Perhaps the worst kept secret in tech from the past few months is now finally official, with Sony revealing the new Xperia Z smartphone at its CES 2013 event just now.
The handset formerly known as Yuga is indeed the same as the one in the recently leaked image, but now Sony has had the chance to speak we know plenty more about the new flagship. For starters, the phone will be available in three glossy colours: black, white and purple.
As we already knew, the display is the star of the show in this phone: a large, 5-inch Full HD touchscreen with an eye-popping 1920 x 1080 resolution. Running on Android Jelly Bean 4.1, the Z doesn’t have any buttons below the screen and as such it looks like a sleek and slim device that’ll be perfect for watching movies or playing games.
In terms of dimensions the Xperia Z is pretty slender, measuring 7.9mm thick and weighing in at 146g. With a 5-inch display however, the phone isn’t going to be as pocketable or palm-friendly as smaller devices, and it’s pretty long at 139mm.
Inside the Z there’s a powerful 1.5GHz Qualcomm quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard memory, which can be expanded with the use of a micro SD card. There’s also Wi-Fi, DLNA, micro USB, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HSPA/4G and NFC connectivity.
Another area where Sony has tended to excel in the past is camera technology, and the Xperia Z is no exception. On the back of the phone you’ll find the world’s first 13-megapixel Exmor RS sensor, which is capable of capturing HDR video in Full HD quality – something we’ve not seen before from a smartphone. There’s also a burst fire mode capable of snapping ten 9-megapixel images within a second or so, along with a host of other shooting modes and styles to choose from.
Where Sony has surprised us is with durability. When you think of a top of the range smartphone you usually associate using a case, being over-cautious and the like. The Xperia Z is different though, being waterproof down to 1m and for 30 minutes to prevent it from being ruined when you give it an unplanned trip into the bath or toilet. It’s also dust resistant and generally tough all round, which is sure to be a bonus point for many clumsy smartphone users out there.
Naturally Sony’s ever-expanding selection of digital services is present on the phone, including the PlayStation Store for games, Music Unlimited for downloading your tunes and Walkman for playing them back.
Phones 4 u has already confirmed it will be launching the Xperia Z on March 1st, with Vodafone confirming availability.
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