Sony gets its "X" factor to India

The Xperia X and XA are the first X series smartphones from Sony featuring the next-generation technologies in camera, battery and design.


Sony has announced the launch of its latest X series smartphones in India. The smartphones in the new series - Xperia X and Xperia XA are priced at Rs 48,990 and Rs 20,990 respectively.

The pre-booking of Xperia X can be done at all authorized Sony mobile dealers. The online booking can be done exclusively through Amazon India from 4PM onwards on May 30, 2016. However, Sony Xperia XA will be made available in the third week of June.

Sony says the new X series smartphones bring a new design language and improved imaging and battery capabilities. The smartphones integrates an all-new Predictive Hybrid Autofocus technology, which is developed in close collaboration with Sony's α camera engineers. It lets you choose your subject and then predicts its motion to offer blur free shots in approximately 0.61 seconds.

Sony Xperia X and XA also feature Sony's smart battery management, which as per company deliver up to two days battery life. Both Xperia X and Xperia XA brings a curved glass display within a rounded, continuous frame for comfortable handling. The smartphones have dual-SIM capabilities and are 4G LTE enabled.

Below is the detailed specifications of the smartphones.

Sony Xperia X

Sony Xperia X is powered by a 64 Bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor paired up with 3GB of RAM. The smartphone sports a 5-inch 1080p display with Sony's X-Reality engine. It integrates a 23MP rear camera with 24mm wide Sony's G Lens with F2.0 aperture. In addition to this it is equipped with a 13MP wide angle front camera, which has a Sony Exmor RS sensor and low-light scene recognition.

The smartphone is powered by a 2,620mAH battery unit, which seems a bit underpowered on papers and when compared with other flagship smartphones in the market. Sony Xperia X has 32GB of inbuilt memory, which can be further expanded by up to 200GB via microSD card. The smartphone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and can be purchased with an EMI of Rs 2,999 between June 6 to June 30 2016.

Looking at the specifications of the smartphones, we can say that it seems quite overpriced at a price tag of Rs 48,990. A number of smartphones including Xiaomi Mi 5, Lenovo Vibe X3, Moto X Style, Nexus 6P, etc. offer better specifications at a considerably lower price-point.

Sony Xperia XA

Coming on to the affordable Sony Xperia XA, the smartphone is backed by a 64-bit MediaTek Helio P10 CPU in support with 2GB of RAM. Xperia XA features a 5-inch 720p edge-to-edge display and sports a 13MP rear camera with Exmor RS mobile sensor. An 8MP camera is provided on front with 88 degree wide angle lens. Sony Xperia XA has 16GB of internal memory, which can be expanded by up to 200GB via microSD card. Sony is shipping the smartphone with a 2,300mAh battery unit and Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Sony is also offering free content worth over Rs 2,700 with the new smartphones. Customers who buy the new smartphones will get free content on applications such as Sony LIV- free 3 months subscription worth Rs 299, Hungama Play- free 3 months subscription worth Rs 750, Kindle- free e-book worth Rs 1,000, Gameloft and Modern Combat: Pre-installed Full HD games with free credits worth Rs 780 exclusively in Xperia X.

Price and availability

Sony Xperia X is priced at Rs 48,990 and will be available in White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, Rose Gold colour variant by June 7, 2016.

Sony Xperia XA will retail at Rs 20,990 in White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, Rose Gold colour variant by third week of June, 2016.

Sony's latest Moto G competitor is the Xperia E5

After leaking the announcement on social media over a week ago, Sony has officially confirmed the brand new Xperia E5, a phone which sports a lower price tag, and lesser specs than the headline Xperia X and Xperia Z5.

There's a mediocre 5-inch 720p screen on the front, camera wise the specs sound top notch with a 13MP rear sensor with auto-focus, HDR, flash and a 3 times zoom paired with a 5MP front-facing camera.

The Xperia E5 comes with a quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory.

It also features impressive microSD support up to 200GB, much like the flagship Sony range.

It's no flagship

It comes with the latest Android 6 Marshmallow software, but there's no word on whether Sony plans to bring Android N to it when Google releases it later this year .Our money would be on yes.

The E5 also comes with NFC and 4G connectivity as well as a 2700mAh battery, which Sony claims will have up to 2 days battery life.

You'll be able to buy the phone in either black or white, but a release date and pricing information is still not available so we'll have to wait a while longer to find out when it'll come out.

If you can't wait for the next big thing from Sony though you can always buy the brand new Xperia X.

Sony Xperia Z5, Xperia Z5 Compact, Xperia Z5 Premium First Impressions

Sony unveiled its flagship smartphone lineup for 2015, and instead of the two variants that most were expecting, we got three - the Sony Xperia Z5, the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, and the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium.

At the pre-IFA launch event in Berlin on Wednesday, the Xperia Z5 Premium was mentioned almost as an afterthought as Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai took time to walk through the features of the Sony Xperia Z5 and its smaller sibling, the Z5 Compact. However, it was the Premium that grabbed most of the headlines for being the first smartphone with a 4K display. While we've seen the emergence of 2K displays on smartphones, most people we know are happy with full-HD resolution. In fact, the iPhone 6 isn't even full-HD and still we've yet to come across average users who say that it has a "low resolution" screen.

(Also see:  Sony Xperia Z5 vs. LG G4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. iPhone 6 Plus)

In that context, is the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium a concept more than anything else? Is it an attempt bySony to push the boundaries of what's possible and remind everyone that there's plenty of innovation left in the old warhorse? While company representatives wouldn't directly comment on the subject, reading between the lines suggests that is at least part of the motivation.

"I believe there is still great potential for innovation within consumer electronics. At Sony we'll continue to make advances that make your life better and to provide you with wow experiences," Hirai said as part of a statement released to the media.

(Also see:  Sony Xperia Z5 Compact vs. LG G4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. iPhone 6)

And the Premium certainly lives up to the hype. We spent around 24 hours with the Xperia Z5 Premium and Xperia Z5 before the launch event, and a few minutes with the Xperia Z5 Compact at the demo area at the launch venue. Apart from the screen size and resolution, the three phones are practically identical, and apart from a few niggles - some of which can be attributed to the fact that what we received were pre-release units - they represent a package with plenty of potential.

Display
There's no doubt that the screen on the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is stunning. At over 800 pixels per inch, the display is obviously the highest resolution yet, but in terms of everyday use, most would be hardpressed to spot any noticeable improvement in terms of density compared to, say, the display on the Samsung Galaxy S6.

(Also see:  Sony Xperia Z5 Premium vs. LG G4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. iPhone 6 Plus)

In fact, apart from the occasion when we had both smartphones under the lens in side-by-side comparisons, we didn't spot a significant difference between the Z5 Premium and the Sony Xperia Z5, which has a 'paltry' full-HD display. The Xperia Z5 Compact has a smaller display and a lower resolution 720p panel.

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (left) and Sony Xperia Z5.

Camera improvements
The headline feature of the new Xperia Z5 series of smartphones is of course the rear camera. The three phones come with 1/2.3 Exmor RS for mobile 23-megapixel sensor and f/2.0 G lens. Sony claims to have designed the camera inside its new flagships using the same technology that's seen in its Alpha range of interchangeable lens cameras. The camera also boasts of the "fastest autofocus in a smartphone" - at 0.037 seconds - and while we couldn't do any side-by-side comparisons with other smartphones during our time with the devices, the camera certainly felt fast enough for most everyday occasions.

One area where we definitely spotted significant improvements is image stabilisation, or SteadyShot as Sony likes to call it. The Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Premium were able to reduce a large part of the jerkiness that comes when you shoot a video while walking, which is an extremely welcome addition. 

Sony is also claiming improvements in low-light performance of the camera, a claim we will put to test as part of our detailed review at a later stage. From whatever little we've seen so far, the camera inside the new Xperia Z5 series of phones has the potential to compete with - if not better - the best in business.

Fingerprint scanner
The other big new feature is addition of a fingerprint scanner, something which people have come to expect from a flagship device. We've seen fingerprint scanners integrated into home buttons (usually work well) and we've come across fingerprint scanners at back of the device (most with disastrous results), and now we have a fingerprint scanner integrated on to the side. Sony seems to have got the hardware and software implementation done just right, as the feature worked as advertised in the time we spent with the devices.

Some concerns
Our biggest concern comes from the fact that the phones use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, especially due to its heating issues. In fact, during the brief time that we spent with the device, we got the overheating warning on a couple of occasions when we were shooting 4K video. Granted, we were outdoor on a hot (by European standards) day, but we should still be able to shoot more than a couple of minutes of videos before running into such problems. 

(Also see:  Sony Xperia Z5 vs. Sony Xperia Z5 Compact vs. Sony Xperia Z5 Premium)

A Sony representative said the company is aware of these problems and reminded us of the pre-release nature of the unit we'd received. In fact, we were assured that these concerns had been addressed in newer builds and this shouldn't be a problem with units that customers will receive. We can only hope that's indeed the case.

Battery life of the Z5 Premium especially will be under the scanner, given the high resolution display that it needs to power.

Price and availability
Sony Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Compact will launch globally from October 2015, and Xperia Z5 Premium will hit the markets in November 2015. The Sony Xperia Z5 and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium will be available in both single SIM and dual SIM variants, with India expected to get the dual SIM models of the phones sometime before Diwali. The way things stand at the moment, the Xperia Z5 Compact is unlikely to come to the Indian shores, though that may change in the future. Prices for individual markets will be shared closer to launch.

Sony's Xperia Z5 Premium is world's first phone with a 4K display

Sony has shocked us all

Sony has just launched two new phones in the form of the Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Compact - but it didn't stop there, there's also the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium.

Set to launch later in the year, the Xperia Z5 Premium is the worlds first phone with a 4K display.

There's a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2560 equalling a staggering 806 pixels-per-inch

A world first

ZTE has been long rumoured to be creating a 4K smartphone, but it looks like Sony's Xperia Z5 Premium may beat it to market.

The phone itself is looking quite similar to the Xperia Z5 with an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chipset under the hood, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and microSD support up to 200GB.

It'll be available in chrome, black and gold and weighs in a little heavier than the other phones at 180g.

That may be down to the bigger battery coming in a 3430mAh, but that doesn't sound particularly big considering it's going to have to power a large 4K display.

As for the camera, Sony has updated its set up with a 23MP sensor, 4K video capture and a 24mm wide-angle G lens. On the front is a 5MP selfie camera with a 25mm wide-angle lens.

The Xperia Z5 Premium will be available around the world from November 2015 but there's no news on pricing just yet. We expect it's going to cost a bit more than the Xperia Z5 or Xperia Z5 Compact