Sony might not make flagship phones anymore – but it's not the death of Xperia

Sony has only recently announced its latest flagship smartphone in the form of the Xperia 1 VII, but a report has suggested it wasn't built by Sony itself. There are also claims that all future Xperia phones will see their production also move out of house.

The report originally appeared on Sumahodigest (via PhoneArena) and suggests that outsourcing assembly of its flagship Xperia devices is a long-term strategy for Sony.

The Japanese company has continued to release a yearly flagship smartphone to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S series and Apple's iPhone, despite beliefs that Sony holds under one per cent of the smartphone market share.

Until the most recent Xperia 1 VII, Sony was building its Xperia flagship handsets across three manufacturing facilities, with two said to be located in Thailand and one in China.

That's now changed however, with none of those three Sony manufacturing websites listing smartphones among devices that are built at the locations. This has lead to the report on Sumahodigest. It also believes the Xperia 1 VII was the first smartphone from Sony to be built by a third-party manufacturer, thought to be in China.

Does outsourcing production mean an end for Sony Xperia phones?

With the Xperia 1 VII having been outsourced and now available to buy in some countries – not the US for the second year running – there's hope that this news doesn't mean Sony is giving up on its Xperia flagship smartphones in the future.

For now, there's no official word from Sony on where the Xperia 1 VII was made or if it has moved production of its future smartphones out of its own facilities.

Reviews of the Xperia 1 VII are starting to filter in, so it will be interesting to see if any highlight a reduction in quality, but otherwise, despite possibly being built elsewhere, it's business as usual for future Xperia smartphones until Sony suggests otherwise.