Sony could announce a powerful new smartphone in January, but that seems too early for an Xperia Z6

Naturally, this has sparked visions and aspirations about an upcoming Sony Xperia Z6 flagship smartphone inside the tech media circles. But common sense dictates that, outside of Sony's R&D labs, the Xperia Z6 right now is nothing more than 'clickbait' material. After all, the Xperia Z5 trio, which was announced this September and released shortly after, is still very fresh on the market. Introducing an iterative, specs-focused update as early as January would do little more than kill Z5 sales and frustrate owners of the smartphone. Then again, this is merely an outside perspective — Sony execs probably see things differently.

However, the smartphone rat race has been rather intense lately, with Samsung reportedly preparing its Galaxy S7 products for a February 21st announcement at the Samsung Unpacked 2016 event. Android competitors are usually looking to retaliate with hi-end offerings near the same time frame, which means Sony could take the opportunity for making an exciting smartphone announcement on the back of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC, which is already quite the hype engine!