We’ve been bringing readers news about an upcoming Sony smartphone called the Yuga since October and just recently heard that it may be called the Sony Xperia Yuga along with some more leaked specs. Today we have rumored news that the Yuga name may be dropped before release and that it will then be called the Sony Xperia Z and we also have some further news on the specs and features of this phone.

Recently we gave you some leaked specs and images of the C660X (or C6603) Yuga and felt it could be tough competition for the HTC Butterfly and Oppo Find 5, both upcoming handsets also with 5-inch full 1080p HD displays. It’s likely that Sony will exhibit the Yuga at either CES in January next year or at MWC in February and the source that states the Yuga will be released as the Xperia Z is the same source that previously correctly said the ‘Hayabusa’ would be the Xperia TX. This does look like a credible leak then but for now it’s a case of wait and see.

A report on Xperia Blog also details the Yuga /Xperia Z as having IP55 and IP57 water and dust resistance ratings and another intriguing factor is that the Xperia Z will apparently use OptiContrast technology, usually to be found in Sony TVs, for the phone’s 1080p display. The advantages of OptiContrast come about from a resin coating on the display that cuts down on on-screen reflections. The report also states that the dimensions of the Xperia Z will be 139mm x 71mm x 7.9mm.

Other specs include a 5-inch LED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, a 12 or 13-megapixel rear camera with Exmor RS CMOS sensor, 2GB of RAM, microSD expansion and unibody frame. It’s also likely to have a flat glass back with a shutter key to one side. Frankly we can’t wait to find out more and hope that this is indeed unveiled by Sony at the Consumer Electronics Show in January in Las Vegas and then released soon afterwards.

We’d like to hear your views on the Sony Yuga /Xperia Z. Has this smartphone already caught your eye and are you eagerly waiting to hear more about it? Maybe you’re drawn more to the HTC Butterfly or Oppo Find 5? Why not send us your comments so we know what your opinion is of the Yuga.