CES is always an exciting way to start the year, we saw prototype OLED TVs, a lot of NFC technology in use across all manner of devices and ovens you can control with your smartphone, but the biggest announcement in the mobile space lies with Sony, who pulled the wraps off their new flagship, one year on from the Sony Xperia S which was unveiled at the same show last year.
One year on from Sony dropping the Ericsson name and they've kicked 2013 off with a bang by producing the Sony Xperia Z. For the company it represents all manner of firsts: their first quad-core smartphone, their first phone with a Full HD screen, their first phone with a mobile Exmor RS CMOS sensor, their first phone to debut the new OmniBalance design language and their first phone to feature a 5-inch display, phew. But what else do we know about it?
In an interview with Pierre Perron, Managing Director of Sony Mobile UK, he stated that the Xperia Z served as not just a new flagship for the company, but an amalgamation of the best of Sony as a single brand, offering touches of genius from many of the other facets of the company's product portfolio.
The design of the Xperia Z feels like a significant step on from last year's Xperia S with its Human Curvature design language and Xperia T with its Arc design language. The OmniBalance design aims to give the phone symmetry from every angle. It features a sheer glass front and back with a skeletal metal frame banding around the handset's edge and features a buttonless facia as well as a power/lock key almost exactly halfway down its right side. To add a level of additional toughness to the phones sturdy build quality, the Z also comes with both IP55 and IP57 certified levels of dust and water resistance.
We've already touched on hardware but the biggest talking point is the phone's full 1080p HD display, which also features Sony's latest Mobile Bravia Engine 2 technology, which helps with colour and contrast control, to keep images looking vivid and sharp. There’s also a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, clocked at 1.5GHz, which is currently regarded as one of the best chips in the business. To finish things off there’s an 8-megapixel camera capable of Full HD video recording and it can even take HDR (High Dynamic Range) stills and video.
Pre-orders have already kicked in for this power house and availability is expected to take place from sometime between late February and early March. See our hands-on of the Xperia Z here and the Xperia ZL here.
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