It’s still not entirely clear that smartphone buyers are willing to go against the grain and forgo more popular devices en masse in favor of a specialty handset focused on the camera, but that won’t stop several top-tier smartphone makers from trying. Samsung tried it with the Galaxy S4 Zoom but we haven’t heard much about it since it launched. Nokia tried it with the Lumia 1020 and while it’s far too soon to know how the handset will fare, early signs aren’t great. Next up to the plate: Sony.
Earlier reports suggested that Sony is prepping a monster camera phone of its own code-named “Honami” that will launch as an Xperia Android phone in the coming months. We have even seen a few purported images of the device leak. Now, a senior manager at Sony Mobile in Taiwan has reportedly published a photo taken with the 20-megapixel Honami on photo-sharing site Picasa.
Beyond the new camera, the Honami is rumored to feature a 5-inch full HD display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, a microSD slot and a battery sized somewhere between 2,700 mAh and 3,000 mAh. Sony is holding a press conference at IFA on September 4th, where the new smartphone may debut.
The photo seemingly captured by Sony exec Taylor Li follows below alongside its EXIF data.