Sony has been diving deeper and deeper into the sea of waterproof phones. The company first made a splash with the Xperia Z, a waterproof smartphone that came out after the company's split with its long time partner Ericsson. Then came the Xperia Z1, which improved upon the Xperia Z in some aspects. And, this year, the company has gone all out with the release of the Xperia Z1S, a successor to the Xperia Z1.
The Xperia Z1S was unveiled at the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas earlier this week and the new waterproof smartphone was met with a generally positive response. The Xperia Z1S will be available exclusively to T-Mobile subscribers with pre-registration already ongoing. The Z1S will be available online from Jan. 13 while an in-store release has been scheduled for Jan. 22.
Unlike its predecessor the Xperia Z1 that is rated as waterproof up to a depth of 3 feet, the Xperia Z1S has a higher waterproof rating (IP58) and can stay submerged for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 4.9 feet. And, here's a piece of news that'll make you want to grab the smartphone - the specially designed dedicated camera button will allow users to take photos underwater. With other smartphones, users would need to use a special waterproof case to achieve the same feat.
Speaking about camera, the Xperia Z1S comes with a 20.7-megapixel snapper and Sony's proprietary G Lens optics. The smartphone also comes with a BIONZ mobile image-processing engine, which takes the phone's photo and video capabilities to a new level. The device also comes with a host of other features that makes taking photos a whole lot easier and much more enjoyable for people who like getting wet.
The Xperia Z1S weighs in at 5.71 ounces and comes with a slew of features and specifications that one would expect in a flagship device. It comes with a Full HD TRILUMINOS 5-inch touchscreen, a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974 Quad Core processor, 2 GB of RAM, LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 3000 mAh battery. The phone also comes with Sony's PlayStation App, which allows users to connect the Xperia Z1S with their PS4s. The Z1S ships with Android 4.3 Jellybean out of the box. However, an update to Android 4.4 Kitkat is in the works.
