Sony to bring Xperia Z to SA

2013-01-09 07:27

Sony Mobile Communications has announced that its flagship Xperia Z smartphone will be coming to SA. (Sony)

Duncan Alfreds

Cape Town - Sony Mobile Communications announced that its flagship Xperia Z smartphone will be coming to SA early in 2013.

The company launched the device that promises to stretch expectations for the sector at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sony told News24 that the smartphone will be coming to SA early in 2013 as the company looks to take the mobile fight to its competitors.

The device, which retains the Xperia flagship branding, features a massive 12.7cm high definition display and Sony has re-employed its successful Bravia engine to enhance the graphics on the device.

As would be expected from a premium device, it's powered by a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor and it sports a 13 megapixel main camera.

Sony has also touted the ability of the device to capture high definition video with its HDR (High Dynamic Range) image sensor. It should allow the smartphone to capture video and images even against strong backlight such as into the sunset, for example.

One of the features that makes the Xperia Z unique is that despite the device being only 7.9mm thick, and built with durable reflective surfaces, it is also water and dust resistant.

The LTE-enabled smartphone is powered by Google's Android 4.1 (Jellybean) operating system and Sony has promised to upgrade the devices to 4.2.

In terms of content the Xperia Z will come pre-loaded with a Walkman application that provides access to music, but there's no word yet on whether Sony will launch the Sony Entertainment Network in SA.

Pricing for the smartphone is unclear, but expectations are that it will be comparative to devices like the Samsung Galaxy SIII, HTC One X, and the Apple iPhone 5.


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- News24