Sony Xperia X Performance is headed to the U.S. this summer. The Japan-based tech firm will release an unlocked version of its flagship in the said region, an unprecedented and rather surprising move by Sony.

The company has always released its mobile products in the U.S. via carriers. This ends with the Sony Xperia X Performance, which will be sold in the region through select retailers.

Users in the U.S. interested in taking home a Sony Xperia X Performance unit for themselves and could do without a telecom service bundled can purchase one from Best Buy, Amazon and B&H on July 17.

It is unclear why Sony is not releasing the flagship through carriers although it is believed it may have something to do with the cancellation of the Verizon release of the Sony Xperia Z4v after Sony failed to meet the deadline.

Unveiled by Sony at the Mobile World Congress last February, the Sony Xperia X Performance serves as Sony's top of the line flagship for this year. It comes with a 5-inch (1080 x 1920) Triluminos display with a pixel density of 441ppi.

Humming under its hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which is complemented by 3GB RAM and 32GB storage space expandable up to 200GB with a microSD card.

Sony takes pride in the Sony Xperia X Performance's imaging department. It comes with a hefty 23MP rear-facing camera with "predictive hybrid autofocus."

The feature basically reduces the chances of users taking a blurred photo. It does this by "predicting" where the moving subject will end up in the frame.

On the front is a 13MP front-facing shooter, which should be more than enough to take stellar selfies. The Sony Xperia X Performance also has a fingerprint sensor and is scratch-resistant, thanks to its oleophobic coating.

The Sony Xperia X Performance is priced at $700. It lands this July along with the moderate-specced Xperia XA while the standard variant Xperia X is headed to the U.S. as early as June 26.