The much-rumoured Sony Mobile Yuga handset is to be called the Sony Xperia Z, if rumours are to be believed.

The leak, courtesy of Xperia blog, says that a "source, who has provided credible information over at XDA in the past" claims Yuga - which has always been taken as the codename - will be called the Sony Xperia Z. It seems that Sony is continuing its naming convention therefore, getting higher and higher as the years have gone on. 

The source, who isn't named, also goes on to tell the website that "the Xperia Z will be both water and dust-resistant, supporting an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP55 and IP57 (similar to the Xperia acro S and Xperia V). The final dimensions of the Xperia Z will be 139 x 71 x 7.9mm."

The water and dust-resistant claims fit in nicely with pictures a Russian site shared, having got its hands on a supposed prototype model. All the ports had covers - the micro HDMI, Micro-USB and headphone socket.  

If the device stays unchanged and is the real deal, then the Sony Yuga C6603, as it has been known previously, will have a 5-inch display with a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, leading to plenty of detail in images. At its heart will be a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 chipset with Adreno 320 graphics, with great graphics results reported from this early prototype.

With an expected CES2013 launch, we shouldn't have too long to wait. Pocket-lint will be in Las Vegas in force to bring you the latest.