Sony at IFA: Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact, Z3 Tablet Compact, SmartWatch 3

Sony have just held their IFA press event, announcing four new Android devices of various shapes and sizes: two smartphones, one tablet and a smartwatch. They also unveiled a surprisingly awesome new Android app for PS4 owners and a fitness band. Let’s take a closer look.

Xperia Z3: the full-size flagship

The Xperia Z3 was the first to be announced, and the most well-leaked of the devices on offer. The phone, as you might expect, is Sony’s flagship for the latter half of 2014, and improves on the formula introduced by its predecessors: top notch components, a classy glass-and-metal design with waterproofing, good optics and a clean version of Android.

Internally, there are few surprises. The phone comes with a 5.2-inch 1080p display, a quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3 GB RAM and a 3100mAh battery. The 20-megapixel rear camera hasn’t seen a jump in raw megapixels, but it’s still an improvement: the sensor has been boosted to reach 12,800 ISO sensitivity and the lens is wider, the equivalent of a 25mm field of view.

The design has been subtly changed from the Z2, with a rounder, gently sloping frame and a thinner 7.3mm waistline. Despite the near 1mm reduction in width compared to the Z2, battery capacity has remained almost constant and battery life has improved from 1.3 days of moderate use to 2 days.

The Xperia Z3 will be available in four colourways – bronze, silver green, black and white – from October. Of course, we’re already preparing official Xperia Z3 accessories – expect more details on these soon!

Xperia Z3 Compact: the slightly smaller flagship

The Z3 Compact is an almost straight conversion of the Z3’s major hardware to a smaller 4.6-inch screen size. The resolution of that screen drops to 720p and RAM to 2GB, but pretty much everything else remains the same, including the quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 16 GB of storage plus microSD and the 20-megapixel camera.

The Z3 Compact will launch at a lower price than the Z3, and should also hit in October. Expected colours include black, white, green and orange. As with the full-size Z3, we’re already adding Xperia Z3 Compact accessories.

Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

Once again, the story here is that you’re getting the same strong internals and industrial design of the Xperia Z3 flagship, but in a different form factor. This time we’re looking at an 8-inch tablet with a resolution of 1920×1200. The tablet is impressively thin too, at just 6.4mm. Otherwise, you can expect the same strong performance and relatively clean Android as on the Z3 smartphones. Accessories for the Z3 Tablet Compact are also forthcoming.

PS4 Remote Play

The killer app for these three Xperia Z3 devices may be something called PS4 Remote Play. The app allows you to play PlayStation 4 games from anywhere in your house, as long as you’re within WiFi range. The PlayStation 4 does all the grunt-work, then sends a video stream to your device and requests inputs. Together with a special series of clamps for attaching phones and tablets to the PlayStation 4 controller, it provides a pretty good approximation playing a PS4 game the usual way. It could be quite useful if your TV or living room is occupied but you’d still like to play. PS4 Remote Play is set to go live in November.

Sony SmartWatch 3

The Sony SmartWatch 3 is the first in its line to run Android Wear, a big change from the stance that Sony took upon the initial release of the Google OS earlier this year. The watch has that trademark 1.6-inch transflective LCD display, and looks quite sporty with a rubbery band in an array of colours. The watch comes with a best-possible IP68 rating, so it should survive sudden downpours and the shower equally well. The SW3 will be available this autumn in many colours:

Sony SmartBand Talk

The final piece of the puzzle for Sony today was a new SmartBand, a fitness-tracking accessory that’s worn on the wrist. The gadget has a slow-updating but long-lasting e-ink display, which makes for a sluggish user interface. The band includes a microphone and speakers, allowing you to use it as a kind of Bluetooth headset for your phone. You can even snap your fingers to start or pause your tunes. The SmartBand will be available this autumn.

Conclusion

So there we have it – all of Sony’s big announcements from IFA 2014. To leave any comments and questions, please visit the comments section below or write to us on Twitter @mobilefun.