Sony Xperia Z5 Officially Unveiled; 4K Display Rumor Was True

[dgstorm]

Sony's newest flagship mobile device(s) was announced at IFA 2015 this morning. It turns out that all of the rumors for the Xperia Z5 were true, including the "overkill" 4K display; however, it also turns out that Sony will actually produce three different versions of the Xperia Z5, and the Premium model is the only one with the 4K screen. We will have the following new Xperia devices:

• Xperia Z5: 5.2-inch 2K display
• Xperia Z5 Compact: 4.6-inch display
• Xperia Z5 Premium: 5.5-inch 4k display

Here's a quote and an image (above) from Engadget with some of the details from IFA,

As far as specs go, though, the displays are pretty much the only things distinguishing the Z5 Premium from the Z5 and Z5 Compact. All three have Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor inside, up to 32GB of internal storage (expandable by microSD), high-res audio chips and "up to two-day battery life." That's a cute way Sony found to say "you only need to charge this one once a day." How they eke out that battery life differs of course, with the Premium having a 3,430mAh battery, the Z5 a 2,900mAh and the Z5 Compact a 2,700mAh. The only other differentiator is RAM: The Z5 Premium and Z5 have 3GB; the Z5 Compact only has 2GB.

As far as the displays go, the regular Z5 will have a 5.2-inch 1080p display, the Z5 Compact will have a 4.6 inch 720p display, and the Premium Z5 includes the aforementioned 806-ppi 4K display. It also appears that Sony has spared no expense on the camera for the Z5 line. All three include Sony designed "next generation" cameras with 0.03-second autofocus (which Sony claims is the world's fastest autofocus on a smartphone), "better zoom quality" with 5x Clear Image Zoom and a 23-megapixel sensor. The new camera also includes an extra focus placed on low-light photography with a "SteadyShot" intelligent bump-reducing mode.

Despite the use of the infamous Snapdragon 810, it looks like Sony is pulling out all of the stops with this one. Of course, this Snapdragon 810 is a later generation model which has been improved from the earlier models which had overheating issues.

What do you folks think? Will these monster specs and attention to detail help pull Sony out of their tailspin in the mobile industry?

Here's our official section on the Sony Xperia Z5 smartphones for further discussion: Sony Xperia Z5, Z5 Compact & Z5 Premium | Android Forum at DroidForums.net

 

[bkdodger]

4K and 806 PPI! get a permanent charger attached...

NexusSix

 

[dezymond]

Announcing the z5 already and the z4v hasn't even dropped on Verizon yet. Supposedly tomorrow is the next rumored release date...we'll see....

Need my hands on a new device already.

 

[FoxKat]

4K is a waste of graphics processing power IMHO. These screens are so small compared to anything else we look at on a daily basis and I don't see the need since our eyes already top out far below 806 PPI. I mean how close to your face do you already hold your phone? You could put this display within an inch of your eyes and with reading glasses on still not see pixelated images.

Also, how much does this entice the developers to make their software take advantage of the extreme resolution? You're going to have two distinct classes, those that will say it's a waste and not build to support it leaving the processer to scale the graphics (more waste of processing power), and those that will go hog wild to create 806 PPI graphics and our eyes won't even be able to tell the difference between that and 2K. The first will be software that is lean and faster, the second will likely be fatter and slower, but then maybe not slower given the higher graphics processing power.

Still, I'd rather see less emphasis on making screens that approach twice or even three times the resolution our eyes can detect, and instead concentrate on better multitasking, larger RAM, and better communications.

Edit: And large batteries and/or longer runtime between charges.

 

[Ricocht77]

I agree with a 4K for a phone being a waste, that said i'd love to get the Z5 with just the 2K, now if they'd just get this on Verizon already, and we're not even at the Z4V yet? this is getting nuts.