Sony’s following Samsung today with a slew of announcements that will become so much gray background noise as the onslaught of IFA reveals continues. There are two new smartphones, a new fitness and life logging wearable, and a new smartwatch (which ditches Sony’s homegrown OS for Android Wear) in the mix.

Sony Z3



Sony’s new smartphone is coming hot on the heels of the Xperia Z2, which was revealed earlier this year. The Z3 doesn’t completely render the Z2 obsolete, however, and is more of an iterative evolution of the previous flagship, with a 5.2-inch 1080p screen, and a 20.7-inch display plus waterproofing, but it has a different frame with more rounded corners, a new camera with a high-ISO 12800 sensor and a 25mm wide angle lens. The Snapdragon 801 processor is clocked at 2.5GHz, too, which improves on the one found in the Z2 and should make this peppier. It launches this fall, but full details aren’t yet known around regions and pricing.

Z3 Compact

This boasts many of the same specs as the Z3, but with a shrunk down 4.6-inch display, with 720p resolution. That will likely mean lower costs, but Sony hasn’t revealed any specifics around that or launch timelines yet.

SmartBand Talk

This follow-up to the SmartBand offers lifelogging, which combines activity tracking with other contextual clues and device use to show you not just how you’ve been exercising, but much more beyond that. This model also packs a speaker and mic so that you can use it to field calls from your phone, and it has a 1.4-inch always-on e-ink display for power conservation and visibility in any lighting. It has IP68 waterproofing, and comes in black and white at launch.

SmartWatch 3

The new SmartWatch is Sony’s first foray into Android Wear devices, and packs a 320×320 1.6-inch display, with IP68 waterproofing, and microUSB charging. It has 4GB of local storage, its own GPS sensor in addition to an accelerometer, compass and gyroscope, and can also perform the same lifelogging functions as the SmartBand Talk. Both it and the Talk will launch this fall for 250 euros and 160 euros respectively. No word yet on U.S. launch or pricing.

Sony’s IFA announcements show a company that’s willing to iterate faster to match the pace of the current mobile industry. The question will be whether consumers can keep up, or whether this incremental changes fail to grab the attention of more punctuated, regular updates.