Sony Nypon rumored to come to market as “Xperia P”

Sony’s got a pretty wide range of Android phones on offer at the moment, and that doesn’t look to change any time soon. Just last week we saw some spy shots of the LT22i model, codenamed the Nypon. GSM Arena reports that the device may come to market as the Xperia P, as the other recently leaked smartphone, the Kumquat, may be labelled the Xperia U. Granted, these are probably better than naming your smartphone after an obscure Chinese fruit, but I was certainly hoping for better differentiation as Sony readies its newly integrated brand.

Sony seems to be aping Samsung, which has chosen a single moniker (Galaxy) and modified it for use with dozens of devices. Even as someone who covers this stuff daily, I have to check Device.ac to keep at the models straight. In what must be a positively unique event, carrier-added names are actually making these phones easier to distinguish: AT&T’s “Xperia Ion” is a lot easier to remember than “Xperia S”, the international version, in the same way that the Galaxy S II Skyrocket makes a better impression than the Galaxy S II LTE.

The Nypon/Xperia P is likely to be one of the very first Sony phones released without any Ericsson branding, as the Japanese manufacturer has absorbed its stake in the Swedish telco. Early leaks indicate that the phone uses a 1Ghz processor and qHD display, putting it squarely in the mid-range of Sony’s upcoming lineup. At least one leaked photo indicates that the phone will run Ice Cream Sandwich, though that could simply be an early developer build. We’ll probably see more of both the Xperia P and Xperia U models at Mobile World Congress.

[via Androinica]