Sony unveiled the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January this year and a month later they went to the market. Hyped for it’s waterproof functionality at upto 1 metre in water, Xperia Z makes a show in Nairobi, Kenya at the Tribe Hotel. Sony Xperia Z is a 5 inch TFT screen device with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 technology, capacitive multi-touch screen- upto ten fingers, 1080p full HD with 441ppi covered by shatter proof scratch resistant glass.
Processor is a Qualcomm 1.5GHz Quad-Core Krait MDM9215M or APQ80864 and Adreno 320 GPU. The storage is 16GB expandable to 64GB via microSD and 2GB RAM. It’s dimensions are 139 x 71 x 7.9mm and weighs 146g. It runs on microSIM and can do data speeds of 42Mbps HSDPA and 100Mbps for the LTE version. It dons a 13MP Exmor RS camera, AF, Digital Image Stabilization, LED Flash with geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, image stabilization, HDR,sweep panorama with full HD video recording and playing, 1080p @30fps. Front camera is 2.2MP Exmor R full HD. The OS out of the box is 4.1.2 Jelly Bean but it’s expected to get Android 4.2 Jelly Bean in the near future. It runs on a 2330 mAh Li-ion battery.
Izzat Kittaneh, Director Business Management and Pricing at Sony Mobile Communications Middle East & Africa said at launch, that the 5 things that people seek out for in smartphones are the brand, Operating System, Screen size plus technology, battery capacity and sound. The Xperia Z has a glass front and rear that are shutterproof. Top causes of smartphone failure according to Izzat are:
- 25% water damage
- 5% miscellaneous
- 3% vehicle damage
- 66% drops
Sony Xperia Z will start selling at USD 700 or around Kes 60,000 at current market rates with colour options of White, Black and Purple.
