The widely rumoured and leaked Sony Xperia Z1 (AKA Honami) has been officially launched at the IFA trade show in Berlin. This is the Japanese electronics giant’s new flagship Android device succeeding the Xperia Z released just in Feb/March this year. Just like many other recent upgrades from other smartphone manufacturers the headline upgrades are in the imaging ability of the device.
Sony boasts that the Xperia Z1 is “all about your image” referring to the sleekly designed look of the smartphone and its superlative imaging capabilities in one snappy marketing strapline. This smartphone will “shoot crisp, blur-free photos with a quality and refinement that rivals your digital camera,” we are told. The new camera unit in the Xpreia Z1 has the following key components; a large 20.7 megapixel Exmor RS for mobile sensor and BIONZ for mobile image processing engine paired with a large, bright F2.0 Sony G lens.
The 5-inch full HD screen on the Xperia Z1 also packs lots of Sony’s proprietary image enhancing technologies such as TRILUMINOS Display and X-Reality Picture Engine. Like the Xperia Z before it the Z1 is water and dust proof in compliance with the IP55 and IP58 standards. You can submerge this smartphone in 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes (with covers and ports closed) without ill effect. New for the Z1 is a headphone socket that can be left uncapped but remain water resistant the previous model’s power connector flap is also not used in the Z1 as Sony have implemented a magnetic power connector.
Sony has equipped the Xperia Z1 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2 GHz processor and Adreno 330 GPU to provide users with snappy response and performance in the latest Android games and applications.
Sony Xperia Z1 key specifications:
- Screen: 5-inch, 1920x1080 pixels, 16,777,216 colour TFT with capacitive multi-touch, up to 10 fingers supported
- Processor: 2.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974 Quad Core, Adreno 330
- Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB storage on board (11GB available to users), microSD card up to 64GB
- Camera: 20.7 MP with 8X digital zoom, LED pulse flash. Front camera provides for 1080p video chat
- Sensors: accelerometer, ambient light, proximity, magnetometer, gyroscope
- Connectivity: LTE and 3G data
- Battery: 3000mAh
- OS: Android 4.2.2 at launch
- Price: £599 in VAT, SIM free
Pocket Lint magazine reports that the build of the Z1 has been changed quite a bit from the previous Xperia Z. While retaining a high quality metal and glass construction the hard edges are more comfortably bevelled. The frame of the phone is also now a one piece anodised metal structure which also serves as the phone’s antenna. There is said to be very little plastic left in the construction, just a thin border between the metal and glass elements. Sony told Pocket Lint “in a blind test it has carried out against the iPhone 5, the SGS4, and the Lumia 1020, people chose pictures by the Z1 every time”. The portable gadget website thought, following its short hands-on time with the device, that the Xperia Z1 could “quickly become the best Android handset on the market”.
Sony Lens Cameras
Sony also launched its lens camera range, which will be available from 20th September. The QX100, the high end model with F1.8 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* optics, will be £399 inc VAT while the 10x optical zoom Sony G lens equipped QX10 model will be a much more accessible £179 inc VAT.
