A new budget Sony Xperia smartphone or a return for Ultra handsets could be on the cards

Sony has just launched the Xperia 1 III and 5 III flagship smartphones alongside the midrange Xperia 10 III to firmly indicate that the Xperia line is far from finished with. Perhaps surprisingly, it appears the Japanese company may yet have another Xperia-branded device to show off to the world yet, thanks to a somewhat cryptic message posted by the leaker ZACKBUKS on Chinese social media.

The machine translation of the relevant post reveals that Sony has been wise to launch the Xperia flagships now as it gives some time before “the new U release”, which will also apparently come earlier than expected. It’s made clear that “this year’s flagships” are the Xperia 1 III and 5 III, so it begs the question what this Sony Xperia U could be. With Sony’s current usage of mostly numbers for phone models, this “U” device could easily turn into an Xperia 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, or something else.

While one source has speculated that the “U” could indicate an “Ultra” variant of a phone, it’s also just as possible that it could be a new budget Sony Xperia. The last Ultra device was the Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra from 2018, which offered a larger display, more RAM and storage, bigger battery, and one more front-facing camera than its A2 relative. However, it’s also possible the “U” phone could be a refresh of the Xperia L4, which came out in April 2020 and is aimed at users on a budget.