This is the Sony Vaio smartphone that never came to be

Sony’s approach to mobile phones has been an interesting one. Back when they were still Sony Ericsson, the company tried to create phones themed around its existing products. For example, the company leveraged the Cyber-shot brand they used for cameras to create mobile phones.

The company later launched an Android-based Xperia Play handset that could play PlayStation mobile games, so it doesn’t really come as a surprise to learn that the company was working on a handset known as the Sony Ericsson Vaio. now, we’re not sure if this was the final name, but the folks at XDA managed to get their hands on photos of what is allegedly the prototype of the phone.

For those unfamiliar, Vaio was the brand that Sony used for its computer products. The Vaio brand has since been sold off to another company, but it’s interesting to see that Sony, at one point in time, wanted to leverage the brand for a smartphone. In a way, the design does suggest that they wanted to make this phone like a pseudo-laptop of sorts, where it comes with a slideout physical QWERTY keyboard.

It also features an interesting camera placement on the back of the phone where instead of placing it at a corner like we’re seeing these days, Sony opted to place it near the center edge of the phone. The orientation actually makes sense as this would encourage users to take photos and videos horizontally instead of vertically.

It is unclear why the phone never made it to the market and why Sony gave up on it, but it’s a good look at what could have been. If such a phone were to have launched, is it something you could see yourself getting?

Source: XDA Developers