Sony Mobile: Cortex-A15 phones in H2 2012; quad-core phones in 2013?

A Sony Mobile executive has given the first indication of what chips will power future Xperia phones and when we’ll see them. For those hoping for a quad-core beast from Sony this year then you’ll be disappointed. A Sony quad-core handset will not materialise until 2013 according to Stephen Sneeden, Product Marketing Manager. We should point out that Sneeden says this was his assumption only and the roadmap might change.

Instead, Sony will use the Cortex-A15 SoC for phones released in H2 2012. The reason behind this is that Sneeden says that the performance increase doesn’t match the battery efficiency right now. This seems like a sensible move to us. Whilst some may bemoan Sony Mobile being behind the curve once again, the reality is that benchmarks flying around the place prove that Cortex-A15 SoCs outperform quad-core variants. Also, there is still the question of apps taking full advantage of the multi-core environment in phones.

As to exactly which chipset will be used, it will be between Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson. The most likely scenario is the use of the S4 Snapdragon in the second half of this year. See Sneeden’s full comments below.

“We’re going to join quad-core when we feel that the performance matches the battery efficiency. Because right now we don’t feel that is there. What we are going to be doing in the second-half of the year is moving to the Cortex A15 architecture, which we feel outperforms the current quad-core architecture.

You’ll see in 2013, as we’re evaluating the quad-core performance where it makes sense, where you’re not suffering in quality and the performance truly is there, and there really is something that demanding applications need. That’s when we make the right move to quad-core.”