Images of Sony's Xperia F8331 have emerged online, which hints at a brand new design for the upcoming flagship smartphone.
Sony launched the Xperia X line of mobile phones in February this year and the Japanese company seems to be on track to launch another flagship sometime this year.
GSMArena has managed to get hold of some pictures of the Xperia F8331, which is quite different in design compared to previous smartphones from Sony. Based on the leaked images, the top and bottom of the Sony device appear to be flat but the sides are slightly curved.
The front speakers and NFC are located near the earpiece, which could be inconvenient to some users. The back of the smartphone has a new layout for the camera and a dual LED flash. The phone has a brushed metal case, which gives a premium look to the device.
The leaked images of the Xperia F8331 also suggest that the upcoming device could be the first Sony smartphone to include a USB Type-C port located at the bottom. As expected, the handset also has a 3.5-millimeter audio jack at the top of the phone.
Similar to the Sony Xperia Z5, the Xperia F8331 may sport a power button that has a fingerprint sensor as well as volume rocker buttons on the side.
The hardware specs of the upcoming Sony flagship smartphone remain unknown. However, being a flagship device, smartphone enthusiasts will hope the Xperia F8331 will sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 823 processor and probably 6 GB of RAM.
The Sony phone may come with 32 GB of onboard storage with the option to expand the storage capacity with a microSD card to up to 200 GB.
Details regarding the device's camera sensors are also not yet available, but rumors suggest that the primary and front-facing cameras may support 4K video recording.
As for the smartphone's OS, it is unlikely that Google will release its next OS - Android 7.0 Nougat - in September, which means that Sony fans will see the Xperia F8331 running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow straight out of the box.
Sony has not confirmed any details regarding the specs or launch date of its next flagship phone. But the smartphone maker launched a number of new mobile phones at the 2015 IFA event, making it highly likely that Sony will introduce at least one handset during the 2016 IFA that kicks off on Sept. 2 in Berlin this year.