Sony’s Xperia Z to storm the mobile industry

By Rashika Fazali

With three orders of over 100 phones sold already in Sri Lanka even before the launch, Sony along with their Sri Lankan agent, Metropolitan Telecom Services, announced the release of the latest addition to the Sony family, the Xperia Z on Wednesday (20) at the Park Street Mews.

Dubbed as a ‘super smartphone’, Metropolitan Telecom Services CEO Roshan Tissera stated: “This super smartphone which was launched internationally just a few weeks ago is a showpiece of Sony’s half century of innovation in TV, imaging, music, film and gaming. The fact that the Xperia Z has already received 13 awards since its launch speaks for itself.”

He noted that the move to introduce this new phone to the public just few weeks after the international release was placed on the rapid growth of the mobile phone industry in the country as three million phones are sold annually, generating an income of over Rs. 10 billion.

Bigger than iPhone 5

Sony Singapore Head of Marketing Channel Vincent Ypi stated that this new generation phone has all of Sony’s innovations and technologies embedded in with a slick, slim design. It comes at five inch full HD screen with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels powered by Sony’s award winning Bravia technology and is physically bigger than the four inch iPhone 5.

Water and dustproof

Rain or dust, this smartphone is waterproof and dustproof. Tissera along with Metropolitan Telecom Services Director Anil Goonewardena demonstrated the reality of what happens to the phone if it is chucked into a jug of water. Shocking, but true, it worked perfectly fine as Tissera answered a call.

The smartphone has a wet tracking feature that lets the user to navigate the phone even when the screen is wet. However, the phone could only endure up to one meter of water for a period of 30 minutes.

Best of Sony

“It is the very best of Sony in a smartphone,” stated Goonewardena. The smartphone weighing 146 grams is powered by Snapdragon S4 pro quad processor which runs on Android’s latest operating system, Jelly Bean. It has a 2 GB of RAM, up to 16 GB of flash memory and an expansion slot with a microSD card up to 32 GB. It comes enabled with 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology, rear-facing 13 MP camera and front facing 2.2 MP.

Stunning photo and video quality

Xperia Z is packed with the functionality of a Sony Cyber-shot compact camera which can produce HD pictures and videos. With the use of the Sony’s ‘RS’ technology and the high dynamic range (HDR), the smartphone can capture high quality pictures and videos in low light conditions as well as adjust between low and high lit areas.

High-fidelity sound technology

When it comes to music, Sony has gone all out with the Xperia Z. The new ‘Clear Audio+’ technology incorporated with the award winning version of the Walkman technology adjusts sound quality. The phone also features the xLoud technology, Track ID music recognition and supports motion gaming.

NFC enabled devices

What’s tremendous about the Xperia Z is that it can connect and communicate with other electronic devices such as headphones using the near field communication (NFC).

With the NFC technology, users can connect to other NFC devices by bringing them close to the device and activating it with one tap wirelessly. There are no messy cables, wires or confusion. The user can receive calls and carry out the normal functionalities of the smart phone while it is enabled to other devices.  

The NFC-enabled headphones and speakers will allow users to listen to high quality music on your phone wirelessly. NFC-enabled devices will be launched in Sri Lanka in June.  

Connect to your TV wirelessly

With the Xperia Z, users can connect to the TV without any hassle by connecting the wireless display (WiDi) interface to your TV’s HDMI port. Pictures, movies, presentation, downloaded content etc. can be viewed on your TV through your phone.

Standby time increased by four

Although smartphones are packed with unbelievable features, they usually come with an inadequate battery life. Goonawardena stated that this phone is all about the battery.

Sony has introduced the Battery Stamina Mode which allows the standby time to be increased by four times by disabling battery draining applications such as Wi-Fi, email, push notifications etc. when the screen is off and resuming when the screen is on.