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CES 2013

Sony Xperia Z Takes On iPhone 5 & Galaxy S4

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At CES 2013 today, Sony finally debuted the oft-rumored Sony Yuga and Sony Odin smartphones, revealing them to be the Sony Xperia Z and the Sony Xperia ZL respectively. Both new Xperia devices will be Sony’s answer to Apple’s iPhone 5 as well as the rumored Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphone that is rumored to be arriving in the first quarter of this year.

In the build up to CES 2013, the Sony Yuga, a 5-inch phablet, leaked out numerous times, displaying its specs and design for the world to see. The device that was announced today is exactly what we expected to be, featuring a 5-inch 1080p HD Reality Display (1920 x 1080), 2GB of RAM, a 13.1MP rear camera, 2.2MP front-facing camera, 4G LTE data speeds, and a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor.

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The Sony Xperia Z will arrive in Q1 of 2013 to take on the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4.

The Xperia Z comes with 16GB of on-board storage space with a microSD card slot that comes with support for a 32GB microSD card, a suitable 2,330 mAh battery, and a slim 7.9mm design that is resistant to both water or dust. The Xpeira Z weighs 146g which is actually much lighter than some of its competitors such as the Galaxy Note 2 which is around 180g in weight. Sony will offer it in three colors black, white, and purple.

Sony has put Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board the Sony Xperia Z, a version of Android that is not the current version of Android, but the device will surely get Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the current version of Android, at some point in the future. We imagine that it will get Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, the rumored next-generation version of Android, that may debut in May at Google I/O.

The device will also run a Sony user interface that the company says is much less than its other software offerings and won’t dominate the experience like it has in the past. Sony did not give the the user interface a name.

Sony also will offer another version of the Xperia Z in the Xperia ZL which was previously known as “Odin.” The Odin is essentially the same phone but it employs a curved back plate. It isn’t, however, water resistant like the Xperia Z.

The company did not specify specific carriers or a release date but says that the phones will be launching globally to take on the iPhone 5 and presumably the Samsung Galaxy S4, rumored to be coming in February, at some point in the first quarter of 2013.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Aluzeros

    01/07/2013 at 7:37 pm

    Why are they making phones that compete with the iphone 5,when they should be coming out with phone that should blow the next iphone 5s

    • trob6969

      01/07/2013 at 10:05 pm

      When the writers of these articles refer to upcoming smartphones as “competing” with iPhone 5 they must be speaking in terms of sales figures because its plain to see in side-by-side and specs comparisons that even phones from over a year ago beats iPhone 5 in features and functions.

    • tafadzwa

      01/08/2013 at 10:08 am

      I wonde…
      They don’t knw wts coming for them…
      Wait and see

      • kim

        02/26/2013 at 4:40 am

        If you are talking about the xperia z selling big, I agree with you.the z could outsell the s4

  2. George

    01/08/2013 at 2:01 am

    yeah it is rather annoying the way every other phone is labelled as simply trying to ‘compete’ with the iphone5. as posted above, most high end androids from the past year or so back to the galaxy nexus are better specced and more useable than the apple device. and that’s just fact.

  3. George

    01/08/2013 at 2:03 am

    I think if Apple didn’t realise a new iphone for the next 2 years, the latest android phones mentioned on here in 2015 would still be trying to ‘compete’ with ip5.

    • To George

      01/08/2013 at 2:48 am

      the word u meant to use was “release”. By the way you are wrong, galaxy S3 has passed iphone 5 in worldwide sales. S4 will probably blow out the ip5s, and its pretty obvious android dominates the os market in phones just like how windows dominates computers.

  4. sam has sung

    01/08/2013 at 4:34 am

    you can’t say the S3 has already outsold the ip5 because the latter was released at a later date. GS3 was released earlier. it may have surpassed the 4S in sales but it’s commercial success over ip5 is still to be seen. ip5 is still faster selling. we’ll have the compare the sales figures after a good number of months. i’m not interested in either, though. there’s the xperia z that’s catching my attention now.

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