An official image of Sony's MT27i smartphone, codenamed the Pepper, has made its way to the public eye. The Chinese blog IT168 has posted a photo of the entry-level smartphone. Although news of the Android device was leaked shortly before the CES show in January, Sony has divulged no planned date for its release.
The lid has been lifted on what looks like most of Sony’s smartphone roadmap for 2012. A list of model codenames has leaked out of a Sony sales report for the Indian market. However, of the three codenames that have previously been spotted (Kumquat, Nypon, Pepper), and which appear set for an April release, another eight have not yet been sighted until now.
One of Sony Ericsson's rarely mentioned other 2012 smartphones was leaked in earnest on Saturday with photos and detailse. The MT27i, or Pepper, is expected by XperiaBlog to be a direct sequel to the Xperia neo V with a much more squared-off look that's consistent with the Nozomi and likely other models. Performance may be the biggest leap, as it should jump from its single-core chip to a dual-core 1GHz chip, most likely the ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500.
