After months of leaving the lucrative American market out of its flagship party, Sony is finally bringing the Xperia Z3+, also known as the Xperia Z4 in its home country in Japan, as Xperia Z4v to the United States.
The "v" in its name stands for Verizon, which means Sony's flagship smartphone will only be available through America's biggest wireless carrier. Verizon itself made the announcement on its own website, saying that the Xperia Z4v will become available to customers at an unspecified date this summer.
It is still unknown how much Sony will sell the 5.2-inch device to American consumers, but the Xperia Z3+, the global version of the phone, is sold in the United Kingdom for £549 or approximately $859.
While the Xperia Z4v has a different name, it is actually not very different from the first two devices. The major difference one would find, aside from the Verizon logo that sits on top of the device's screen, is the support for wireless charging using both Qi and PMA standards. The Z4v also touts a higher-resolution display of 2,560 x 1,440, while the Z3+ and Z4 have full-HD displays of 1,080p, and sports a slightly larger 3,000 mAh battery, compared to the 2,930 mAh battery on the other two, capable of Quick Charge 2.0.
Other than that, the Z4v runs on the same 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 from Qualcomm, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of built-in disk space expandable to 128 GB via microSD slot. It will also have the same 20.7-megapixel rear camera with an Exmor RS sensor and high ISO and a five-megapixel front shooter, which is a teeny bit smaller than the 5.1-megapixel front-facing camera on the Z3+.
Like the global and Japanese version, the U.S. version of Sony's flagship is also dust and water-resistant and allows gamers to stream their PlayStation 4 games to the smartphone. Verizon says the Z4v will be available only in black and white, while the Z3+ and Z4 also include options for copper, aqua and green.
It is also likely that the Z4v comes with the same overheating issues that currently plague the Z4 blamed on the Snapdragon 810 processor running under the hood. Users in Japan have complained about their handsets heating up after extended use. In fact, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has issued a warning and guidelines to deal with the thermal problem while Sony works on releasing a permanent fix.
