Sony has announced the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL for India today. The Xperia Z will be available in stores from March 12 onwards and is priced at Rs 38,990. Both phones will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and are already up for pre-order on certain online stores. The two phones will be part of a staggered flagship strategy for the company in India, with the Xperia ZL arriving in stores later this month.
Both phones share many specifications, but we will start with a look at the Xperia Z. One of the biggest selling points for the Xperia Z is its water-proof and dust-proof body. The phone is IP57 certified, which means you can immerse it in up to 1 metre of water for 30 minutes. Despite this rugged heritage, the Xperia Z is incredibly slim at 7.9mm and also features a microSD card slot. Naturally, the back of the Xperia Z is non-removable.
The Z is powered by a Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC, which has four Krait cores ticking at 1.5GHz each. The phone has an Adreno 320 GPU for graphics and 2GB of RAM. All that coupled with Jelly Bean should ensure a very smooth performance. The display on the Xperia Z is said to be a stunner. The 5-inch LCD panel beams out 1920 x 1080 pixels natively, while Sony’s proprietary Mobile Bravia Engine 2 enhances image quality and colour reproduction.
Here's a promo for the Xperia Z, which shows the thinking and engineering that went into designing the phone.
The resolution and the screen size of the phone result in a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch. The display is protected by shatter-proof and scratch-resistant glass. Sony has also baked in niceties like an OptiContrast panel, which is normally reserved for their higher-end Bravia televisions. The technology improves image clarity and boosts the display's contrast ratio while minimising reflections.
The camera on the back is a 13-megapixel one with support for 1080p and HDR video recording. Of course, all of Sony’s camera bangs and whistles like image stabilisation, face detection and 3D Sweep Panorama are present.
Here’s a look at the key specs of the Xperia Z
5-inch TFT LCD with a 1920 x 1080p resolution, 441 PPI
5-inch TFT LCD with a 1920 x 1080p resolution, 441 PPI
LTE, Cat3, up to 100 Mbps DL, HSPA+, GPRS/EDGE
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspotGPS with A-GPS support
Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP
GPS with A-GPS support and GLONASS
NFC
13-megapixel camera with HDR video recording, image stabilisation, Sony 3D Sweep Panorama; 2-megapixel front-facing camera with 1080p video recording
16 GB internal storage with microSD card slot
The Xperia Z has a non-removable 2330 mAh battery. Sony’s proprietary Stamina Mode technology should help in increasing battery life by throttling data-hogging apps when in standby mode.
Both the Xperia Z and the ZL will feature some exclusive Sony apps. The company has bundled in a subscription to the new Sony Jive music streaming service, as well as Sony LIV, a video streaming service featuring exclusive Indian content. The Jive service is free for the first six months and users can then opt to subscribe to it after the initial free period.
Here's a quick look at the phone
The Xperia ZL has the same display and processor as its big brother, but loses the water and dust-resilient body. Instead, Sony has managed to fit the 5-inch display in a body smaller than the Galaxy S3. The ZL has a small flap at the back, which houses the SIM and the microSD card slots. The back panel itself is non-removable and houses a 2370 mAh battery, slightly bigger than the Xperia Z.
Another unique design feature is the placement of the front-facing camera, which is housed below the display. The camera on the Xperia ZL is the same 13-megapixel unit as in the Xperia Z and has the same features, including the HDR video mode. The ZL also has an IR blaster and one-touch mirroring features, something that the Xperia Z gives a miss. One other neat inclusion is dual-band Wi-Fi support to play nicely with the 5GHz wireless band.
