Sony Hits A New Curve With Two Launches

Barcelona: Sony Mobile has launched two new babies with new design rather than the usual “omnichannel” pattern on its XZ series in a bid to attract tech-savvy enthusiasts.

The XZ2 and XZ2 Compact have been fully redesigned with a new look and have added a lot of new features not seen before on a Sony device. They have a curved back and the fingerprint sensor has been moved to back side from its usual place on the side.

“It is a good time for the mobile industry to talk about the future. We have an ambitious vision that is to create an increasingly personlaised and intelligent services and products and become an essential part of your life,” said Hideyuki Furumi, executive vice president for global sales and marketing at Sony Mobile Communications.

If entertainment is your priority, he said, then “our new Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact are your smartphones. From what’s inside — world-class technology, to a new sleek, sophisticated design, these smartphones are everything you need and probably a lot more. We have pushed Sony’s boundaries even further with our new products for movie recording, viewing and music listening — offering entertainment to the extreme,” he said.

The XZ2 has a 5.7-inch high dynamic range (HDR) Full HD+ display with 18:9 screen ratio. It is powered by Qualcomm 845 processor for 1.2Gbps download speed, Bravia Xreality engine, wireless charging, 4K HDR recording, and super slow motion at 960 frames per second in Full HD.

The XZ2 Compact has a 5-inch HDR Full HD+ display, stereo speakers, 3D Creator, super slow motion, hi-res audio, and front-facing stereo speakers, but no wireless charging facility. It is powered by the same processor as XZ2 and comes in four colours: White silver, black, moss green, and coral pink.

The XZ2 is available in Liquid Silver, Liquid Black, Deep Green and Ash Pink while the XZ2 Compact arrives in White Silver, Black, Moss Green and Coral Pink. Prices were not disclosed at the event but it will be available globally from March 2018 and both will ship with Android 8.0 Oreo.

“Our Motion Eye camera is the world’s first smartphone to offer 4K HDR movie recording on a smartphone. Users can upscale the content to SDR to a near HDR with Xreality engine and surround sound front-facing speakers,” Furumi said.

The Japanese giant has added a new haptic experience, similar to PlayStation’s DualShock controllers when playing games or watching movies.

“It analyses the audio data and lets you feel the action in your hands, bringing your movies, games and videos to life,” Furumi said.

Sony has changed its product strategy in recent years, according to research firm TrendForce, shifting to more profitable mid- and high-end phones. However, under the influence of weaker demand in general, its production volume for the entire 2018 will be only 15.3 million units, a four per cent decline over 2017.

According to research firm IHS Markit, Sony’s market share was one per cent in 2017, which was little changed from 1.1 per cent a year before.

“Sony will hope the new industrial design of these models will turn this around and grow shipments from 2017’s modest 13.7 million, but the challenge is that while very different to older Sony smartphones, XZ2 has strong design similarities in its use of curved all glass designs to 2017 models from HTC such as U11 which did poorly in the market. Sony has improved its design but not enough to stand out in the market,” Ian Fogg, Senior Director for Mobile & Telecoms at IHS Markit, said in a statement.

Furumi also gave a preview of the future camera technology, that is dual camera, that can record and shoot videos in better quality even in ultra-low light conditions. It can give ISO 12800 for video and 51200 for photos.

“The future camera technology is currently only possible on DSLRs,” he said.

Sony is still the last big brand not to launch a dual camera phone yet.