The Xperia Z3 may have just been revealed at IFA 2014, but Sony's speedy release schedule means we have already began getting excited for its next flagship device hitting us in 2015. Recent speculation has suggested that Sony is ditching its two flagships per-year approach (sadly it hasn't appeared to do its smartphones sales much good) but it looks like Xperia Z4 might just pack enough punch to carry us through to 2016. Update: Sony has just officially announced its new Exmor RS image sensor, arriving in April 2015, which we think will make its way to the Xperia Z4. Head to the Xperia Z4 camera section for more details.
Sony Xperia Z4 release date
The original Sony Xperia Z was released in February of 2013, with the Xperia Z2 following a year later in March 2014. Sony had previously stated that it wanted to beat the yearly release cycle that most manufacturers have set for their flagship handsets and instead release them on a bi-annual basis, which is why the Xperia Z3 landed in the Autumn. This idea appears to have been abandoned now, and we think that the Xperia Z4 will be the only flagship released by Sony next year, so here's hoping it produces more than a just a modest upgrade over the Xperia Z3.
What all of this means for the Xperia Z4 release date is that it may materialize around April next year, but maybe even as soon as March to coincide with the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which takes place between the 2nd and 5th of that month.
- Sony Xperia Z4 price
Let’s be real. The Sony Xperia Z range is known for premium materials and hardware. The Z3 features a glass and aluminium housing, 20 MP camera, quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 5.2-inch full-HD display and 2 GB RAM. Oh, and it’s waterproof. The Z4 will be at least as powerful, so you can expect to pay top-dollar when it does come around.
The Xperia Z3 is available for pre-order in the UK for 549 GBP off-contract (or 515 GBP on Clove), and the 6-month old Z2 currently goes for 399 GBP (down from the 549 GBP RRP). The Verizon-based Z3v will start at 199 USD on a two-year contract. We expect similar sort of prices for the next generation.
Sony Xperia Z4 display
A blog going by the name of futuresupplier.com has leaked what it claims is the Xperia Z4 LCD digitizer. What a "digitizer" is, for those who aren't aware, is the glass sheet that covers a smartphones display and translates your swipes and presses into digital information (i.e. it tells your phone when and how you have touched the screen). From this we can get an impression of how the front of the device will look.
As you can see from the pictures, the Z4 looks to have a similar screen-size as the Z3; whether this is up 0.3 inches from the 5.2-inch screen of the Z3 to the suspected 5.5-inch screen of the Z4 is difficult to tell. The top speaker has been moved from the top-centre to the top-right of the handset, while the camera flash and proximity sensor have swapped sides. The speaker at the bottom of the screen is also not apparent on the Z4 digitizer, so we presume this will be making its way to the underside of the device, if the rumor pans out to be true. Check out the image below.
Please take this rumor in particular with a pinch of salt. We honestly know nothing about FutureSupplier, it seems to have gotten its hands on a Note Edge digitizer in the past (after it was released), but this in-and-of-itself doesn't say much about its credibility. If Sony is running with the design above, however, it seems likely that it will implement a QHD display, given that there doesn't appear to be a real change in the display dimensions.
Sony Xperia Z4 specs
While Sony has previously claimed that it doesn't believe in QHD technology due to the battery life trade-off, the latest leak from Android Origin includes a 5.5-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) display for the Xperia Z4. The rest of the specs revealed include a 64-bit compatible quad-core Snapdragon 810 (not even the 808), 4 GB of RAM, and 32 GB as the base model for internal storage.
Category 6 LTE (up to 300 Mbps download speeds) and Bluetooth 4.1 are a given, but one of the most exciting tidbits is that the Xperia Z4 might be getting amplifiers for its speakers, creating an audio experience like HTC's BoomSound. We'll just wait and see how much of this pans out, but if all this works out as leaked, then the ''minor upgrade to fit the six-month update cycle'' problem may be a thing of the past, because the Z4 looks to be shaping up as seriously next-gen if it appears on schedule.
Sony Xperia Z4 camera
Update: In a press release found on sony.net, Sony has announced its new smartphone camera sensor, the Exmor RS IMX230, claimed to be industries first "Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with an Image Plane Phase Detection Signal Processing Function for High-Speed AF". (In plain English, the high-speed autofocus means that any moving objects in your picture will be less blurry.)
The new 21 MP sensor is said to bring better performance in HDR mode, and also a higher level of detail in HD videos. Capable of recording at 30 FPS with 4K resolution (4096 x 2160), the stacked CMOS image sensor will capture videos much like it would take a normal photo, check out the image below for an example.
The sensor supports 192 different autofocus points, reducing noise and increasing detail by a significant margin. Based on the flagship rumors we have so far, it looks like Sony is (maybe unsurprisingly) going to lead the pack in terms of camera technology in 2015.
Previously we had seen a leaked Sony document on sonyalpharumors.com which suggests that Sony is producing a different, but even more impressive image sensor. Said to be the the world's first active pixel color sampling sensor (APCS), the document claimed to reveal that Sony is producing a 1.5-inch sensor with 4.8 million pixels, which doesn't seem so impressive until you consider that each individual pixel is said to be capable of carrying full RGBG information thanks to Sony's new technology. (This basically means 1 pixel created by this camera sensor can perform the job of 4 regular pixels.) To the end-user, this would mean higher-dynamic range, faster processing, lower-noise, no need for anti-aliasing, an electronic global shutter, and 2K video recording at 16,000 FPS, and a mega-pixel count which stretches far beyond the current 21 MP smartphone cap.
It's still entirely possible that this sensor is in development by Sony, but probably for a digital camera, rather than a smartphone. It is suspiciously advanced technology, even for a next-gen flagship, and we think it's far more likely that we will see the aforementioned IMX230 sensor on the Xperia Z4.
Sony Xperia Z4 features
It's safe to assume that Android 5.0 will be running on any device released next year, so you can bet the Z4 will come with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, along with all of the benefits it brings.
That's basically what we think we know about the Xperia Z4.
Are you excited about the Xperia Z4? Do you think the leaked specs can be done in time?
No comments:
Post a Comment