Sony Launches the Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact at IFA 2017

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With most major OEMs pulling out their big guns for 2017, Sony is also refreshing its lineup to compete against the competition. After a few leaks, Sony has finally launched the new Sony Xperia XZ1 and Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact at IFA 2017.

Most flagships this year saw changes, sometimes radical, on their design. But Sony has once again chosen to recycle the design on its flagship, choosing to remain with the big chin and forehead in a year where everyone is shaving off the bezels in some way. Both the Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact are easily identified as Sony smartphones, but ones that cannot really stand apart from the rest of Sony’s smartphone lineup in terms of design. The phones feature the side-mounted fingerprint scanner that is integrated into the power button — a feature that I would personally like other phones to experiment with as well. Sony does note however that this feature may not be available in all markets, a likely indication that the phones sold in the USA will once again skip on the fingerprint sensor. Both the phones also have a front-facing stereo speaker setup.

The Xperia XZ1 is the bigger of the two devices launched, and comes with a 5.2″ FHD HDR display housed in a 148 x 73 x 7.4mm metallic body for the phone. On the inside, the XZ1 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with microSD support. The phone comes with a 2,700 mAh battery that supports Qnovo Adaptive Charging and Qualcomm’s Quick Charging 3.0 through the USB 3.1 Type-C port. The Xperia XZ1 is also IP68 certified for water and dust resistance.

For the camera setup, the Xperia XZ1 borrows heavily from the previously released Xperia XZ Premium back from MWC 2017. The phone comes with what Sony is calling the Motion Eye camera. The rear camera is a 19MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture, but instead of a 2-layer design, this features a memory layer in between the sensor and control circuitry layers. This allows the camera itself to store photos temporarily instead of waiting on the chipset to transfer them to RAM. This in turn allows the camera to capture 4K video, 720p HD video at 960fps slow-motion and autofocus burst. The front camera is a 13MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture and a 22mm wide angle lens.

The Xperia XZ1 will comes in four colors: Black, Warm Silver, Moonlit Blue and Venus Pink.

Perhaps the more interesting product in this launch is the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact.

The Xperia XZ1 Compact shares a lot in common with the Xperia XZ1, but comes in a smaller form factor. As a consequence of its smaller 129 x 65 x 9.3mm size, it has a small 4.6″ HD display. The metallic build is replaced with a plastic compound, and the USB connection is only limited to USB 2.0 on this one. The front camera is a super wide angle 18MP Exmor sensor with f/2.4 aperture and with a 120 degree field-of-view. Everything else is shared with the Xperia XZ1, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and 2,700 mAh battery. Color options on the XZ1 Compact include Black, Snow Silver, Horizon Blue, Twilight Pink.

As the proverbial cherry on top, both the Sony Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact will ship with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box underneath Sony’s UX. Both the phones will be available globally in September 2017, though Sony chose to remain silent on the pricing and specific region availability.

The XZ1 Compact does seem better placed than its larger sibling, as it comes as a powerful flagship grade device in a form-factor that is very largely ignored by top-tier OEMs. Most offerings in this screen size come with watered down specifications and can be considered mid-end phones at their very best. The XZ1 Compact on the other hand identifies strongly as a top-tier device on the inside, and is likely to come at a corresponding price.

What are your thoughts on Sony’s Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact? Would you give Sony a pass for the design language adopted on the new flagships? Let us know in the comments below!