Sony reportedly plans another smartphone release this year that will serve as its 2013 flagship handset, belying earlier suggestions that the water-proofed and iPhone look-alike Xperia Z is the Japanese firm's best bet against the current gadget giants.

According to Xperia Blog, Sony is readying for the mid-year rollout of its next high-end mobile phone, which is known for now as Xperia C670X.

Initial specs provided by the same report pointed to a powerful mix of hardware that Sony will likely pack in the same mould of the recently issued Xperia Z, which gained critical acclaims for its sleek but solid body-built.

The upcoming Xperia will sport a 4.8-inch Full HD 1080p display screen with behemoth of muscles under the hood - a 1.8GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor that will collaborate with a 2GB of RAM plus its own GPU in an Adreno 320 chip.

Part of the package is a 13MP Exmor RS camera snapper that will tap on up to 32GB of internal memory for file storage.

A render of the purported handset hints that it "includes a front-facing camera, notification light, light sensor and proximity sensor," Xperia Blog said on its report.

The same image, however, failed to determine the smartphone's body material, which is a choice between heavy glass and aluminium.

It also unclear if Sony plans for a simultaneous global release or a phased introduction of the Xperia C670X, with the U.S. market likely to get the new phone by summer time.

While Google has released the new Android version, Key Lime Pie, at around that time, it is believed that the Xperia handset will be powered by JellyBean 4.2.

Inevitably, Sony's new Xperia will be aligned against the giants as Samsung will have issued its Galaxy S4 by April while Apple is reportedly bent on unleashing the iPhone 5S and a budget iPhone version by August.

It remains to be seen if this will be Sony's giant slayer following successive releases that generally to capture the imagination of consumers long attuned to iPhone and Galaxy smartphones.