony device, and a high-end one at that, you can expect something pretty jazzy when it comes to the touchscreen and the leaked specs and rumours don’t fail to disappoint. It’s been said from day one it’ll sport a 5-inch Full HD 1080p display in-line with the current trends. Specifically the resolution is that magical 1920x1080 pixel setup we’ve seen used before to great effect.

It doesn’t end there though. Sony has a boatload of extra technology layers employed here, according to rumours, including OptiContrast for better blacks, dark tones and, funnily enough, contrast. There’s also the X-Reality Engine, which is apparently a technology that Sony has built up from the Mobile Bravia Engine 2 we saw on previous devices.

As with the Bravia Engine, the X-Reality engine enhances overall image quality, sharpness and particularly improves colours. An additional boost to colour quality comes in the form of Triluminos display technology, something which is rumoured for both the Xperia i1 and Xperia ZU. This tech allegedly produces more vivid and natural colours then conventional displays.

Hardware

The internal ‘running gear’ is pegged to be pretty competitive and it looks like Sony is making a serious push to knock Samsung off its perch. We’ve heard multiple rumours that the Xperia i1 will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core chip paired with an Adreno 330 graphics processing unit (GPU) and 2GB of RAM.

Needless to say you can expect this to be pretty rapid indeed for running all the latest Google Play content – benchmarks recently emerged from the Sony Xperia ZU (also running a Qualcomm 800) and it wiped the floor with everything, including an allegedly in-development Qualcomm 800-powered Samsung Galaxy S4.

We don’t know what the clockspeed will be yet but we do know the Qualcomm 800 chip can go as high as 2.3GHz, which is pretty zippy.

According to leaks the Xperia i1 will have more internal storage space than the Xperia ZU, with 32GB onboard and it’ll also have a microSD slot for expanding this further. Connectivity is pegged to include NFC (with one-touch sharing), Wi-Fi, Miracast, 4G, infrared and Bluetooth. While nothing has been specifically mentioned in leaks or rumours we can also likely expect MHL, microUSB and GPS to be added to that list.

The battery pack is thought to be fairly hefty, which is good news as the Xperia Z suffered from poor battery life. The Xperia i1 packs a 3,000mAh unit. Other perks include dual stereo speakers powered by an S-Master MX Mobile Audio Amplifier.

While not revealing anything new, the latest set of details from a leaked system dump does confirm the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip will be appearing inside the Xperia i1 Honami.