Sony announces Xperia XZ, Xperia X Compact smartphones, Xperia Ear accessory
Meet the Sony Xperia XZ and the Sony Xperia X Compact.
If the leaked renders are to be believed then both the Xperia phones will have curved edge and will support USB Type -C.
Sony makes a damn fine phone, but historically it’s been pretty hard to get your hands on one in the US. The name describes how the surface seemingly loops around the front sides and back of the device in one gentle curve.
For most manufacturers, smaller variants of flagship phones generally come with weaker hardware and fewer features. You get a less powerful Snapdragon 650 processor and the front camera gets a downgrade to just 5-megapixels. It will come with 3GB of RAM, which is actually pretty good, 32GB of storage that can be expanded upon up to 256GB.
Battery capacity reaches 2,900mAh with Quick Charge, and it comes with a fingerprint scanner and has USB Type-C ports. All of those features are packed into a shell that’s IP68 water and dust resistant.
The rear camera features what Sony is calling “triple image sensing technology“, which helps improve focusing on subjects and sensing the distance between objects to help improve digital stabilisation, picture and colour quality, and auto-focus speeds. Though the devices miss the OIS, there is SteadyShot Intelligent Active Mode using the 5-axis.
Also showcased for both smartphones are their respective Xperia flip cases that comes with a frost-like translucent finish.
The XZ runs Android 6.0 (Marshmallow), though Sony has promised 7.0 (Nougat) should be available by the end of the year. The Twitter user speculated that Xperia XR and Xperia X Compact will be launched on September 24, according to GSM Arena. If nothing else, the Xperia X Compact should be easy to hold for one-hand operation.
The Sony XZ will go on sale October 2016, with pricing for the United Kingdom yet to be announced. So you get the same feel, but this time in plastic, giving you a nice Lumia déjà-vu. It has a 5.2-inch Full HD screen, unfortunately not QHD like rivalling flagship devices such as the LG G5 and HTC 10. In terms of memory, the phone would offer 64GB internal storage, but nothing was mentioned about the expandable memory. However, there is no waterproofing on the device. The Z3 Compact is capable of 4K video recording like the Z5 Compact, but it drops its selfie camera resolution to 2.2-megapixels. Sony has included three image sensors and is calling it their triple image sensor technology. No pricing details have been announced for the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact so far.