FollowOn the 20th of April 2015 Sony announced in Japan their new top of the line Smartphone. It is the successor of the Z3 hardware and software wise but also in terms of design. And in spite of that, it has the felling of same old same old.
The all too familiar aspects are the same as on the Z3: front and back glass panels, a chassis that even has the same length and width (5.75 x 2.83 in), the virtually identical IPS LCD 5.2 inches full HD screen and high pixel back camera.
The small differences come in the form of the android version that you get out of the box (Android OS, v5.0 – Lollipop) and the front camera which now is a 5 megapixel wide angle lens one, better suited for selfies.
But the real difference is the use of the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, a 64-bit octa-core beast that was met with mixed feelings, so much so that Samsung decided to leave it out when designing the new Galaxy S6, choosing instead their own Exynos 7420 chipset. There were so many rumors about overheating and throttling that it’s not far-fetched to question Sony’s decision to use it when thinking about the thickness of the device which has come down 0.4 mm from the previous version.
Couple this aspect with the lower rated non-removable battery (2930 mAh as opposed to 3100 mAh found in the Z3) and you get a head-scratcher.
This phone comes at a moment in time when Sony is trying to reorganize its mobile division and cut down costs. But at the same time the company needs to still have a strong presence in the minds of its customers to be able to stand a chance against stronger brands like Samsung, Apple and even HTC and LG.
That is why Sony decided, as Hiroki Totoki, president and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications declared, to focus on the high-end Smartphone market with devices priced at $ 700 and upward, as the Xperia Z4 will be.
The phone is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year but it is unclear whether it is an exclusive for the Japanese market or an international launch will follow.
Some might say that Sony is now just trying to defend the foothold they have in their home market with this move, but the truth is the company could soon be left with just their games console and photo cameras businesses if their luck in the mobile devices arena doesn’t turn around.
Image Source: astronomycommunication
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