Sony rumored to offer only two phones in 2016, neither will debut at CES

By Robert Nazarian December 14, 2015

Sony Xperia Z5 — Simon Hill/Digital Trends

It has taken a few years for manufacturers to figure out that offering a zillion different smartphones doesn’t translate into profits. The only company that has been effective at doing that is Samsung, but that is only because the company spends a lot on marketing.

Sony is no different than the rest of the Android manufacturers in that its profits are mostly non-existent. So much so that it was rumored that the company would scrap the mobile division altogether. However, it looks like Sony will give the sector another try, but with the plan of simplifying things.

A new report says Sony will offer only two phones in 2016. Not much is known about these phones, except that they appear to be high-end devices. Supposedly both will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which is likely to be in most flagship phones next year. They will also allegedly sport all new designs featuring a heavy dose of metal.

The report also claims that the first phone will be unveiled in June 2016, and the other in October 2016. Assuming this report is true, it would mean that Sony would have nothing new to show at CES in January 2016 or Mobile World Congress in February 2016.

Previous rumors indicated that Sony would offer up to five phones in 2016, which would be the Xperia Z6, Xperia Z6 Plus, Xperia Z6 Ultra, Xperia Z6 Mini, and Xperia Z6 Compact. Supposedly four of these handsets would be powered by the same Snapdragon 820 processor.

It’s not clear if the phones referred to in this newer report will fall under the Xperia Z6 naming scheme, but we suspect they will. The most probable choices would be the Xperia Z6 and the Xperia Z6 Compact.

Offering fewer devices lessens the confusion for consumers, but Sony still needs to market its products and figure out how to get a better presence in the U.S. to succeed in the mobile business. The most recent failure was the Xperia Z4V, which was supposed to make a big splash on Verizon’s network over the summer, but was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Let’s hope things change for the struggling manufacturer in 2016, because the Xperia phones are some of the best handsets available today.

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Robert Nazarian

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

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