Sony Xperia Z1S Z1 Release Date Specs Features Price
The Sony Xperia Z1S has a release date set for later this month, as a T-Mobile exclusive model that's very much like the flagship Xperia Z1. Sony Electronics

Sony will release a variant of its Xperia Z1 flagship for T-Mobile, it said Monday at the 2014 consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. Sony announced that the in-store release date for the Xperia Z1S is set for Jan. 22, with online pre-orders available and shipping set to begin on Monday, Jan. 13.

The Sony Xperia Z1S features many of the high-end specs of the Z1, along with the necessary radio bands for T-Mobile. The waterproof and dust-resistant smartphone is priced at $528 for T-Mobile customers, paid out over the course of two years for $22 per month.

Sony will bundle the Xperia Z1S with the PlayStation 4, offering a $100 Visa gift card for a limited time to customers who purchase both. Sony will release the Xperia Z1S with an app that allows the Xperia Z1S to connect to the PS4. The PlayStation app allows smartphones to work as a remote control for the PS4.

The Sony Xperia Z1S has a 20.7-megapixel camera sensor, along with a physical shutter button on the side of the phone itself. Sony says that the dedicated camera button can be used to take underwater photos and videos. The Xperia Z1S is rated (IP55/IP58) to confirm, like the Xperia Z1, that it can be submerged under 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) of water for 30 minutes, and is dust resistant, as long as the connectivity ports are sealed using included covers.

Sony has doubled the amount of storage on the Xperia Z1S from the Xperia Z1, offering 32GB instead of 16GB. Outside of storage, the Sony Xperia Z1S has specs nearly identical to the Xperia Z1, including 5-inch full HD 1080p display that features Bravia screen technology, and a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, running at 2.2GHz.

The Xperia Z1S also has 2GB of RAM, a 3,000 mAh battery and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Sony’s Xperia Z1S will run on a modified version of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, as opposed to the newly-released Android 4.4 KitKat, and like the Xperia Z1 will feature a microSD card slot for expanded storage.

Follow Thomas Halleck on Twitter @tommylikey.

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