Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 is fast approaching, and this can only mean one thing -- that there will be a slew of new smartphone announcements that will be made by various hardware manufacturers. Sony might not be as big as Apple, Samsung or Huawei, but this does not mean that they have already thrown in the towel when it comes to rolling out new smartphones. In fact, the latest smartphone model that we have sniffed out from Sony’s stable appears to be known as the Sony Pikachu -- clearly a reference to the Lightning-type Pokemon character. The Sony Pikachu was spotted on a GFXBench benchmark listing that also showcased its internal hardware specifications, and has been widely tipped to debut at MWC 2017 later this month.

Why are we leaning to a MWC 2017 release? Well, the answer is pretty simple -- Sony has an event this February 27, and if they are not going to announce at least one new smartphone, what else do they have to present as MWC is not a platform like CES where you can showcase a slew of other consumer electronics devices?

The Sony Pikachu that was spotted on the GFXBench benchmark listing is said to run on an octa-core SoC (System on a Chip), where there is very good reason to believe that it will be powered by MediaTek. Other than the octa-core SoC, the Sony Pikachu is also touted to arrive with a 5-inch HD display (disappointing that there is no Full HD display), running on a 2.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6757 processor that will be accompanied by 3GB of RAM as well as 32GB internal memory.

Not only that, there ought to be no reason to wait for the Android 7.0 Nougat update where the Sony Pikachu is concerned, since this alleged upcoming smartphone is already said to arrive with Android 7.0 Nougat right out of the box. At least other Sony Xperia devices at the moment with the Android 7.0 Nougat update running will no longer be that ‘lonely’.

Other than that, the Sony Pikachu is also said to feature a 21-megapixel camera at the back which would be quite the performer, taking into consideration how Sony’s smartphone cameras have functioned in the past. Right up front would be an 8-megapixel shooter that ought to deliver more than just decent looking selfies. As these are all mere benchmark listings, we would not rule out the possibility that they could change by the time the actual Sony Pikachu with a more marketable name is launched.

Many are wondering whether the Sony Pikachu will be the Sony G3112 (G31XX) or Sony G3221 (G32XX), where both of them were leaked in recent times, while sporting a MediaTek processor underneath the hood. Just how many smartphones will Sony announce at MWC 2017? We will simply have to wait until February 27 to find out, and the five leaked smartphones so far do carry the codenames Yoshino, BlancBright, Keyaki, Hinoki, and Mineo -- is one of them also the Pikachu? Only time will be able to tell.