Sony reportedly bringing interchangeable lenses to Honami smartphone

CEO Kazuo Hirai’s "One Sony" strategy may not have kicked off in all earnestness yet, but a specs leak and a blurry image of the upcoming Sony "Honami" i1 smartphone show the vision is not far off.

This isn’t the first time we are seeing the Sony Honami leak; previously, we had heard it would come with Cyber-shot branding. And now Svartling Network claims to have received information from an insider about the specs of the Honami. From the looks of it, the Honami will be a beast of a device and will be full of Sony-developed technologies in sound, imaging and display departments.

Let’s start with the display, where Sony has gone with a 5-inch Triluminos display enhanced with the home-brewed OptiContrast and X-Reality Engine technologies. The display will have a full HD resolution, according to the rumour. The Honami is said to be powered by a Qualcomm MSM8974 SoC, better known as the Snapdragon 800. The quad-core CPU will be clocked at 2.3GHz, while the Adreno 330 GPU is one of the best in the business. In addition, there’s 2GB of RAM. Internal memory is said to be 32GB, and there’s also the option of putting in a microSD card.

The blurry image of what is allegedly Sony's Honami smartphone (Image credit: Svartling Network)

The real meat of the rumour comes in the camera department – there’s a large 2/3" sensor, one of the largest sensors to be used in a compact camera. Interestingly, the rumour says, the Exmor RS sensor will be a 13 megapixel unit with Sony G lens. The camera firmware and UI is modelled on the Cyber-shot range. Then there is the speculation of there being interchangeable lenses, a Xenon and dual-LED flashes, and Mobile BIONZ image processing software. All in all, this is shaping up to be one humdinger of a phone camera and could compete directly with the forthcoming Nokia Lumia EOS and Samsung’s Android-based mirrorless camera. The 2.2 megapixel Exmor R sensor front-facing camera is said to be capable of 1080p video recording.

For audiophiles, the i1 packs dual stereo speakers with Sony’s S-Master MX Mobile Audio Amplifier. All this is kept powered on by a 3000 mAh battery. What’s more, this one is also said to have IP55/58 certification, so it will be dust and water proof.

It must be noted that all of these specs are totally unconfirmed and before we get too excited about the possibilities, let’s think back to all those times when rumours stayed rumours. Let’s hope Sony somehow finds a way to fulfil this smartphone fantasy.