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Sony’s rewarding early adopters of its new Xperia Z1 Compact phone with a free SmartWatch 2, its latest connected wristwatch. Preorder the Z1 Compact direct from the Japanese company’s website for £449 SIM-free and the techie timepiece is thrown in for nothing.
The Z1 Compact is Sony’s most promising phone in some time, and one of the very few mobiles to make a splash at CES last week. Why? It’s the high-end Android phone for people who believe size isn’t everything.
With a 4.3-inch screen, it’s significantly more pocketable than the 5-inch standard for top-notch mobiles, but cuts very few corners with its other specs — there’s a 20-megapixel camera, a serious quad-core processor and 4G. We can’t wait to get it in for a full review.
But is the SmartWatch 2 much of a reward? Our mobile reviewer Andy gave it a pathetic one star out of five in his review last year, thanks to buggy software, a low-res screen and poor battery life. That was based on its full price of £150 though — as a sweetener for a new phone, it’s not all bad, with a fair selection of apps.
Cashback!
Perhaps more compelling is Carphone Warehouse’s offer of £50 cashback. Buy your Compact via Carphone, with deals starting at £27 per month, and you’ll be able to claim half a tonne from Sony. SIM-free isn’t an option here, unfortunately.
Other retailers offering deals on the Z1 Compact include Phones4U, which is giving away free Bluetooth speakers when you buy the mini-mobile on a contract, which start at £29 per month.
Online sellers such as Clove and Unlocked Mobiles have the new blower on sale for around £430, with stock due by the middle of February.
Andy went hands-on with the Z1 Compact for CNET.com recently, and here’s Luke in a no-holds barred video preview:
What do you make of the Z1 Compact? A blessing for the small-handed, or just too wee to bother with these days? Would you plump for a free watch with it, or the money in your back pocket? Squeeze a comment in down below, or over on our perfectly formed Facebook page.
