Sony announced their latest flagship phone today, the Xperia Z4, at an event in their home country of Japan. The phone mimics the Xperia Z4 Tablet, with an iterative design and improved specifications over last year’s Z3.
The phone’s rounded metal and glass body is thinner and lighter than last year’s model, at 6.9mm and 144 grams. The Xperia Z4 is water and dustproof, with an IP68 rating, including a cap-less micro USB port. Screen size and resolution has remained fixed at 5.2 inches and 1920 x 1080p, which makes sense given the higher energy requirements and diminishing returns of moving to a 1440p display.
3GB of RAM and micro SD card support of up to 128GB is also the same as the Z3, but internal storage has doubled to 32GB on the cheapest model. The biggest difference is the new Snapdragon 810 octa-core chipset, which is also the first 64-bit processor to be used in a Sony flagship.
The rear-facing camera is a 20.7-megapixel unit, the same as last year’s model, but the front-facing camera has been upgraded from 2.2 megapixels to a 5.1 megapixel unit with a wide-angle lens and digital image stabilisation.
The Xperia Z4 was the only phone announced at the event; it looks like Sony have no plans to introduce a corresponding Compact model as they did last year. No international release date or plans have yet been announced, but it seems logical that we’ll see a European release of the Z4 or a similar Sony flagship sometime this summer. Of course, we’ll be supporting the phone with a range of Xperia Z4 accessories.
What do you think of the new Xperia Z4 – are you keen to see it make an appearance in Europe? Let us know in the comments below, or write to us on Twitter @mobilefun!