Sony’s flagship Z5 has hit online marketplace eBay at a steep Rs 51,900, but is slated to be available at cheaper prices in the coming week on rival platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.
The Z5 was announced in India a few days ago at a price of Rs 52,990.
However, like all Sony smartphones launched recently, the actual on-the-ground price of the phone is expected to hit around Rs 45,000 within a couple of weeks from now.
Sony’s phones generally sell at a discount of about 10-20% online within the first two-three weeks of launch. Sometimes, they continue to lose their value for quite some time.
For example, the predecessor of Xperia Z5 — Z3 Plus — was launched four months ago at Rs 56,000 in India. Today, the phone is selling at just Rs 36,000 — meaning that it has lost Rs 20,000 from its price in just four months.
Part of the reason is that the sticker price of these devices tend to be high, so as to enable retailers to charge a higher price if they can.
However, because of online retail, prices tend to crash very fast.
Sony announced both Z5 and the larger Z5 Premium — identical in everything except the display quality and size — last week. The Z5 Premium is the world’s first phone with a resolution of 800 dots per inch.
When held at a distance of about 12 inches (1 foot), human being with good eyesight can make out individual pixels up to a resolution of about 477 dots per inch.
That is OK for a phone like Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, which has a resolution of 516 dots per inch.
However, if the phone is held closer — say at 8 inches away from the eye — you need a resolution of 716 dpi. The Xperia Z5 Premium aims to be that device that looks smooth even if you hold it close.
Do you really need it? That depends on how you hold your phone normally.
Interestingly, the availability of the Z5 Premium is expected to trail that of the Z5, and it’s likely to be closer to Diwali when the Premium model finally starts showing up in stores.