The design of the Xperia 5 Plus looks like the biggest upgrade in comparison with the previous Sony flagship, and it looks very, very ellegant. From the looks of it, the phone could be one of the most forward-thinking and modern phones. The display of the phone doesn’t have any interruptions, no notches or punch-holes to accomodate the venerable selfie camera. The latter is housed in the relatively thin top bezel of the phone, which doesn’t seem to be such a big deal. 

Speaking of the display, it seems to be utilizing the 21:9 ratio that the Xperia 1 introduced more less than a year ago, making up for one tall phone. The display itself is said to be a 6.6-inch OLED panel, a 0.1-inch increase over the Xperia 1, which falls in line with our expectations. The display will most certainly be a 4K HDR OLED one, building onto the foundation laid out by the Xperia 1 last year. 

Instead of a trendy, yet hit-or-miss in-display fingerprint scanner, Sony will likely opt for a traditional fingerprint scanner on the right side of the phone. It might not be as cutting edge as those ultrasonic and optical scanners, or as convenient as a three-dimensional face-detecting biometric, but will probably be way more reliable.

Speaking of old-school design choices, Sony is seemingly vowing to keep the dedicated shutter button on the side for easier photo snapping, but did you know that the next Xperia flagship… might even score a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top? It’s been a few years since we last saw one of those on a Sony flagship, but it seems that the Japan-based company is willing to go back to its roots in order to flirt with its fanbase. 

Hardware

In terms of hardware, it would make the most sense for Sony to use the latest Snapdragon 865 chipset in its next flagship, paired with at least 8GB of RAM and an ample amount of storage, hopefully 128GB or more. 5G support will most certainly be on board as well. Hopefully, a nice sizeable battery would be included at the rear, but thanks to Stamina mode, battery life has never really been a big issue for Sony phones.

Camera

Honestly, we would have been totally surprised if we saw anything but a triple-camera system at the rear of the Xperia 5 Plus. The now-standard wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto setup will be vertically positioned at the top left side at the back of the phone. To top things up, we have a Time of Flight sensor, which should help capture better portraits. Meanwhile, the selfie camera at the front is tipped to be an 8MP one, which sounds kind of lackluster in comparison with other contemporary phones, but let’s not forget megapixels don’t matter that much. Features-wise, the CineAlta-powered Creator Mode with manual video controls is very, very likely to make the cut. Hopefully, the eye-tracking autofocus system makes the cut too, 

Price and release date