The Xperia Z3 currently ranks as one of our best Android phones in the world. We love it, and the prospect of the Xperia Z4 looming on the horizon has us giddy. However, that horizon has recently moved a little further away when we learned that the Xperia Z4 would not be making an appearance at MWC 2015. The good news is that a leaked benchmark has revealed some of the device specs. Head to the update in the news section below.
Sony Xperia Z4 news
Update: A leaked benchmark, supposedly for the Xperia Z4, has appeared online via Geekbench. The good news is that the rumored Snapdragon 810 processor looks like the chipset being used, and the benchmark also suggests the Z4 will house 3 GB of RAM. Check out the table below.
As for the results, the device received a score of 1196 for single-core performance and 3576 for multi-core. To give you some context, this is better than any smartphone currently on thebenchmark list (which only includes released devices) but trails way behind the rumored Galaxy S6 scores, which were 1520 for single-core and 5478 for multi-core performance with its expected Exynos 7420 chipset. Yikes.
Sony Xperia Z4 release date
It has been confirmed that there will be no Xperia Z4 at MWC. This throws the Xperia Z4 relase date up in the air. We can only assume that Sony either doesn't want to compete with the announcement of the Galaxy S6 and HTC One (M9) at MWC 2015, but the delay could also mean the device simply wasn't ready in time. In any case, it shouldn't be too much longer until we see the Xperia Z4 unveiled to the public.
The original Sony Xperia Z was released in February of 2013, with the Xperia Z2 following a year later in March 2014. Sony had previously stated that it wanted to beat the yearly release cycle that most manufacturers have set for their flagship handsets and instead release them on a bi-annual basis, which is why the Xperia Z3 landed in the Autumn.
This idea appears to have been abandoned now, and we think that the Xperia Z4 will be the only flagship released by Sony next year, so here's hoping it produces more than a just a modest upgrade over the Xperia Z3.
What all of this means for the Xperia Z4 release date is that it may materialize around April/May at an independent Sony event. Having said all of this, the recent Sony Pictures email leak specifically stated a planned date of May/November for the Xperia Z4. It seems likely this refers to the full-sized Xperia Z4 launch in May and the Z4 Compact in November, 2015.
Sony Xperia Z4 design
Amongst all the fun of the hackfest that is Sony Pictures' email servers right now lie a few very interesting images of the new Xperia Z4 (and maybe the Xperia Z4 Compact). Sony Mobile was pitching the next-gen device for inclusion in the new James Bond flick and felt the need to include some pics to help sway 007 (or perhaps the new Q).
The images are very different, with one looking quite Xperia Z3-ish (seen above), one showing a weird back that looks like padded leather and a detail of a very angular corner setup (below).
Sony Xperia Z4 price
Let’s be real. The Sony Xperia Z range is known for premium materials and hardware. The Z3 features a glass and aluminium housing, 20 MP camera, quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 5.2-inch Full HD display and 3 GB RAM. Oh, and it’s waterproof. The Z4 will be at least as powerful, so you can expect to pay top-dollar when it does come around.
The Xperia Z3 is available in the UK for 479 GBP off-contract on Amazon.co.uk, and around 600 USD on Amazon.com. We expect the launch price of the Z4 will be a bit higher than this (the Z3 has been around for a little while now), and if the rumored QHD version actually is in production, this will cost considerably more.
Sony Xperia Z4 display
While Sony has previously claimed that it doesn't believe in QHD technology due to the battery life trade-off, a recent leak has speculated that the Z4 will come in two versions: one with a QHD display and one with a Full HD display.
The news comes from Taiwanese site ePrice.com which claims that the QHD version will be released in US only. It's an interesting notion, and one that seems credible. Sony needs to do something to improve its poor smartphone sales, and with "screen resolution" being arguably the largest aspect of smartphone/tablet marketing in the West, it might be foolish for Sony to stick with full-HD only for its new flagship.
Also of note from ePrice, apparently the Z4's front camera will be a significant improvement from that of the past Xperia Z devices (if only Sony could fix the main camera's red-hue representation).
A supposed leaked internal document from Sony hit the internet late last year via phonearena who claimed the same source (tech site toranji.ir) accurately revealed iPhone 6 schematics previously. The leaked images not only suggest a 5.2-inch QHD display, but also 3 GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 805 processor and Android 5.0 Lollipop. Take a look at what we're talking about below.
This rumor is more than a little fishy to us. Firstly, we aren't sure why the overlaid text says Android 5.1 Lollipop. In the picture, it is clearly "5.0". The text is in English despite tornaji.ir writing in Persian - we don't know who it was added by. Secondly, it strikes us as a weird slide for an internal presentation anyway: what is its function? The text at the top left is barely visible. Lastly, with the Snapdragon 810 arriving on schedule (it can be found in the soon-to-be-released LG G Flex 2), this is probably going to be the processor that ends up on the Z4 launch.
Another recent rumor came from a blog going by the name of futuresupplier.com which leaked what it claims is the Xperia Z4 LCD digitizer. What a "digitizer" is, for those who aren't aware, is the glass sheet that covers a smartphones display and translates your swipes and presses into digital information (i.e. it tells your phone when and how you have touched the screen). From this we can get an impression of how the front of the device will look.
As you can see from the pictures, the Z4 looks to have a similar screen-size to that of the 5.2-inch Z3. The top speaker has been moved from the top-centre to the top-right of the handset, while the camera flash and proximity sensor have swapped sides. The speaker at the bottom of the screen is also not apparent on the Z4 digitizer, so we presume this will be making its way to the underside of the device, if the rumor pans out. Check out the image below.
We honestly know nothing about FutureSupplier, it seems to have gotten its hands on a Note Edge digitizer in the past (after it was released), but this in-and-of-itself doesn't say much about its credibility. If Sony is running with the design above, however, it seems likely that it will implement a QHD display, given that there doesn't appear to be a real change in the display dimensions (even though 5.2-inches seems small for a QHD screen).
Sony Xperia Z4 specs
Android Origin has previously speculated that a 5.5-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) display will appear the Xperia Z4. The rest of the specs revealed include a 64-bit compatible quad-core Snapdragon 810, 4 GB of RAM, and 32 GB as the base model for internal storage.
Category 6 LTE (up to 300 Mbps download speeds) and Bluetooth 4.1 are a given, but one of the most exciting tidbits is that the Xperia Z4 might be getting amplifiers for its speakers, creating an audio experience like HTC's BoomSound. We'll just wait and see how much of this pans out, but if all this works out as leaked, then the ''minor upgrade to fit the six-month update cycle'' problem may be a thing of the past, because the Z4 looks to be shaping up as seriously next-gen if it appears on schedule.
Sony Xperia Z4 camera
In a press release found on sony.net, Sony has announced its new smartphone camera sensor, the Exmor RS IMX230, claimed to be industries first "Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with an Image Plane Phase Detection Signal Processing Function for High-Speed AF". (In plain English, the high-speed autofocus means that any moving objects in your picture will be less blurry.)
The new 21 MP sensor is said to bring better performance in HDR mode, and also a higher level of detail in HD videos. Capable of recording at 30 FPS with 4K resolution (4096 x 2160), the stacked CMOS image sensor will capture videos much like it would take a normal photo, check out the image below for an example.
The sensor supports 192 different autofocus points, reducing noise and increasing detail by a significant margin. Based on the flagship rumors we have so far, it looks like Sony is (maybe unsurprisingly) going to lead the pack in terms of camera technology in 2015.
Previously we had seen a leaked Sony document on sonyalpharumors.com which suggests that Sony is producing a different, but even more impressive image sensor. Said to be the the world's first active pixel color sampling sensor (APCS), the document claimed to reveal that Sony is producing a 1.5-inch sensor with 4.8 million pixels, which doesn't seem so impressive until you consider that each individual pixel is said to be capable of carrying full RGBG information thanks to Sony's new technology. (This basically means 1 pixel created by this camera sensor can perform the job of 4 regular pixels.) To the end-user, this would mean higher-dynamic range, faster processing, lower-noise, no need for anti-aliasing, an electronic global shutter, and 2K video recording at 16,000 FPS, and a mega-pixel count which stretches far beyond the current 21 MP smartphone cap.
It's still entirely possible that this sensor is in development by Sony, but probably for a digital camera, rather than a smartphone. It is suspiciously advanced technology, even for a next-gen flagship, and we think it's far more likely that we will see the aforementioned IMX230 sensor on the Xperia Z4.
Sony Xperia Z4 features
It's safe to assume that Android Lollipop will be running on any flagship device released this year, and according to latest benchmarks it looks like the Z4 will be running version 5.0.2.
That's basically what we think we know about the Xperia Z4. We'll update this page with more information as we get it, until then, you might want to check out how the Z3 compares to another modern flagship in our Xperia Z3 vs LG G3 comparison.
Are you excited about the Xperia Z4?
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