The first full sequel to Sony’s fantastic Xperia Z1 flagship smartphone has been unveiled today at the Mobile World Congress. The Xperia Z2 will be released in March and will boast an almost obscene number of outstanding features.
First and foremost, Sony claim that the Z2 will have the best smartphone camera in the world. With a 20.7 megapixel camera, 4k video capture with image stabilisation, 8x zoom, red-eye removal and a whole host of other fancy software trickery it’s an easy claim to believe.
Sony haven’t just been focusing on video, either: audio has been given the royal treatment too, with built-in noise cancellation. This means that the Z2’s in-built microphone will filter out any unwanted noise for clear recording and phone conversation, whilst any headphones connected will offer you a crystal-clear immersive musical experience (in theory. And only with compatible Sony headphones. We’ll be very impressed if this one actually works, frankly).
The device’s vast 5.2 inch display toes the line between smartphone and phablet, and is sure to impress with a Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.
The Z2 also contains a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2.3 GHz quad-core Krait CPUs pumping out a full 3GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in memory with room for Micro SD expansion of up to another 64GB. It is of course 4G compatible, too.
Oh, and it’s also waterproof. As in you can fully submerge it within water and continue to use it. Good news for those who enjoy playing Candy Crush Saga in the bath.
Sony have also taken this opportunity to reveal their M2 smartphone and Z2 tablet.
The M2 is a midrange smartphone which still boasts the looks and many of the great features of the Z1. It has a slightly smaller 4.8 inch display and a significantly less detailed eight megapixel camera. It runs the slightly dated Android 4.2 Jellybean and its 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8926 Quad Core processor pumps out 1GB of RAM – one third the power of the Z1. Price is yet to be announced for either device, but expect the Z2 to be around the £500 mark, with the M2 at about half that.
The Sony Z2 Tablet has some unique features of its own. Sony claim it’s both the slimmest and lightest waterproof tablet in the world – a fairly small cross-section of the market perhaps, but desirable nonetheless.
It contains much the same technology as the Z2 smartphone, but hides it all behind an enormous 10.1 inch display. Remarkably its 6.4mm of depth make it not only thinner than its smartphone sibling, but even thinner than Apple’s new iPad Air.