Sony India is all set to launch its latest and greatest smartphones, the Z5 Plus (or Premium) — reportedly the world’s first smartphone with a 4K or UHD display and the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, which will come with a 4.6-inch display.
It will be the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium that will be of most interest, not least because of its price. The phone is priced at Rs 63,000 – a sort of record for the Indian market. Of course, part of the reason for the high price is the sudden decline in the value of the rupee against the dollar.
Still, even iPhones are priced below Rs 70,000 at launch in India.
According to our sources, Sony seems to have gone all out on the Z5 Plus model and spared no expense. The phone is, not surprisingly, targeted at the well heeled.
One of the ways in which the phone excels is with its 4K display. Reports that the phone will come with a UHD display have been met with incredulity, because that is exactly four times the highest resolution that you can get on any Sony Xperia phone at present.
Unlike competitors like LG and Samsung, Sony has still not moved to Quad-HD displays for its flagships, while competitors moved from full-HD to Quad-HD between 1 to 1.5 years ago.
A full-HD display has 2 mln pixels or dots on it, while a quad-HD display has 4 mln and a 4K (or UHD) display has 8 mln.
4K displays are currently found only on TVs and computer monitors, they cost Rs 40,000 or more at present. Squeezing in that many pixels onto the 5.5-inch screen would result in a pixel density of over 800 dots per inch.
In comparison, the iPhone 6 Plus has a pixel density of 400 per inch while the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus has a resolution of 520 pixels per inch.
In other words, a 4K pixel density is truly unprecedented for a phone.
One of the interesting benefits of having a 4K display on a phone is the ability to use the phone as a virtual reality device with the help of a cardboard box.
Another great advance will be in the area of camera technology. All three smartphones will come with 23 MP cameras with F1.8 aperture and 1/2.2 inch sensors.
The camera will have a unique ‘multi-focus’ feature that lets users keep a larger area in focus compared to traditional cameras. Nokia had tried something similar with its E7.
UPDATE: Most of the rumors have been proven to be correct. The exact specifications are given below in the picture and the comparisons of the three models are given the chart at the end.
Sony is expected to announce India prices in the next ten days. As mentioned above, the Premium is likely to be priced considerably above Rs 70,000, while the Z5 is likely around Rs 50,000 mark and the Compact around the Rs 42,000 mark. However, actual selling prices will be below these official prices.
The cameras on the Xperia Z5 will have “super-fast 0.1 second hybrid 192 pazovani “PDAF” autofocus.
All three phones — the Z3, the Z3 Compact and the Z3 Plus — will be water and dust proof.
There are some other leaks that seem to point to a different kind of design as well.
There is also some confusion about which models will launch in India, with some international reports saying that the Z5 Premium or Plus model will be exclusive to the US market.
However, according to our sources in India, Sony will definitely launch the Z5 Plus in India. In fact, since the Z5 (without the Plus) comes with a 5.2-inch full-HD display, there would be little point in launching the model in India where it only weeks ago introduced the similarly speced Z3 Plus.
In fact, if Sony doesn’t launch the Z5 Premium in India soon, it would be downright embarrassing for the brand in the Indian market to not have a model with a display resolution higher than full-HD.
In fact, it is more than likely that Sony may launch only two models in India – the 4.6-inch ‘Compact’ version and the 5.5-inch ‘Plus’ version, much like HTC did with its M9 series. The Taiwanese brand launched the M9 Plus — which had a 5.5-inch quad-HD display — while not launching the M9, which came with a 5-inch full-HD display, in India.
| Z5 Premium | Xperia Z5 | Z5 Compact | |
| Display | IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors | IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors | IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 5.5 inches | 5.2 inches | 4.6 inches |
| Resolution | 2160 x 3840 pixels (~806 ppi pixel density) | 1080 x 1920 pixels (~428 ppi pixel density) | 720 x 1280 pixels (~323 ppi pixel density) |
| Protection | Scratch-resistant glass, oleophobic coating | Scratch-resistant glass, oleophobic coating | Scratch-resistant glass, oleophobic coating |
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 | Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 | Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 |
| Memory | 32 GB, 3 GB RAM | 32 GB, 3 GB RAM | 32 GB, 2 GB RAM |
| Main camera | 23 MP, 5520 х 4140 pixels, autofocus, LED flash | 23 MP, 5520 х 4140 pixels, autofocus, LED flash | 23 MP, 5520 х 4140 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
| Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR |
| Front camera | 5.1 MP, 1080p, HDR | 5.1 MP, 1080p, HDR | 5.1 MP, 1080p, HDR |
| Battery | Non-removable 3430 mAh battery | Non-removable 2900 mAh battery | Non-removable 2700 mAh battery |
| Dimensions | 154.4 x 75.8 x 7.8 mm (6.08 x 2.98 x 0.31 in) | 146 x 72 x 7.3 mm (5.75 x 2.83 x 0.29 in) | 127 x 65 x 8.9 mm (5.0 x 2.56 x 0.35 in) |
| Weight | 180 g (6.35 oz) | 154 g (5.43 oz) | 138 g (4.87 oz) |
| Price in India | >70,000 | ~50000 | ~42000 |
[socialpoll id=”2292582″]