Sony Xperia A passes by the FCC on its way to Japan

First the good news: there's a new upcoming Sony smartphone of the high-end kind. The Sony Xperia A is what it's called – a moniker we've actually heard before, and the FCC is where detailed information about it has just been discovered. The not-so-good news, however, is that we aren't likely to ever see this particular smartphone launch in the U.S.

The Sony Xperia A is bound to launch on NTT DoCoMo in Japan, bearing a model name SO-04E. Hardware-wise, it is similar to the Sony Xperia Z flagship, blessed with a 5-inch 1080p screen, 13MP main camera, 16GB of storage, LTE connectivity, and a 2300mAh removable battery. One missing puzzle piece is the processor powering this Android smartphone, so we aren't sure whether it's equipped with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro or a different SoC. 

Chances are that the Sony Xperia A will be introduced officially on May 15 by carrier NTT DoCoMo itself. That's also when we might learn whether the smartphone will ever land in countries other than Japan.

source: FCC via Engadget