Giant Sony Xperia 1 V or new Xperia Ultra model hit rumor mill for 2023 but translated source wildly hints at foldable Xperia phone

There have already been some wild rumors flying around about the 2023 Xperia lineup and we now have a simple alleged leak, which apparently comes from the Chinese site Weibo, that has sparked considerable speculation about what Sony might have in mind. The text does hint that either the Sony Xperia 1 V will have a huge display or that the Japanese manufacturer might reintroduce its Xperia Ultra smartphones. However, machine translation of the Chinese text does throw up an intriguing word in some cases: “flip”.

It appears the world’s largest OLED manufacturer (so BOE) is planning on producing a 6.95-inch display without “perforation” (punch-hole). The information (via Reddit) has led to the thought that Sony might either launch a 6.95-inch Xperia 1 V, which seems unlikely, or bring back the Ultra series, which is more likely. The Xperia 1 IV is already a substantial 6.5-inch monster, so SumahoDigest’s opinion of an Ultra revival has more credibility. There have been a few Xperia Ultra phones over the years, and the Xperia Z Ultra from 2013 had a similar 6.9-inch height (but a 6.44-inch display thanks to some serious bezels).

Another tech tipster has labelled this rumored device as the “Xperia 1 Ultra”, with BOE known for supplying Sony with OLED panels. However, when the Chinese text is run through machine translation tools (two different sites used), the text reads “6.95-inch 4K flip display” ("flip up" on Google Translate). This could imply plans for an Xperia Flip phone, with the display size being more akin to that of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 at 6.7 inches. But before Xperia fans get too carried away with yet another wild rumor for 2023, it needs to be remembered that BOE provides displays for lots of companies and has even produced a foldable panel for a smartphone before, for the Honor Magic V.

Buy the Sony Xperia 1 III on Amazon