The price of Sony's new flagship smartphone, which is expected to be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, has been revealed ahead of official release.

Sony Xperia Z
The purported photo of Sony Xperia Z is leaked. Technology Blogs Simplified

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A SIM-free model of the Sony Xperia Z, previously codenamed Yuga, is expected to go on sale in Thailand with a retail price of 19,900 Thai Baht. GSM Arena believes this price will likely vary from market to market but it translates into approximately £400 and could be available as early as March.

Incidentally, a photograph displayed earlier on unofficial Sony blog Xperiablog.net (but believed to be sourced from the company directly) has been confirmed as the first press photo of the Xperia Z.

And the photograph on Xperiablog.net matches the one displayed by the Thai blog, Sony XP.

The features of the forthcoming Xperia Z are expected to include a 5in HD display supported by the Sony Mobile Bravia Engine 2. The screen will feature a pixel density of 440 pixels per inch (ppi). The device will likely be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chip featuring a 1.5GHz quad-core processor paired with an Adreno 320 graphics unit.

This is the same chip used in the Nexus 4 and has been confirmed as a powerful processor.

The handset may have a 13 megapixel Exmor RS camera and could come with 16GB of internal storage. There should be support for a microSDXC card and storage expansion up to 128GB. Also, like other high-end smartphones (including the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the Nexus 4 and the LG Optimus G), the Xperia Z will likely have 2GB of RAM.

The operating system will likely be Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) and the device will offer Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth v4.0. The device should be Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled and is expected to work on all available LTE frequencies on any network. It will be available in three colour variants: purple, white and black.

We expect more details on the Sony Xperia Z when the Japanese giant holds its press conference at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The conference is scheduled for 7 January.

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