Sony unveils its flagship Xperia XZ smartphones

The Xperia XZ Premium and Xperia XZs

Sony has unveiled its two new flagship Xperia XZ series smartphones, including the Xperia XZ Premium which is the first smartphone with 4K/HDR, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 SoC.

In addition to the 5.2-inch Xperia XZs, which is pretty much an updated Xperia XZ smartphone with new Motion Eye rear camera, the true flagship is the Xperia XZ Premium. The new Xperia XZ Premium flagship features a 5.5-inch 4K, 3840×2160 resolution, HDR panel and is completely wrapped in a “Glass Loop Surface”, which is Gorilla Glass 5.

The Xperia XZ Premium measures 156x77x7.9mm and weighs 195g, which is not half bad for a 5.5-inch smartphone and with 4K resolution, it ends up with 801 ppi of pixel density as well as 69.4 screen-to-body ratio. It is also IP68-certified, making it dust and water resistant.

The main feature of the Xperia XZ Premium is its 4K HDR screen that will have wider dynamic range and the new Triluminos engine that should provide up to 40 percent brighter screen, compared to the Xperia Z5 Premium.

To a big surprise, the Xperia XZ Premium will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 SoC, which is probably the reason while it will launch later in Spring. The SoC is backed by 4GB of RAM and it will have 64GB of storage space, expandable via microSD card slot. The rest of the specifications include all the usual connectivity, including USB Type-C port with QuickCharge 3.0 technology and it will pack a 3,230mAh battery.

The cheaper Xperia XZs is pretty much an updated Xperia XZ smartphone that still has a 5.2-inch 1080p screen and Qualcomm’s well-known Snapdragon 820 SoC. Sony boosted RAM to 4GB and gave the Xperia XZs the new Motion Eye camera.

Both the Xperia XZ Premium and Xperia XZs come with the fancy new Motion Eye rear camera, which has a 19-megapixel sensor (1/2.3″) placed behind a f/2.0 lens. It features Predictive and Laser autofocus and an RGBC-IR sensor for better color accuracy. It also comes SteadyShot 5-axis digital stabilization and can record 4K video as well as the new 960fps slow-motion video, running in 720p resolution.

The front camera on both smartphones come from Xperia XZ and we are looking at a 13-megapixel camera with 22mm wide lens, which should be enough for most selfie lovers.

While it still did not reveal any details regarding the price, Sony did say that the Xperia XZs will launch in April while we will have to wait for the Xperia XZ Premium to get some Snapdragon 835 SoCs, as Samsung is obviously hogging most of those.