First VAIO smartphone rumored to be announced on March 12

Back in February 2014, Sony announced that it sold its VAIO brand to Japan Industrial Partners in order to better focus on smartphones and mobile in general. Although in the past Sony reserved the VAIO branding for its stylish high-end notebooks, we're now hearing that the new owner of the brand is getting ready to release the first VAIO smartphone.

Back in December 2014, rumor broke out that VAIO smartphones are on their way to the market, but now we have more detailed information. According to Japanese tech publication "Blog of Mobile", the official announcement of the first VAIO smartphone could come on the 12th of March, about a week after Mobile World Congress 2015 ends in Barcelona.

According to the source, the first VAIO smartphone will not be the high-end handset that many are probably expecting. Instead, the smartphone is said to feature specs such as a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, a 64-bit quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor paired with 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of integrated storage space. As far as the cameras are concerned, the VAIO smartphone is said to feature a 13MP primary camera on the back and a 5MP secondary sensor on the front. On the software side, the VAIO handset is expected to be based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the latest version of Android currently available.

The Japanese tech blog also notes that, during the March 12th event, VAIO could also release other new devices. A few weeks ago, VAIO announced its first notebooks since JPI bought the brand from Sony, the exquisite but very expensive VAIO Z and VAIO Z Canvas. At the moment, it is unknown if VAIO will launch the smartphone outside of its home market of Japan.

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