Even though Sony's flagship Xperia Z3 smartphone was just revealed at the IFA trade show in September, speculation and rumors have already begun for next year's Xperia Z4.
Smartphone concept artist Ben Ling has compiled a render of what he expects the Xperia Z4 to look like, based on rumored specs and what this fall's Z3 is already bringing to the table.
Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 810 processor is already creating buzz after the company revealed its newest chip earlier this year, and its expected to come loaded on the Z4 at launch. The 64-bit quad-core processor allows for improvements all around, including better video, longer battery life, and new ways to interact with your phone.
A rumored 6.3-inch display with ultra HD 4k resolution would blow away current smartphones, especially when paired with scratch-proof Corning Gorilla Glass 3. As the "phablet" (phone/tablet) word gets thrown around a lot with larger smartphones, this 6.3-inch size would make sense with current trends.
A fingerprint scanner is also rumored, catching the line up with other high-end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 6. Waterproofing and dustproofing should be standard on all smartphones by 2015, so it's almost guaranteed that the Z4 will come equipped with at least a 100-meter waterproofing standard. But it's the battery that may be the most impressive, coming in at a whopping 5,000 mAh.
Sony is well known for its quality device cameras, so a 27-megapixel camera is rumored to come standard with the Z4. The rear will come grouped with a dual LED flash, and the front-facing camera is expected to be at least 10 megapixels as video conferencing is enjoying a comeback.
As for software, by the time the Z4 launches, some are even expecting the latest version of Android to be out. Rumored to be called Android Milkshake, there's no news yet on what Android M would offer, but it would certainly be an interesting combo, while inevitably pushing the release date even further down to the end of 2015 after Google's own flagship devices get the software first.
Speaking of which, many insiders are guesstimating that the Z4 will launch around September of 2015 for the U.S., while possibly earlier for the rest of the world. The Z3 was just released last week in the U.S., while parts of Asia saw it as early as September 19, so that may be a healthy indicator of what's to come next year.
The same holds true for the Z4's price as we can probably expect a $200-300 price range on a two-year contract. The current Z3 is $199 on Verizon's two-year package, so we don't expect that to go up too much more, even with the better specs.
