Sony Xperia i1 Honami packs 20MP under its hood

Japanese tech giants ,Sony's upcoming cameraphone or (phamera as i say it) flagship has been spotted in few leaked images earlier and now, the specifications of the device have been leaked. Samsung and Nokia have made their camera-smartphone or phamera , how can sony stay back. The Sony Xperia Honami will reportedly sport a 5-inch display of 1080p resolution. The smartphone is going to be powered by a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and feature 2 GB of RAM. The 20 megapixel Exmor RS main camera will feature Sony G-lens and BIONZ image processor, but its sensor will measure 1/2.3" rather than the previously rumored 1/1.6". The impressive snapper will be joined by a 2 megapixel front facing snapper. The smartphone will have 16 GB of expandable storage to save all those shots and will draw its juice from a 3,000mAh battery. Sony Xperia Honami is said to be IP57 certified, which it is completely dust-protected and it will withstand a meter of water for 30 minutes. The Xperia Honami reportedly measures 144 x 73.9 x 8.3mm and will come with a great set of connectivity options along with latest version of the Android OS - 4.2. The upcoming flagship smartphone from Sony is expected to compete against the likes of other camera-phones such asSamsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and, more importantly, the Nokia Lumia 1020. Sony is set to unveil its Honami smartphone at its press event on September 4 at the IFA expo in Berlin. Alongside the mouthwatering processor, screen and camera specs, and now a claimed camera app screenshot from the Honami reveals that a 20 MP unit might be indeed chilling inside Sony's next big thing, just as speculated. At the full resolution, the phone can apparently take 4:3 photos, with 16:9 going down to 8 MP. We still don't know whether there will be some sort of pixel oversampling tech like in Nokia's PureView technology, like it was whispered in the beginning.  With all the latest leaks trickling down, prototypes are obviously in the hands of people that like to brag, so samples shouldn't be far behind. We're a little more than a month away from a flood of gadget news at IFA in Berlin, and we have a sneaking suspicion that the phone's camera UI looks like, and now a leak from the Taiwanese site ePrice says the device has a 20.7-megapixel ExmorRS sensor that's the same size as the one in the Galaxy Camera and other point-and-shoots. It's also paired with a "Sony G-Lens," though hopefully not one as bulbous as some others we've seen. Other specs include a 5-inch 1080p display with the same Triluminos technology that's in the Xperia Z Ultra, Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 800, 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded with microSD and a fairly massive 3,000mAh battery. If the alleged spec sheet after the jump is to be believed, then the Lumia 1020 and GS4 Zoom might have to face some serious competition. We’ve seen several claims suggesting variously 13-megpaixel, 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel sensors using Sony’s Exmor RS back-illuminated sensor (BSI) technology. For a while there’s been talk of Sony Cybershot functionality and allegedly the phone will feature a Cybershot camera UI and both a dual-LED and Xenon flash. The sensor allegedly has a 2/3-inch aperture and one wildcard rumour we’ve seen recently says you’ll be able to swap the lenses around. It’s also rumoured to use a Mobile BIONZ image processing technology to enhance things further and there’ll be a dedicated camera button. The front-facing secondary camera is a 2.2-megapixel Exmor R sensor with 1080p video capture. The operating system will of course be Google’s Android software and the latest version, 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, has been mentioned specifically to be onboard. It seems a given it will have a Sony interface layer on top and while we’ve previously seen the ‘Sony UI’ on the Xperia Z and others, the Xperia i1 will apparently debut the so-called ‘Xperia UI’. Whether this is a dramatic change from the previous interface or something very similar remains to be seen. There’s been no word on when Sony might release its Xperia i1 handset, but it was revealed through leaks at the same time as the Xperia ZU, which was launched on June 25. Sony has another event lined up in Paris on July 4, which could possibly see the Xperia i1 Honami getting an official announcement. We think it’s quite likely we’ll see the Xperia i1 appear by the end of August at the very latest. After launch, we expect the device to hit the market within the following month, so that could put us into August or September before it’s on shelves. In terms of pricing, again there are no details given but considering Sony’s previous flagships have retailed for around the £500 mark SIM-free – we suspect we’ll see a repeat of this pricing plan on the Xperia i1.