SEE ALSO: Complete specs of the Sony Xperia XZ1
Both models were earlier announced at IFA 2017 in Berlin and suggest that the Japanese tech company is intent on competing with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the lucrative high-end segment, existing Sony flagships be damned.
SEE ALSO: Complete specs of the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
Because let’s face it: This is potentially disheartening news to customers who have purchased an Xperia XZ or XZs just this year. However, Sony did make it clear that it wants to contend with the best in the business, so maybe we should get comfortable seeing a bunch of heavy hitters from Sony duke it out in the same category, year after year.
The Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact come in varied designs and screen sizes — and that’s a good sign.
Sony Xperia XZ1 official product video
Sony Xperia XZ1 official product video
We’ll start with the Sony Xperia XZ1, the soft successor to the XZs. It introduces a more streamlined look to Sony’s premium lineup, rocking a two-piece assembly that fuses glass on the front with metal around the back. You also get two front-firing speakers for stereo sound, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC.
The hardware is still IP68-rated, which goes to say it is dust- and water-resistant to a certain extent. Inside, you’re looking at the fastest Qualcomm chip available in the Snapdragon 835, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of fast internal storage that can be expanded using a microSD card.
READ ALSO: Sony Xperia XA1 review: Don’t sleep on this Sony
On the imaging front, the Sony Xperia XZ1 uses the same camera system and sensors as the XZs and XZ Premium and includes a couple of nifty software features, such as the ability to capture super slow-motion video at 960 frames per second. It also offers predictive auto-focus when shooting continuous bursts of images, allowing the camera to focus on subjects as they move.
Sony even managed to find a practical use for the XZ1’s imaging hardware in relation to 3D scanning. Both the XZ1 and XZ1 Compact ship with Sony’s 3D Creator app, which lets you quickly scan objects for sharing or for printing.
Sony’s 3D Creator app
In a nutshell, the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact is a slightly watered-down and shrunken-down version of the XZ1. Mostly identical inside and out, with the same set of stereo speakers and main cameras (the former has a wider lens on its selfie cam). The water-resistant construction and 2700mAh battery capacity also remain intact. The key difference here is that the XZ1 Compact swaps metal for reinforced plastic compound, which should feel different in the hand.
The Sony Xperia XZ1 is slated to arrive a week or two into September for $699 (roughly P35,800). The XZ1 Compact will be available sometime after that, for a more palatable asking price of $599 (P30,690). Both phones run Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.
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