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Sony has announced the Sony Xperia Z1 at IFA, packing in a massive 20.7-megapixel camera and waterproof chassis.
(Credit: Sony)
Sony has officially unveiled its new flagship smartphone, the camera-centric, waterproof Xperia Z1, previously codenamed “Honami”. Its specs contain few surprises for CNET Australia readers, thanks to a leak prior to Sony’s IFA announcement.
The announcement by Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai centred on the smartphone’s camera capabilities. “The Xperia Z1 offers you best-in-class imaging and a revolutionary new way to capture and share your memories,” Hirai said.
It packs a 1/2.3-inch, 20.7-megapixel Exmor RS CMOS image sensor, Sony G lens with 27mm wide angle, f2.0 aperture and Bionz image processing, with a bunch of software features for enhancing the photography experience. These include Timeshift burst mode, which snaps a series of photos in rapid succession and lets you pick the best one; Info-Eye, which lets you search for more information on photographed products and landmarks; Social Life, which lets you stream video from your phone to Facebook; and augmented-reality app AR Effect, which lets you overlay custom animations onto your photos.
(Credit: Sony)
The other specs are dead in line with this week’s leaked press release. Inside the phone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 running Android 4.2.2, and a 2.2GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 330 graphics. On-board storage is 16GB, with a microSD slot for expansion, and its battery is 3000mAh.
It measures up at 144x74x8.5 millimetres and 170 grams, and will be available three different colours: black, white and purple. It is dust and water resistant up to a depth of 1.5 metres with a solid, one-piece aluminium chassis.
The Sony Xperia Z1 will be available outright for pre-order Sony’s web store on 9 September for a suggested retail price of AU$779.
Pre-orders through Optus will be available 16 September, and pre-orders through Virgin Mobile available from 6 September for AU$0 on its Virgin Mobile $60 plan.
It will also be available through Telstra.
Stay tuned for pricing info.
