Sony Unveils Xperia Z4 With Snapdragon 810, 5.2-Inch Display; Will It Turn Around Sony's Fortune?

Japan’s Sony Corp. on Monday unveiled a new flagship smartphone, called the “Xperia Z4,” with high-end features and specifications. The company announced the device on the Japanese version of its website, highlighting specs for the new handset, which is slated for a mid-2015 release in Japan.

Sony, which did not announce an international release date for the Xperia Z4, said that the new device features a 5.2-inch full-HD display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. With a thickness of 6.9mm, the phone is slightly thinner than its predecessor, the Xperia Z3, and comes with a 144-gram (5 ounces) design and a slim bezel around its screen.

Sony’s Xperia-branded smartphone range is known for its powerful cameras and water-and dust-resistant form factor. The new Xperia Z4 sports a 20.7 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera. The device has IP6X, IPX5 and IPX8 ratings, meaning that it is dustproof, splash-resistant and can survive underwater for a long duration.

The latest Xperia model is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM, while being equipped with a 2,930mAh battery. Running on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the new Z4 also comes with 32GB of onboard storage, along with expandable memory support of up to 128GB through microSD card.

The Xperia Z4 will be available in white, black, copper and aqua green colors. However, the company is yet to reveal the price of the new phone.

“There's a broad variety in the prices of smartphones, from around $100 to $1,400 at the upper end,” Reuters quoted Hiroki Totoki, the president and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications, as saying. “We want to focus in the upper half of that.”

The launch of the premium Xperia Z4 suggests that Sony is still fighting a losing battle against high-end rivals such as Samsung and Apple that dominate the smartphone market. The company announced in February that it would reduce its weaker operations such as television and mobile phones to focus more on video game console and camera sensors. However, CEO Kazuo Hirai denied that the company would exit from weak operations, Reuters reported.