Sony’s Xperia line of smartphones are not generally released in the United States mainly because Apple and Samsung are dominant players in the market. However, Sony has decided to debut one of its Xperia devices in the country now, dubbed the Xperia XZ Premium. The phone was on preorder for the last few days and has now been released across the country.
Availability and price of the handset
The new flagship device from Sony is available at some online retailers, such as Amazon and Best Buy. At these sites, the smartphone is available bearing a price tag of $799.99 and comes in two different color options, including black and chrome.
A pink shaded variant is also up for pre-order and is set to release on July 3.
It is also important to note that only the unlocked version of the handset is available at these retailers and the smartphone will only support GSM networks. This means that the device will only be compatible with T-Mobile and AT&T networks in the United States. Users will not be able to opt for other carriers such as Verizon and Sprint with this handset.
Specs of the Sony phone
The Sony smartphone boasts a 5.46-inch 4K (3,849 x 2,140 pixels) display with a pixel density of 807ppi. The IPS LCD display panel is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The handset is powered by the Snapdragon 835 chipset, clocked at 2.45 GHz along with an Adreno 540 GPU in tow.
The phone further boasts 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. This memory can be expanded via microSD cards to a maximum of 256 GB.
The smartphone is equipped with a 19-megapixel primary sensor at the back and a 13-megapixel selfie sensor. The rear camera can record videos in 2160p at 30fps and in 720p at 960fps. The latter functionality is for slow motion video recordings.
The selfie camera can record Full HD videos at 1080p.
The handset will run on the Android 7.1 Nougat operating straight out of the box. The phone comes with a non-removable 3,230 mAh battery. The battery in the device supports Quick Charge 3.0. Other features include a fingerprint scanner. The Xperia XZ Premium has an IP68 certification, meaning it is dust and water resistant.
The high price of $800 can only be justified due to the presence of a 4K resolution display, which is quite uncommon in the smartphone space today. However, apart from the display, all other features look similar to other top-end phones available in the market. It remains to be seen how well the latest Sony offering is able to compete with big wigs such as Samsung, Apple, LG, and more.
