Apparently the triple-pronged attack of the Xperia S, P and U phones unveiled at Mobile World Congress wasn’t enough for Sony. A new Android phone, this one with the codename “Pepper”, has appeared in an otherwise nondescript online ad. There’s not much information in the leaked ad, but you can spot Xperia S-style NFC tags, indicating that the new phone will have NFC capability at the very least. The render was spotted by Blog of Mobile, who guesses that the new phone will slide somewhere in between the U and P models already unveiled.

The styling on the phone is a pretty obvious departure from those unveiled at Mobile World Congress. Gone are the semi-transparent navigation buttons and totally squared-off edges – this phone takes a lot of design inspiration from the Walkman series of PMPs. The screenshot in the promo is Android 2.3 Gingerbread, though that’s unfortunately predictable; the three navigation buttons, however, suggest that the phone will see Ice Cream Sandwich before too long.

Unconfirmed specs include a dual-core 1.0Ghz processor, 5 megapixel battery, 1320mAh battery (rather small, even for a mid-sized phone) and a 3.7-inch, 480×854 screen. The display is described as “floating”, though there’s no elaboration – there are a handful of technologies that could fit that description. Considering the source, the Pepper could be a replacement for various mid-range Xperia phones on the market right now, but it might not make it out of Japan any time soon.

[via PocketNow]