Sony's Xperia 1 III looks to be ready for showtime soon, and as Droid Life discovered, Sony has updated a banner on its Xperia YouTube channel to include a reference to the event, which is scheduled for just two weeks from now.

"New Xperia product announcement," the banner reads." April 14, 2021, 16:30 JST / 09:30 CEST". That would mean 3:30 a.m. Japan time, or 12:30 a.m. EST.

This is obviously extremely vague, but the Xperia brand is used purely for cell phones and tablets. Sony has not released a tablet since the Xperia Z4 Tablet in 2015, so it is almost certain to be a phone, and thanks to recently leaked details, the Xperia 1 III seems most likely.

Weibo leaker ZACKBUKS released full specifications of Sony's latest flagship yesterday, and if true, it is sure to be something that will give Samsung's Galaxy S21 a run for its money.

The 2021 flagship smartphone will likely be powered by Qualcomm's SoC Snapdragon 888 as standard, and will support a massive 12GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Sony is also likely to release a premium version with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, but unless there are other differences that ZACKBUKS has not noted, it seems unnecessary for most people's needs.

Like recent members of the Xperia family, the Xperia 1 III will stick with the unusual 21:9 aspect ratio-Sony previously justified this by pointing out that 69% of Netflix movies are shot in this format. Sony previously justified this by explaining that 69% of Netflix movies are shot in this format. This means we are looking at a tall, thin screen, but with OLED technology and a 120Hz refresh rate, it should be pleasing to the eye. It is also reported to support up to 4K resolution, like previous Sony flagships, but it remains to be seen if anyone will be able to discern that on such a small screen.

The most exciting specs, however, are in the camera department: according to ZACKBUKS, Sony will introduce a periscope zoom camera manufactured by its Cyber-shot division, which may be able to surpass the 3x optical zoom achieved by the Xperia 1 II. It is also likely to include a 64MP main wide-angle lens and a 12MP ultrawide sensor.

It is no secret that Sony is struggling for market share in smartphones, and this is not helped by what one might call "optimistic" pricing. Unfortunately, if this leak is correct, the company does not appear ready to enter a price war to take the fight to Samsung and Apple. That would be about $1,370, making the Sony Xperia 1 III nearly $200 more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S21 UItra and $300 more expensive than the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Hopefully, this will prove to be a false alarm and Sony will unveil a more competitively priced device when it unveils the latest model in its Xperia family on April 14.