Coming soon: Sony Xperia XZ Pro with 4k screen and Snapdragon 845 to be unveiled at MWC

Hopefully, the rumoured Sony Xperia XZ Pro will be more of a looker than some of its recent offerings

Sony is set to unveil its next flagship smartphone, the Xperia XZ Pro, next month at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show.

That's according to rumours doing the rounds on the internet.

Chinese site MyDrivers claims that the so-called Sony Xperia XZ Pro will be unveiled in Barcelona in February as the successor to last year's Xperia XZ Premium.

The website also claims to have got its hands on the smartphone's specs. If legit, the XZ Pro's standout feature will be its 5.7in 4K OLED display, improving on the XZ Premium's LCD offering. This screen will also be largely bezel-less, unlike previous Sony flagships.

Hopefully, Sony has learnt from stinging criticism of the so-so aesthetics of its current range of otherwise decent smartphones.

Qualcomm's 10nm Snapdragon 845 processor will provide the power, despite speculation that Samsung had first dibs on the SoC for its Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus processor, which will come paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB built-in storage. There's also a microSD slot onboard, according to the report, and a beefy 3,420mAh battery.

On the photography front, expect a dual camera setup comprising of an 18MP shooter with a 1.33μm pixel size and a 12MP camera with a 1.38μm pixel size. The front-facing camera is said to weight in at 13MP, but no further details have yet been revealed.

The Sony Xperia XZ Pro will also pack an IP68-certified chassis and will ship with Android 8.1 Oreo.

MyDrivers claims that the handset will require buyers to lay down 6000 yuan ($930, £675) when it goes on sale, but no release date has been confirmed yet.

This MWC launch will follow Sony's underwhelming CES unveiling, where it revealed a trio of ho-hum mid-range smartphones: the Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra and Xperia L2.

The highlight of the middling lineup is the Xperia XA2, which packs a 5.2in Full HD screen, a Snapdragon 630 processor paired with 3GB RAM and a 23MP rear-facing camera, complete with hybrid autofocus, support for 4K video recording plus 120fps slow-motion shooting.