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Mystery Sony mobile shows up on forum, has 5.2-inch screen

What could be another spinoff of the Xperia Z1 has shown up on a forum, ahead of its expected debut at Mobile World Congress next month.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
2 min read

Mobile World Congress is just over a month away, and here's one Sony handset we could see announced at the show. I say "could" because this thing is still shrouded in mystery. It looks quite a lot like the Xperia Z1, so it could be another spinoff, or just a prototype that'll never see the light of day.

It showed up over on the XDA Developers forum, with the person posting it claiming it had the model number D6503. They also shared a few of its specs.

We're looking at a 5.2-inch screen, and on the back is a 20.7-megapixel camera. It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, though "it crash [sic] all the time", the poster says, so it could be a prototype or pre-production model.

It's "thinner than the Xperia Z1", and the "screen is much better than Z1", according to the person who's used the handset. The back is made of glass, the sides are metal, and the speaker is on the top. They say there's also no 4K video recording.

The person doesn't say where the phone came from, though they reveal "I am from UK and I got this from one of my friend [sic]".

A Sony spokesperson told me: "We don't comment on rumours or speculation."

Sony has launched a few spinoffs in the Xperia Z range, including the Z Ultra, the Z1 Compact, the ZL and ZR. The Z1 Compact is the most enticing mini mobile I've seen for a while, packing high-end specs into a smaller chassis. (Usually, a mini version of a flagship phone means scrimping on the specs, like in the case of Samsung's Galaxy S4 Mini.)

What do you reckon? And what do you think of Sony's recent mobile devices? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.