Sony has officially unveiled its new flagship camera, albeit to non-existent fanfare.
Unlike other smartphone makers, who tend to hype up the coming of their flagships for marketing purposes, the Japanese electronics manufacturer has taken to a press release posted on its website to herald the arrival of the new Xperia Z4, the latest in Sony's line of high-end Xperia Z series of smartphones.
On the outside, the Xperia Z4 looks almost exactly like its predecessor, with both sharing the same 5.2-inch screen and a display resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. There are, however, a few noticeable changes, such as the shiny metal frame on the phone's edges and the slimmer, lighter profile of the Xperia Z4, which is 0.4 mm thinner and 8 grams lighter than the Xperia Z3.
On the inside, however, is where Sony focused on changing. Powering the device is a 64-bit octa-core 2 GHz Snapdragon 810 from Qualcomm and 3 GB of RAM. Storage is capped at 32 GB, although users will be glad to know that Sony included a microSD slot that can accommodate up to 128 GB of additional space.
The 2,930 mAh battery, however, could be a disappointment, as it is a slight downgrade from the 3,100 mAh battery of the previous flagship. It is, however, slightly bigger than the 2,550 mAh battery on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the 2,840 mAh battery on the HTC One M9.
As for the camera, which is historically one of Sony's best assets, the Xperia Z4 has a 20.7-megapixel rear shooter equipped with a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS sensor and BOINZ image processor. It also has a new "cooking mode," for users who like to take pictures of their food and share it with their friends. For selfie-taking and video conferencing, Sony upgraded the front camera to 5.1 megapixels.
Other special features include the highest dust and waterproof ratings of IP6X and IPX5/IPX8, allowing the Xperia Z4 to be submerged in up to five feet of water for more than half an hour. Sony also promises support for LDAC, a high-resolution audio technology that claims to have better sound quality than CD. It will come running with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box and will be available in black, white, copper, and aqua green.
Sony has yet to unveil how much the new Xperia Z4 will cost or when customers in the U.S. can expect to buy the new smartphone. The press release was written in Japanese, which means Sony could be targeting its home country first before it takes its flagship to other markets.
At best, the new Xperia Z4 appears to be more evolutionary than revolutionary, and it is unclear how Sony plans to attract new customers with its new but mostly iterative smartphone. Despite launching to positive reviews, the very similar Xperia Z3 did not particularly sell well.
