The very first Sony Xperia 1 V image appears

The very first Sony Xperia 1 V image has just surfaced, and it’s a live image (shown below the article). It’s showing Sony’s upcoming flagship smartphone. This image actually does say a lot, even though it’s a bit cropped out. It does show us the back side of the phone only, so keep that in mind.

The very first Sony Xperia 1 V image is here, and it seems to be legit

Now, if you place this image side-by-side with the Xperia 1 IV, you’ll notice some differences. The most obvious difference is the size of the camera sensors. They sure look bigger than the ones on the Xperia 1 IV, well, at least the top two.

You’ll also notice that the ToF camera and the RGB IR sensors are gone entirely. We now have three camera sensors on the back, and the camera layout does look cleaner because of it.

One of those three cameras is the periscope camera. It’s the sensors at the bottom, the third in line. All three of those camera sensors lie inside a tall camera island that sits in the top-left corner of the phone’s back.

That camera island also has an LED flash, and you’ll notice the ZEISS branding as well. ZEISS’ optics are used here, as the company partners with Sony as it does with Vivo.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will fuel this handset

Now, based on a tipster, the phone will be fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. That is to be expected, as Sony uses Qualcomm’s most powerful chip (at the time) every year, for every one of its flagships.

So, when will this phone launch? Well, the Sony Xperia 1 IV arrived in May last year, while it went on sale in June. The same may happen this year, though some rumors suggest it will launch at MWC 2023.

If that ends up happening, we’ll see it launched at the end of this month. That may seem a little soon, but MWC seems to be coming back in full force, so Sony may be tempted to launch its flagship in Barcelona.

Unfortunately, that’s all the information we have at the moment. We don’t have any more spec info or anything of the sort. Chances are more details will surface soon, though.