Sony LT29i Hayabusa makes its first photo appearances

We can’t really say Sony has the necessary “muscle” to battle Samsung or HTCin the high-end Android universe, but that might well change in a matter of weeks. The company’s flagship device, known by the LT29i and Hayabusa codenames, is getting ever closer to its release, although its existence is yet to be confirmed from official sources.

Fortunately, we don’t need official confirmation to know that we are being prepared for something big! If the phone’s FCC approval from a couple of days ago wasn’t enough to warrant Hayabusa’s imminent release, today’s two leaks will most likely seal the deal.

The Xperia LT29i Hayabusa has made its first online photo appearances, and intriguing enough, there are two different websites who’ve managed to get their hands on some different pics at about the exact same time.

Both XperiaBlog.net and Xperia.com.vn are keeping their leaks’ sources anonymous, as expected in such cases, but we don’t have any reason to suspect the photos aren’t legit. Fortunately, these are pretty high-quality pics and show off the Hayabusa in all its splendor, from the front, back and sides.

Then again, the photos aren’t spectacular, as it is now confirmed the Hayabusa is an almost identical copycat of the “Japanese-exclusive” Sony Xperia GX (SO-04D), who’s had its fair share of official photo appearances.

Most rumors until now claimed that the Hayabusa will be coming with a slightly smaller 4.55″ screen than the Xperia GX’s 4.6″, but as you can imagine, there’s no way to tell from these photos if that detail will prove accurate.

As for the phone’s other dimensions and its design, it’s almost impossible to set it apart from the GX, so we’re ready to bet that it will only weigh 127 grams and measure the measly 8.6 mm in thickness. Another detail revealed by one of the leaked pics is that the LT29i will be running Android ICS 4.0.4 upon its release, which is not at all surprising.

In terms of hardware, however, there’s nothing new we can tell out of today’s photos. There’s still a good chance that the Hayabusa will come packing a dual-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor with an Adreno 320 GPU. In addition to that ultra-snappy CPU/GPU duo, the 4.55-inch beast is also set to come with 1 GB of RAM, a 13 MP rear-facing camera, a full HD 1280 x 720 pix res screen, 16 GB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot.

While it’s a bit too early to draw any definitive conclusions on Hayabusa’s future success, I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re dealing with a possible game changer, especially if this gets released by the end of August. Do you agree? Why? Why not?